Appraisal. Oath. Vacancies, etc. taken or damage done by reason of the construction of such railway and telegraph and telephone line. In case of failure to make amicable settlement with any occupant, such compensation shall be determined by the appraisement of disinterested referees, to be appointed, one (who shall act as chairman) by the President, one by the principal chief of the Choctaw Nation, and one by said railway company, who, before entering upon the duties of their appointment, shall take and subscribe, before a judge or clerk of a United States court, or United States commissioner, au oath that they will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of their appointment, which oath, duly certified, shall be returned with their award to and filed with, the Secretary of the Interior within sixty days from the completion thereof; and upon the failure of either party to make such appointment within thirty days after the appointment made by the President, the vacancy shall be filled by the judge of the United States court for the central district of the Indian Territory upon the application of the other party. A majority of said referees shall be competent to act in case of the absence of a member, after due notice. The chairman of such board shall appoint the time and place for all hearings: Provided, That the hearings shall be within the county where the property is situated for which compensation is being assessed for the taking thereof or damage thereto, and at a place as convenient as may be for said occupant, unless the said occupant and said railway company agree to have the hearing at another place. Each of said Compensation, etc. referees shall receive for his services the sum of four dollars per day for each day he is engaged in assessing compensation, with mileage of five cents per mile for each mile necessarily traveled in the discharge of his duties. Said board of referees shall have power to call for and examine witnesses under oath, and said witnesses shall receive the usual fees allowed witnesses by the laws of the Choctaw Nation. Costs, including compensation of the referees, shall be made a part of the award and be paid by the said railway company. In case the referees can not agree, then any two of them are authorized to make the award. Proriso. Costs, etc. Appeal to district court. Determination. Costs on appeal. Work to begin on paying double award. Crossings, etc. SEC. 4. That either party being dissatisfied with the findings and award of the referees shall have the right, within sixty days after the filing of the award, as herein before provided, and notice of the same, to appeal by original petition to the United States district court for the central district of the Indian Territory sitting at the place nearest and most convenient to the land and property which is sought to be condemned; and said suit shall then proceed for determining the damage done to the property in the same and like manner as other civil actions in the said court. The said court shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine the subject-matter of said petition, and the same shall be heard and determined by said court in accordance with the laws now in force or hereafter enacted for the government of said court; and the measure of damages in condemning property authorized by this Act shall be that prescribed by the laws of the State of Arkansas, in so far as the same are not inconsistent with the laws now in force or hereafter enacted for the government of the United States courts in said Choctaw Nation in such cases. If the judgment of the court shall be for a larger sum than the award of the referees, the costs of the litigation shall be adjudged against the railway company, and if the judgment of the court shall be for the same as the award of the referees, then the costs shall be adjudged against the appellant. If the judgment of the court shall be for a smaller sum than the award of the referees, then the costs shall be.. adjudged against the party claiming damages. When proceedings shall have been commenced in court the railway company shall pay double the amount of the award into court to abide the judgment thereof, and then shall have the right to enter upon the property sought to be condemned and proceed with the construction of the railroad and telegraph and telephone line. If such appeal is not taken as herein before set forth, the award shall be conclusive and final, and shall have the same force and effect as a judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 5. That said railway company is authorized and hereby given the right to connect or cross with its tracks the tracks and railroad of any other company or person owning or operating a railway in the said. Choctaw Nation. In case of failure to make amicable settlement with any such corporation or person for such crossing, such compensation shall be determined in the same manner as hereinbefore provided for determining the compensation for land and other property taken and damaged. Provisos. Passenger rates, etc. SEC. 6. That said railway company shall not charge the inhabitants Freight charges. of said nation a greater rate of freight than the rate authorized by the laws of the State of Arkansas for services or transportation of the same kind: Provided, That passenger rates on said railway shall not exceed three cents per mile. Congress hereby reserves the right to regulate the charges for freight and passengers on said railway and messages on said telegraph and telephone lines until a State government or governments shall exist in said nation within the limits of which said railway or a part thereof shall be located, and then such State government or governments shall be authorized to fix and regulate the cost of transportation of persons and freights within their respective limits of said railway; but Congress expressly reserves the right to fix and regulate at all times the cost of such transportation by said railway or said company whenever such transportation shall extend from one State into another or shall extend into more than one State: Provided, however, That the rate of such transportation of passengers, local or interstate, shall not exceed the rate above expressed: And provided further, That said railway company shall carry the mail at such prices as Congress may by law provide; and until such rate is fixed by law the Postmaster-General may fix the rate of compensation. Limit. Mails. Additional to Choctaw Nation. Provisos. Appeal to Secretary Award to be in lieu of compensation. SEC. 7. That said railway company shall pay to the Secretary of the Interior, for the benefit of the Choctaw Nation, the sum of fifty dollars, in addition to the compensation provided for in this Act, for property taken and damages done to individual occupants by the construction of the railway, for each mile of railway that it may construct in said nation, said payments to be made in installments of five hundred dollars as each ten miles of road is graded: Provided, That if the general council of the Choctaw Nation, within four months after the filing of of the Interior. maps of definite location, as hereinafter set forth, dissents from the allowance hereinbefore provided for, and shall certify the same to the Secretary of the Interior, then all compensation to be paid to said nation under the provisions of this Act shall be determined as provided in section three for the determination of the compensation to be paid to the individual occupant of lands, with the right of appeal to the courts upon the same terms, conditions, and requirements as therein provided: Provided further, That the amount awarded or adjudged to be paid by said railway company for said dissenting nation shall be in lieu of the compensation said nation would be entitled to receive under the foregoing provision. Said company shall also pay, so long as said Territory is owned and occupied by the Choctaw Indians, to the Secre tary of the Interior the sum of fifteen dollars per annum for each mile of railway it shall construct in the said nation. The money paid to the Secretary of the Interior under the provisions of this Act shall be disbursed by him in accordance with the laws and treaties now in force within said nation: Provided, That Congress shall have the right, so long as said lands are occupied and possessed by said nation, to impose such additional taxes upon said railway as it may deem just and proper for the benefit of said nation, and any Territory or State hereafter formed through which said railway shall have been established may exercise the like power as to such part of said railway as may lie within its limits. Said railway company shall have the right to survey and locate its railway immediately after the passage of this Act. Annual rental. Taxes. Surveys. SEC. 8. That said company shall cause maps showing the route of its Maps. located lines through said nation to be filed in the office of the Secre tary of the Interior, and also to be filed in the office of the principal chief of the said nation; and after the filing of said maps no claim for Proviso. Employees may reside on right of way. Construction. Condition of accept ance. Proviso. Violation to forfeit. Record of mortgages. Amendment, etc. Not assignable prior to construction. a subsequent settlement and improvement upon the right of way shown by said maps shall be valid as against said company: Provided, That a map showing the entire line of the road in the Indian Territory shall be filed with and approved by the Secretary of the Interior before the construction of the same shall be commenced. SEC. 9. That the officers, servants, and employees of said company necessary to the construction and management of said railroad shall be allowed to reside, while so engaged, upon such right of way, but subject to the provisions of the Indian intercourse laws and such rules and regulations as may be established by the Secretary of the Interior in accordance with said intercourse laws. SEC. 10. That said railway company shall build at least seventy-five miles of its railway in said nation within three years after the passage of this Act, or the rights herein granted shall be forfeited as to that portion not built; that said railway company shall construct and maintain continually all roads and highway crossings and necessary bridges over said railway wherever said roads and highways do now or may hereafter cross said railway's right of way or may be by the proper authorities laid out across the same. SEC. 11. That the said Arkansas and Choctaw Railway Company shall accept this right of way upon the express condition, binding upon itself, its successors and assigns, that they will neither aid, advise, nor assist any effort looking toward the changing or extinguishing the present tenure of the Choctaw Indians in their land, and will not attempt to secure from the Choctaw Nation any further grant of land or its occupancy than is hereinbefore provided: Provided, That any violation of the condition mentioned in this section shall operate as a forfeiture of all the rights and privileges of said railway company under this Act. SEC. 12. That all mortgages, deeds of trust, and other conveyances executed by said railway company, conveying any portion of its railroad, telegraph and telephone lines, with its franchises, that may be constructed in said Choctaw Nation shall be recorded in the Department of the Interior, and the record thereof shall be evidence and notice of their execution and shall convey all rights and property of said company as therein expressed. SEC. 13. That Congress may at any time amend, add to, alter, or repeal this Act. SEC. 14. That the right of way herein and hereby granted shall not be assigned or transferred in any form whatever prior to the construction and completion of the road except as to mortgages or other liens that may be given or secured thereon to aid in the construction thereof. Received by the President, February 12, 1896. [NOTE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF STATE.-The foregoing act having been presented to the President of the United States for his approval, and not having been returned by him to the house of Congress in which it originated within the time prescribed by the Constitution of the United States, has become a law without his approval.] February 26, 1896. tion, S. Dak. CHAP. 31.-An Act Granting leave of absence for one year to homestead settlers upon the Yankton Indian Reservation, in the State of South Dakota, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United Yankton Reserva States of America in Congress assembled, That all settlers who made setHomestead settlers tlement under the homestead laws upon lands in the Yankton Indian granted leave of ab- Reservation, in the State of South Dakota, during the year eighteen sence. Proviso. No credit for time lost. hundred and ninety-five are hereby granted leave of absence from such homestead for one year from and after the date of this Act, and that by such absence such homestead settler shall not lose nor forfeit any right whatever: Provided, That the settler shall not receive credit upon the period of actual residence required by law for the time he is absent hereunder. SEC. 2. That any such homestead settler may avail himself of the benefits of this Act by filing a notice with the local land office describing his land and date of settlement thereon, which notice shall be signed by the settler and attested by the register of the land office. Notice. Time for final proof, etc., in South Dakota SEC. 3. That the time for making final proof and payment for all lands located under the homestead laws of the United States upon any lands extended one year. of any former Indian reservation in the State of South Dakota, be, and the same is hereby, extended for the period of one year from the time proof and payment would become due under existing laws. Approved, February 26, 1896. CHAP. 32.-An Act To amend an Act entitled "An Act for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota." Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the fifth section of the Act of Congress passed January fourteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, providing for the relief and civilization of the Chippewa Indians in the State of Minnesota, be, and the same is, amended so far as the same relates to the White Earth and Red Lake reservations, and as to the other reservations mentioned in said Act whenever all the allotments of land in severalty shall have been made to the Indians of each reservation, respectively, therein provided, so as to read as follows: February 26, 1896. Chippewa Indians Sales of lands surveyed. Advertisement. Auction sale. "SEC. 5. That whenever, and as often as the survey, examination, and appraisal of one hundred thousand acres of said pine lands, or of a less quantity, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, have been made, the portion so surveyed, examined, and appraised shall be proclaimed as in market and offered for sale in the following manner: The Commissioner of the General Land Office, under the direction of the Secretary of the Interior, shall cause notices to be inserted once in each week, for four consecutive weeks, in one newspaper of general circulation published in Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Duluth, Stillwater, Taylors Falls, Fosston, Saint Cloud, Brainerd, Crookston, and Thief River Falls, Minnesota; Chicago, Illinois; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Boston, Massachusetts, of the sale of said land at public auction to the highest bidder for cash at the local land office of the district within which said lands are located, said notice to state the time and place and terms of such sale. At such sale said lands shall be offered in forty-acre parcels, except in case of fractions containing either more or less than forty acres, which shall be sold entire. In no event shall any parcel be sold for a less sum than its appraised value. The residue of such lands remaining unsold after such public offering shall thereafter be subject to private sale for cash at the appraised value of the same, upon appli- Private sale. cation at the local land office: Provided, That sections numbered sixteen and thirty-six in each township so surveyed shall not be sold until the claim of the State of Minnesota to the ownership of said sections as part of the school lands of said State, shall have been determined.” Approved, February 26, 1896. Proviso. CHAP. 33.—An Act Making appropriations to supply urgent deficiencies in the appropriations for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety- February 26, 1896. six, and for prior years, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the following sums be, Urgent deficiencies and the same are hereby, appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury appropriations. Public Printer. H. L. Strawn. Public printing and binding. Department of Jus tice. Geological Survey. not otherwise appropriated, to supply deficiencies in the appropriations for the fiscal year eighteen hundred and ninety-six, and for other objects hereinafter stated, namely: OFFICE OF PUBLIC PRINTER. To pay H. L. Strawn for services rendered by him as inspector of paper and material in the Government Printing Office from March seventeenth to June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, five hundred and eighty-three dollars and thirty-three cents. PUBLIC PRINTING AND BINDING. For printing and binding, to be executed under the direction of the Public Printer, as follows: For the Department of Justice, three thousand dollars. For the United States Geological Survey, namely: For printing advance copies of papers on the economic resources of the United States, as provided in the sundry civil Act of March second, eighteen hundred and ninetyfive, four thousand dollars. For printing five hundred thousand copies Re- of Part two, of the Annual Report of the Secretary of Agriculture for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-five, as required by section seventythree of the Act entitled, "An Act providing for the public printing and binding and the distribution of public documents," approved January twelfth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, three hundred thousand dollars. State Department. International Boundary Commission, Mexican. Vol. 22, p. 986; Vol. 26, p. 1493. Preparation of port, etc. Tokyo, Japan. buildings. STATE DEPARTMENT. FOREIGN INTERCOURSE. To enable the International Boundary Commission, appointed under the conventions of July twenty-ninth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, and February eighteenth, eighteen hundred and eighty-nine, to complete the survey and re-marking of the boundary between the United States re- and Mexico by the preparation of the manuscripts, including tables and results, for the joint report, together with a map of the survey covering a belt of territory two and one-half miles wide on the American side of the boundary, to be incorporated with a similar map of the Mexican territory prepared by the Mexican section of the Commission; also the preparation of the special reports of the American section, including astronomical and geodetic tables and results, and a geographical map, a work requiring the employment of expert draftsmen, a clerk, the rent of an office, and the expenses of the Commissioners, twenty thousand dollars. For the purchase, subject to a ground rent of not exceeding two Purchase of legation hundred dollars per annum, from the Imperial Japanese Government of the present building and site occupied by the United States legation at Tokyo, sixteen thousand dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary. Transportation negro colonists. Matt W. Ransom. Salary as minister. of For payment of cost of transportation furnished by certain railway companies in connection with the failure of the scheme for the colonization of negroes in Mexico, necessitating their return to their homes in Alabama, as reported to Congress at its present session by the President in House Document Numbered One hundred and sixty-nine, five thousand and eighty-seven dollars and nine cents. The Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized and directed to pay to Matt W. Ransom, out of the appropriation for "Salaries of ambassadors and ministers," eighteen hundred and ninety-six, the sum of two thousand eight hundred and six dollars and forty-eight cents, being the amount of the salary of the minister to Mexico from July first, to August twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and ninety-five, during which period he performed the duties of minister to Mexico and has received no compensation therefor. |