that the "purpose" to be accomplished is
"useful" might result in the use of these sites in a manner prejudicial
to the surrounding public domain and destructive of the utilization of
such sites for irrigating purposes.

The wise and prudent safeguards which have been incorporated in
other legislation relating to the disposition of arid public lands and
their irrigation seem to have been to such an extent overlooked in the
construction of the bill under consideration that, in my judgment, if
it should become the law a beneficent policy which the Government has
entered upon in the interest of agriculture would be seriously
endangered.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _February 1, 1895_.

_To the Senate_:

I herewith return without my approval Senate bill No. 2338, entitled
"An act granting to the Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway Company a
right of way through the San Carlos Indian Reservation, in the Territory
of Arizona."

The reservation through which it is proposed to construct a railroad
under the provisions of this bill is inhabited by tribes of Indians
which in the past have been most troublesome and whose depredations
on more than one occasion have caused loss of life, destruction of
property, and serious alarm to the people of the surrounding country;
and their condition as to civilization is not now so far improved as
to give assurance that in the future they may not upon occasion make
trouble.

The discontent among the Indians which has given rise to disturbances
in the past has been largely caused by trespass upon their lands and
interference with their rights by the neighboring whites. I am in
very great doubt whether in any circumstances a road through their
reservation should at this time be permitted, and especially since the
route, which is rather indefinitely described in the bill, appears to
pass through the richest and most desirable part of their lands. In
any event, I am thoroughly convinced that the construction of the road
should not be permitted without first obtaining the consent of these
Indians. This is a provision which has been insisted upon, so far as
I am aware, in all the like bills which have been approved for a long
time, and I think it should especially be inserted in this bill if, even
upon any conditions, it is thought expedient to permit a railroad to
traverse this reservation.

The importance of this consent does not rest solely upon the extent to
which