prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior. It is specifically declared
that it shall not be necessary to submit said leases to the Secretary of
the Interior for approval, and that no leases shall be made for a longer
term than five years nor for a term extending beyond the date of the
admission of the Territory to statehood.

Under these provisions the lands reserved for university and school
purposes, whose value largely depends upon their standing timber, and in
which every citizen of the Territory has a deep interest, may be leased
and denuded of their timber by officers none of whom have been chosen by
the people, and without the sanction of any law or regulation made by
their representatives in the local legislature. Even the measure of
protection which would be afforded the citizens of the Territory by a
submission to the Secretary of the Interior of the leases proposed, and
thus giving him an opportunity to ascertain whether or not they comply
with his regulations, is especially withheld.

It was hardly necessary to provide in this bill that these lands
might be leased "under such laws and regulations as may be hereafter
prescribed by the legislature of said Territory" if the action of the
legislature was to be forestalled and rendered nugatory by the immediate
and unrestrained action of the officers constituted "a board for the
leasing of said lands" pending such legislative consideration. These
are inconsistencies which are not satisfactorily accounted for by the
suggestion that the time that would elapse before the legislature could
consider the subject would be important.

The protests I have received from numerous and influential citizens of
the Territory indicate considerable opposition to this bill among those
interested in the preservation and proper management of these school
lands.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

EXECUTIVE MANSION, _April 21, 1896_.

_To the Senate_:

I herewith return without my approval Senate bill No. 894, entitled
"An act granting a pension to Nancy G. Allabach."

This bill provides for the payment of a pension of $30 a month to the
beneficiary named as the widow of Peter H. Allabach.

This soldier served for nine months in the Army during the War of the
Rebellion, having also served in the war with Mexico.

He was mustered out of his last service on the 23d day of May, 1863,
and died on the 11th of February, 1892.

During his life he made no application for pension on accou