Jasper County Democrat, Volume 15, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 June 1912 — TAFT SIGNS HOMESTEAD BILL [ARTICLE]

TAFT SIGNS HOMESTEAD BILL

Claims Can Now Be Proved in Three Instead of Five Years. Washington, June 6. —President Taft today signed the three-year homestead bill permitting entrymen on public lands to prove their claims at the end. of three instead of five years, allowing five months absence from a calim each year and reducing the acreage to be cultivated on large claims from eighty to forty acres. The pen he used was given to Representative Taylor of Colorado. The bill is designed to so liberalize the homestead laws as to check the immigration of American farmers to Canada. Senator Borah was one of its supporters.