Opinion of the Court. 331 U.S. 1889,16 the Enabling Act for the States of Washington, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota. A bill authorizing the admission of South Dakota, and containing language similar to that later included in § 5 of the Wyoming Act, was first passed by the Senate." When the bill came before the House for consideration, an amendment was approved which struck out all the provisions of the Senate bill following the enacting clause and substituted a bill calling for the admission of Washington, Montana. North Dakota, and South Dakota.18 As finally passed by the House, the substitute bill provided that rights of settlers to the school lands should be preserved where settlements were made prior to survey or before approval of the Act of admission.19 The conference committee, however, rejected those provisions; and the Act as passed included language similar to that in the original Senate bill and identical to that later incorporated into the Wyoming Act, providing that the claims of the States to the school sections should prevail over those of the individual settlers.20 It will be observed that the conflict between the provisions in the House bill and the Senate bill related to the competing interests of the States and the individual settlers. Nothing in this history indicates that by accepting the alternative provided in the Senate bill and resolving the conflict in favor of the States, Congress intended, also, to extinguish the powers of the Federal Government, theretofore exercised, with respect to the 16 25 Stat. 676. 17 19 Cong. Rec. 2802; Sen. Journ. 50th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 696. Section 6 of that bill contained the following language: ".. ; and such sections shall not be subject to pre-emption or entry, whether surveyed or unsurveyed, but shall be reserved for school purposes only." 18 20 Cong. Rec. 806–812. 19 Id. at 948, 951. 20 Id. at 2104, 2116. 440 Opinion of the Court. unsurveyed sections of the school lands. Nor is there any evidence that Congress intended such a departure from previous practice when it incorporated an identical clause into 5 of the Wyoming Act. Indeed, the House Committee Report states that the Enabling Act gives to Wyoming "the usual land grants," "1 and the manager of the bill in the House of Representatives during the course of the debates made a similar statement.22 Additional support for the construction which we have indicated as proper may be found in subsequent congressional enactments. Thus in the Act of February 28, 1891. which became law only seven months after the passage of the Wyoming Enabling Act, Congress clearly revealed its understanding that the Federal Government had retained its powers to reserve and dispose of the unsurveyed school lands. That Act, the pertinent language of which is set out in the margin,23 attempts, among other things, to establish a uniform policy with respect to the granting of lieu lands to the States where upon survey it is found that the designated sections are subject to homestead and pre-emption claims or where the Federal Government has included such sections within a reser 21 H. R. Rep. No. 39, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., 26. 22 21 Cong. Rec. 2707. 23 26 Stat. 796. "Where settlements with a view to pre-emption or homestead have been, or shall hereafter be made, before the survey of the lands in the field, which are found to have been made on sections sixteen or thirty-six, those sections shall be subject to the claims of such settlers; and if such sections, or either of them, have been or shall be granted, reserved, or pledged for the use of schools or colleges in the State or Territory in which they lie, other lands of equal acreage are hereby appropriated and granted, and may be selected by said State or Territory, in lieu of such as may be thus taken by pre-emption or homestead settlers. And other lands of equal acreage are also hereby appropriated and granted, and may be selected by said State or Territory where sections sixteen or thirty-six are mineral land, or are included within any Indian, military, or other reservation, or are otherwise disposed of by the United States: . . . ." Opinion of the Court. 331 U.S. vation or has disposed of them in some other way. It should be observed that when dealing with the right of the States to select lieu lands where homestead and preemption claims are involved, Congress first inserted language in the Act designed to create in individuals holding such claims rights superior to those of the States to the school sections upon which settlement before survey has been made. But in dealing with the selection of lieu lands where the Federal Government prior to survey has included the designated school sections in a reservation or has otherwise disposed of them, Congress did not find it necessary first to create the power in the Federal Government to make such reservations or dispositions. Rather, on the apparent assumption that such powers had been retained by the Federal Government and were presently existing, Congress merely provided for the selection of lieu lands by the States where upon survey it is found that those powers have been exercised. It is apparent that Congress intended that the Act of 1891 should apply to Wyoming as well as to the other schoolland States. Indeed, Wyoming on at least two previous occasions so contended and succeeded in obtaining benefits under the Act.25 We need not now consider the effect of the Act of 1891 insofar as it may be inconsistent with the provisions of the Wyoming Enabling Act, for it is our view that with respect to the problem of this case no inconsistency exists. It is not without significance, also, that in 1934, Congress, after having been fully apprised of the administrative construction of the school-land provisions of the Wyoming Enabling Act,26 which is in accord with the construction which we have made, amended § 5 24 24 H. R. Rep. No. 2384, 51st Cong., 1st Sess. 25 Wyoming v. United States, 255 U. S. 489 (1921); State of Wyoming, 27 L. D. 35. 26 H. R. Rep. 229, 73d Cong., 1st Sess.; S. Rep. No. 10, 73d Cong., 1st Sess. 440 Opinion of the Court. of that Act but reenacted all the provisions of that section which are pertinent to the present case.27 Defendants' view that, by virtue of the language of the Enabling Act, Congress extinguished the powers of the Federal Government subsequently to dispose of the unsurveyed school sections in the exercise of its governmental functions, admittedly would place Wyoming in a favored position among the school-grant States. Such a result does not accord with the congressional expectation that the school grant should have "equal operation and equal benefit in all the public land States and Territories." 28 Defendants suggest no special circumstances or peculiar considerations of policy which convincingly indicate a purpose on the part of Congress to place Wyoming on other than an equal footing with other States with respect to the powers of the Federal Government in the unsurveyed school sections. Furthermore, one of the important recurring problems faced by Congress during the period in which the Wyoming Enabling Act was passed was the necessity of reserving tracts of the public lands to accomplish such important purposes as preserving the national forests and mineral resources, establishing public parks, and the like.20 Vesting in the State an immediate and irrevocable interest in the school sections before such sections had been identified by survey would be to complicate the performance of the Government's obligation with respect to the public 27 48 Stat. 350. Section 5 of the Enabling Act was amended so as to permit the State to lease the school lands for periods of ten years as contrasted to a five year limitation contained in the section as originally enacted. 28 H. R. Rep. No. 2384, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., 1. S. Rep. No. 502, 51st Cong., 1st Sess., 1. 29 Thus the same volume of the Statutes at Large containing the Wyoming Enabling Act also contains at least two pieces of such legislation. 26 Stat. 478, 650. Opinion of the Court. 331 U.S. lands. That Congress intended such complication seems most unlikely when it is observed that the policy underlying the grant of lands to the State for school purposes could be achieved without producing that result. Thus § 4 of the Enabling Act makes provision for indemnification to the State where the designated school sections are disposed of for other purposes by authorizing the selection of lands by the State in lieu thereof. Section 6 of the Act of August 9, 1888,30 which was incorporated into § 4 of the Enabling Act "so far as applicable," specifically provides for the selection of lieu lands where the school sections "have been or shall hereafter be reserved for public purposes." It is significant that for a period extending over half a century, the land decisions of the Department of the Interior have consistently taken the position that title to unsurveyed school sections passes to the State only upon completion of the survey, and prior to that time the Federal Government is not inhibited from making such reservations and dispositions of the lands as required by the public interest and as authorized by applicable statutes. Many of those decisions involved statutory language substantially identical to that in the Wyoming Enabling Act." We should be slow at this late date to upset the rulings". . . of the department of the Government to which is committed the administration of public lands." 32 For the reasons stated above, we hold that at the date of her admission to the Union, Wyoming acquired no such 30 See note 7, supra. 31 South Dakota v. Riley, 34 L. D. 657; State of Montana, 38 L. D. 247; State of Utah, 53 L. D. 365. And see F. A. Hyde & Co., 37 L. D. 164; State of New Mexico, 52 L. D. 679. Also in accord are decisions in Utah v. Work, 55 App. D. C. 372, 6 F. 2d 675 (1925); Thompson v. Savidge, 110 Wash. 486, 188 P. 397 (1920). 32 California v. Deseret Water, Oil & Irrigation Co., 243 U. S. 415, 421 (1917). |