The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-03-16
OF THE LAND
COMMISSIONERS.

land commission VINO recently visited the
Western States and Territories to ascertain
what improvements are necessary in the laws
relating to the location and development of
mining property. Congress Is sure to act
favorably on many of the recommendations
of the commission. which fact invests them
with vital importance to all interested in
mining matters.
The conditions for acquiring title to min
eral lands prescribed in the new bills recon-
mended to Congress by the Commissioner rs are
as follows First-The marking the position
of the clam Oh ground by monuments and
posting notices thereon. Secondly the
discovery within said claim of a lode, placer
or other valuable mineral deposit, either be-
fore the posting of said notice or within ninety
days thereafter. Third-Within ninety days
from tho posting of said notice the locator
must file with the United States Surveyor
General for the surveying district in which
the claim lies a copy OF said posted notices,
together with proof of mineral discovery, and
an application for survey OF his claim and
evidence that he has deposited 10 the credit
of the United States in Il proper United States
depository the sum of fifty dollars. Fourth
Within one year from the approval by the
Surveyor General of the survey (Which shall
be made by some dull y-appointed deputy
mineral surveyor chosen by the applicant for
the survey, the locator his assigns or his
only authorized agent. must lille In the proper
land office ali application for a patent, under
oath, together with a copy OF the plat and field
notes of the claim, duly certified by the
United States SurveyOl-General, and proof
that $500 worth of labor has been expended,
or Of improvements made upon the claim by
the claimants or his gralltors: whereupon
he snail pay the amount per acre to be here
after fixed by Congress, and shall be entitled
to a patent for his claim. Failure by a loca-
tor to make application Tor a survey and
satisfactorily prove the mineral discovery
within ninety days after the posting of notice
shall subject his claim to location by any other
qualified party. Failure of the claimant to
make proof of work and payment within the
time h~ereinbefore prescribed, shall work a
complete torfeitures of the claim and the sur
vey heretofore made shall be cancelled. The
Commission make no recommendation as to
the number of acres that shall be fixed as the
maximum area of future locations, but their
bill provides that all mining claims located
after the - day -, of 1880, shall be
bounded as to surface by straight lines and all
right to minerals contained therein shall be
confined within vertical planes passing down.
ward through said straight boundary lines.
Another very important section Of his bill
provides that all rights which have attached
to mining claims under previous Acts of
Congress shall not be affected by the opera
ton of this chapter; prorided, that where
such claims have not been or shall not, with
in one year thereafter, be consummated by
the required payment of purchase money,
such unconsummated class shall lapse and the
land embraced therein shall thereafter be sub
ject only to the operations of this chapter.
The Commission, i'll their argumentative
report accompanying this bill, says: 1--WE
find that a large majority of the miners con-
suited during the examination of the West
ern States and Territories clearly shared our
conviction-tirst, that the local regulations
are of no use second, that they are a great
positive harm third, that by Congressional
enactment they should be promptly abolished
as to all future locations.
opo CHANGE IN THE LAW.
They say, concerning their proposition to
substitute the common law principle for the
present system of lodge locations "YOur
Commission, after a review OF the lines of
mining contests and "a consideration of the
complex nature of ore deposits, are unani-
nous i'll the conviction that any attempt Oh
the part of the United States to convey such
deposits as individual things beyond the
vertical planes bounding the ulface claim
must always end in a history of intolerable
injustice. The result of our test of public
opinion shows that. while there are regions
where simple assure veins have not caused
battles, and where, consequently, the people
ask no change, the majority of experienced
mining men desire a change from the lode To-
cation, with its disastrous sequel, back to the
security and peace of the solid old common
law doctrine. lii support of this assertion,
they refer to the fact that there is little or no
litigation concerning Government titles to
mineral lands east of the Missouri river, where
the common law rule is in force whereas,
they remark, "The dOckets of the far western
courts are numbered with an excessive num-
Der of suits, involving many million dollars of
value. In that region the investor of capital
too often only buys a law suit, with a posi-
BILE mine thrown in, and finds himself forced
to choose between an expensive legal defence
of his rights or robbery. That the mineral
industry advances and prospers in the face of
the statutes is proof only of the wealth of the
country and the buoyant energies of the peo-
ple."
The testimony given by Mr.. Whitman, Of
Nevada, oh behalf of the Bonanza firm, is
quoted to the effect that the interests of deep
mining would be promoted by the adoption of
square location, a common law system, and
that mining men would be more willing TO
invest on a square location than on a ledge
location, which almost Invariably leads to en-
pensiye contests and litigations.
The Commission, in the course of the gen.
eral argument, use the following emphatic
language: THE existing laws hold out
these conditions for obtaining patents; hav-
ing permitted OH the inceptlorof title, dam
gerously vitiated by acts of local agents, out-
sid of the Federal jurisdiction; having per-
mitted the robbers and blackmailers to ac-
quire a cheap and secure fighting title-the
Government then causes its unfortunate vic
tim to set himself up as a target for attack by
advertisement for a patent, and when attack
ed, calmly turns its back and permits him to
be dragged into the local courts. In short,
the present act might be fully entitled San