The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-06-14
some OF THE REASONS
Why Judge Lorenzo Sawyer Has De-
cided the Question Against
the Miners.
No Means to Determine, Upon Elk
animation, What Lands
Are Mineral.
Only Safe Nule Isto Exclude Lands Which
Are Known to Ie
Mineral.

He is of the opinion that congress did not
intend the meaning given to the term
mineral land" should be such as the
miners give to it. ut does not seem pos-
sible," says Judge Sawyer, that congress
deliberately intended to leave the titles to
all lands in the new states in Il state of
such lamentable insecurity, a condition OF
things utterly destructive to the interests,
and obstructive of the prosperity md
progress of those states. The mining inter-
ests, whatever the case may now be. will
ultimately become one of the least i'm
portant. If congress had intended such
unnatural and undesirable results, it could
have easily expressed it's intention in I'M
mistakable language. 1t provided no means
and no tribunal to determine upon exami-
nation for the purpose. what lands were
mineral. within the meaning of the act. 1t
did not require the railroad company, or
anybody on behalf of the government, to
prospect the lands to ascertain what were
mineral. And had it don't 80, in most in
stances it would have been unavailing, 80
far as ascertaining the real condition of the
land is concerned. Repeated prospecting,
at different times, and. by different parties,
in practical work, is often required to dis
close a mine. Without any provision for
positively determining what lands are min
eral, for the purposes of the act, at the
time the grant attaches, there can be but
one reasonable and safe rule, and that is to
exclude those which are known to be min
eral, or which upon inspection can be read
ilv ascertained to be mineral. The ODD sec
lions are the subject matter of the grant,
and the mineral lands in the odd sections
are the exceptions. The latter are taken
should be readily identified by insl e%ction.
If they can not be identified by in
spection, they are too indefinite and
uncertain to be valid, and they must be
void for uncertainty. The exception must
be specifically pointed out, 80 that it can be
readily ascertained. Exceptions are strictly
construed. AS an illustration, take a case
on u section of the road where the line of
the road is definitely located; the road is
finished and all the conditions subsequent
a, @ fully performed; the1oad accepted, n
the title to whatever is within the grant, be
it more or less, irrevocably, vested in the
railroad company. The lands are surveyed.
So far as can be known by inspection and
superficial examination, the lands appear
to be timber lands, agricultural lands, or
grazing lands, and they are in good faith
purchased as such from the railroad COM
pany, and occupied as such by the pur-
chaser.
"Are these lands, 80 situated, against the
will of the purchasers, open to wandering
prospectors to enter at will upon them, dig
IN the earth, sink shafts, run drifts, tun-
nels, etc.. to see if they can find a mine?
And falling to find a mine, is the land open
year after year for other bands of prospec-
tors to enter and repeat the performance
ad infinitum? And should a mine, at last,
after years of prospecting be found, is the
purchaser to have his land taken from him
on this exception? Yet such must be the
consequence of the construction insisted
upon by the defendants. If one quarter
title thereto liable to be thereby defeated,
by Il discovery of a mine at any time, no
matter how long, in the future, then every
foot of land within the limits of the rail-
road grant. and even outside
these limits, from Lake Superior to
to Puget sound, is IN the same situation,
and the title liable to be defented in the
same manner. No man can ever know
whether he has a title or not until n mine is
discovered, when he learns that he has no
title. but that the land belongs to the
United States. | cannot bring my mind to
believe it possible that men Of the intelli-
gence and sound sense of those who con-
stitute the senators and members of the
house of representatives in congress could
have deliberately and knowingly intended
or contemplated any such result. And
what adequate object is to be attained by
such a construction as will destroy titles
and be subversive of all confidence in titles
to land in all these new states?
'Eor whose benefit is this extraordinary
and hurtful condition of things to be i'm
posed on the new states? Is it that the
government may obtain Sc per acre for a
small strip of land here and there at long
distances apart, not exceeding 1900 feet
Lowe 1yy E0l fiat ruflop Nv 10 ~ IN rs-a n
preference to purchasers at that insiGniti-
cant price, over permanent settlers, who
have already purchased, paid for and i'm
proved lands i'll good faith, to a ompara
lively few nomadio prospectors, who re-
main at the same place but a short time?
that indications of mines appear, the own
era will be quite az likely to prospect for
and discover any mine that may be con-
earth there as the professional pros
pectors; and the country at large
will in the end be equally benefited by the
result. Is there any object to be accom-
| plished by such an unreasonable and i'm
practicable construction Of the grant as is
claimed for it, leading to such absurd con-
sequences, that will compensate for the
great wrong ard injury that must, neoes-
sarily, be inflicted upon the state by re-
moving all grounds for confidence in land
tlbiSS. W u albPut0 - On Y WhSuIlpt
the land was known mineral land hen the
grant attached, it may always be safely in
trusted to n jury to determine the point
"When the United States made the rail
road grant i'll order to secure the construc-
ton of that great transcontinental Dad
through thousands of miles of a compare
lively unsettled region ii intended to offer
something substantial as an inducement.
1t gave nothing. for rs usual, it doubled the
price of all alternate even sections, and by
the completion of the road made a market
for These lands at the enhanced price. A
large development of the resources of the
country was also thereby induced. Besides,
the government saved millions in the cost
of transporting the mails, military forces,
supplies, etc. For the United States now,
years after the road has been built and
been in successful operation, to insist upon
the construction maintained by defendants
is to discredit all the titles of the railroad
company. and of those holding titles
under it; to throw insuporable obstacles
i'll the way of selling these lands by
thus discreditinc the titles, and to thereby
deprive the company of the substantial aid
which it had reason TO believe it was to re-
ceive upon the performance of the condi-
tions OF tho contract on it's part.
"Thote can. possibly, no benefit result to
the United States or to my persons, or
classes of persons. designed to be favored
thereby, by the construction of the act of
will Mt all compensate for the wrong to tho
railroad compan and its grantees, occa-
stoned by discreaiting these titles, and the
blight put upon the prosperity of all these
new states, by destroying and subverting
all prounia for coltilauca in tina lDpd titl,a