The record-union., 1893-03-02
The Ford Bill.


EDS. RECORD UNION: The Ford hy-
draulic mining bill, permitting hydraulic
mining where it does no material dam
age to navigable streams and adjacent
lands, is being vigorously fought in the
Assembly by friends of the rivers and
valleys. There is honest and hot objec-
ton to having the whole question re-
opened by the word material" thus
casting the burden of proof upon the
valley.
There is equally as warm protest
against the use of the word ''navigable,"
| it being claimed that this gives practi-
cally license to fill up the unnavigable
streams-the American River, for in
stance, or the Costumes.
1t is replied, that if it could be shown
that damage TO an unnavigable stream
would result in material harm to a navi-
gable river, then the work could be
stopped that occasioned the injury. To
this friends of the rivers reply that here
lies the whole difficulty, since II is SO
difficult to trace the damage to the par
ticular point of origin, where RESPONSE
bility can be fixed.
The valley people contend that this
whole matter has been fought out in tie
courts and settled, and that TO undo it all,
ana compel repetition of cost and labor to
go over the ground again, rs must be
done If the bill becomes a law, is unfair,
unwise and exasperating, and will tend
to paraiyze industries and development
in low land sections.
Now, sirs, is not this statement that I
have made fair? Under it can there be
any good reason advanced for the passage
of the Ford bill? Is it not, Messrs. Edi-
tors, flying in the face of the Caminetti
bill? TO me il seems to be attempting to
handle question that Congress has as
sumed jurisdiction over. 1t is in my
opinion an attempted license, granting of
which the Federal Government has pro-
vided for and reserved for ITSELF
l, Tor one, do not believe that the min
ers have anything to gain by the bill be-
coming law, except veXation, trouble
and law suits should they attempt to re-
sumo hydraulicking under the bill In
common with all | know | had hoped
that no new cause for reopening the old
sores would be given; to do SO is, it seems
to me, very unwlSe. If the bill becomes
q law, and under it hydraulic mining is
resumed upon considerable scale, | fear
that the people will have all the hot, long,
embittered and damaging contention OF
the past to go through with again and in
the end the result will be the same.
Mining debris and detritus we all
know cannot be washed into the tribu-
taries of the rivers without restraint and
not do the navigable channels material
harm. That much has been settled by
| judicial decree and engineering science
ii | read Alright, us well as by the dictates
of what to me is common reason. II there
is to be harmony attained under the
action taken and to be taken by the Fed
eral Government and both great sections
be promoted as a result in their chief
! industries, then such measures as the
| Ford bill are not only unnecessary, but
| dangerously unwise.
To the friends OF the mining regions let
Inc say they ought to see that to reopen
the battle, as the bill certainly does, will
not be OF profit to them, much less to the
State at large. No, sir; the reopening Of
the question may imperil all that has
been gained in securing action by the
Federal Government and to this | beg
them to give some thought. NJ. d. S.
Sacramento, March l, 1898.