The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-08-28
: His Letter Will Be Considered
To-Day by the Miners
Committee.
MR.. RICKETTS, WILL FIGHT IT
Hardly Likely That the Legal Fight
VIII Be Dropped at This
Stage.

w HS1i VIC NOuleIeHCe COmmlCCee, CHOSEN
by the Miners Association at the last meet
ing OF Its executive committee to treat with
the Southern Pacific on plan for an
amlcable settlement of the mineral lands
controversy, comes together in Chairman
a. II. Ricketts, Office this afternoon Land
Agent Mills long letter to John NJ. Wright
will be pretty well dissected
Besides Messrs. Ricketts, and Wright, the
committee includes E. C. Lotus, c. E.
Hoffman and Charles G. Yale. Mr.. Lotus
writes the chairman that he will be unable
to attend, but declares himself opposed to
any abandonment of the legal fight begun
IN the Department of the Interior by At
torney Ricketts,.
1t is this adroit move of Mr.. Mills which
is going TO give the committee some trouble.
All the members are practically agreed to
any fair plan of amicable settlement, but
the idea of abandoning the legal proceed
ings and FORGETTING the legal rights which
have accrued to the association through
them is one which no member IS very Will
ing to entertain. Yet this dropping of the
contest is made by Mr.. Mills virtually a
condition of any Joint action of the asso-
citation and the railroad company:
Mr.. Mills himself has proceeded upon
g
game is to follow right up without allow
ing himself to show any apprehenslveness
as to what his opponents move be, so he
has already selected Thomas G. Uren of
Nevada City as the expert who is to repre-
sent the Southern Pacific in the commits
sion. This, of course, has the advantage
of making an appearance of acting in good
faith and consistently with his letter to
Mr.. Wright. 1t is bid to the association
to sacrifice some good piece on the board
and be satisfied with merely try
ing to checkmate the railroad COM
pany, but Chairman Ricketts, feels that if
the committee falls into the trap Mr.. Mills
has laid, it may lose the game right at the
very stage where the association actually
has it all its own way.
1t is quite likely that the committee will
follow Mr.. Mills moves by some counter
playing-that is, i may address a COM
munication to Mr.. Mills proposing terms
of agreement, which may include brief
postponement of the hearing of the ap-
peals by Secretary Hoke Smith, but
which will not contemplate any abandon
ment of the fight, and may presume the
legal right of the association, or some of
its individual members, to enter protest
every time the railroad company makes a
selection of lands which the two experts
have not passed upon. Then an expert to
represent the association may be appointed
before the committee adjourns to show
that it is acting in just as good faith as
Mr.. Mills.
This is about all the compromise Mr..
Ricketts, could consent to, and it is doubt
full if he will agree to any suspension of
the proceedings in Secretary Smiths de-
partment at all, as he will probably con-
tend that the proposition for Joint COM
mission should have reference only to
selections made in the future and should
RI in
'fhat has transpired IN the past and up to
The time the agreement is entered into.
Mr.. Ricketts, indicates that he is not quite
favorable to the idea of a commission be-
ing composed of only two persons. as he
is unable to see how they may be able to
come TO any conclusion in the event of a
difference of opinion without some third
party to cast the deciding vote.
To give an idea of the curious methods
of the railroad company and the Land De-
partment of the Government in the past,
and bring up a point in the controversy
which has not yet come to light, he said
yesterday:
The miners were very much surprised last
July by the kilograms from Washington,
which appeared in the San Francisco papers,
stating that Secretary Smith had issued
patents to the Central Pacific for nearly 1000
acres notwithstanding the fact that all the
selections made by the railroad company since
the last miners convention were covered by
the Benjamin protests.
The committee of the association on the pro-
lection OF mineral lands looked into the matter
and discovered that ont of 80 ,461 acres 81 ,221
were embraced in what is called the ''clear
list, that Is, the lands mentioned therein lie
beyond a distance of six miles from any min
eral entry claim or location, so far as evidenced
by the data on file in the Land Department at
Washington, and which data, OF course, does
not include any unpatented mining claims. 1
mean by such claims those held by possessory
titles alone, which may be evidenced by loca-
ton notice or by lapse of time.
These 'clear-list' lands had been selected
regardless Of their true character or the rights
OF any mineral claimants and were deemed
prima-facie agricultural lands, no notice of
such selections being given by advertisement
or otherwise. The patents had been issued
upon representations made by the agents of
the railroad company in the form of affdavits,
the purport of which was that the facts related
had been communicated by third parties
statements which the atlantis themselves were
not expected TO have any personal knowledge
OF or belief in.
All this. mind you, Notwithstanding lands
selected may have been mineral in character,
and that Congress has expressly declared that
the railroads shall not have any mineral lands,
and that ii is the duty of the Land Department
to determine the character OF the lands before
the issuance of patents.