The San Francisco call., 1896-12-25

is thus a strong influence which has taken
up the mining laws OF the State and Ma
ton. The work was formulated at the an
nual meeting of the association a few
weeks ago, and it is now in the hands OF
four competent committees.
The legislative wants of the miners in
clude mainly the addition of Depart
ment OF Mines to the executive branch OF
the Government, the passage of the min
eral lands bill now pending in Congress, a
careful revision of the entire mining laws
of the United States and the enactment
by the Legislature of what may be termed
code of mining laws. Since the Depart
ment of the Interior recently ruled that
mining claims could not be filed upon
land bearing oil and other non-metallifer-
Gus mineral products, and that the oil
fields were agricultural land, it has been
determined to ask Congress to enact a law
which will restore these products to the
mining field.
These matters are partly in the hands
OF the standing committee on legislation,
of which TREY L. Ford is chairman, and
partly in the hands of special committees
appointed at the annual meeting. Curtis
Lindley is chairman of the com mittee on
revision of Federal laws and A. III. Rick
etts Is chairman of the com mittee on State
legislation. There is also special COM
mittee on the mineral lands bill.
The campaign for Secretary of Mines
is inchoate yet. The great fight on hand
in Congress is one in behalf of the mineral
lands bill, and this is a continuation of
the fight which was so bravely made at
the last session. This bill, which is i'll
tended to prevent nearly million acres of
lands within the railroad grants in this
State from being patented to the railroad
company as agricultural lands and to pro-
vide for commission to segregate them.
was passed by both houses of Congress at
the last session, but was tied up by SEN
ate amendment, secured by Mitchell, in
Guiding Oregon in its provisions. 1t will
thus come up at the short session as un-
finished business, and with Messrs. Ford,
Ricketts, and others energetically laboring
for il from this end and with the entire
California delegation active in its behalf
it is likely that it will pass and save an
immense area of mineral lands to the
mining industry.
The committee on revision of the Fed
eral laws will spend year studying the
mining laws of all countries and will re-
port at the next annual meeting. Co.
operation from the mining States and
Territories will be sought.
OF most immediate interest to the min
ers of this State arc the bills which the
Legislature will be asked to pass at the
coming session. They have been indorsed
by the Governor and will be strongly
urged. Some of them were first proposed
by the Mining and Scientific Press and
were formulated by A. II. Ricketts,. Cali
fornia, though it has for forty years been
the great mining State of the Union, has
never enacted code of mining laws sup
Elementary to the Federal mining stat
utes, as has every other mining State and
Territory. It's few laws are fragmen tary.
special, and some of them obnoxious to
the miners. This condition has produced
uncertainty, inconvenience, wrongs and
litigation. The scope and purpose of
these several bills are stated as follows by
Attorney A. II. Ricketts,:
1.-THE set of bills to be presented to the
Legislature on behalf of the Miners Asso-
citation in the interest of the locator, the
mine-owner and the mine laborer are
briefly these:
First, bill regulating the manner of
acquiring and holding mining claims. 1t
contains many provisions for matters
which the Federal law leaves to State laws