Arizona republican., 1897-11-02
MINING LAWS NEED CHANGING
R. A. F. Penrose of Arizona Suggests
 Some Desirable Alterations.

MT. R. A. F. Penrose, one of the owners of the eParce mine in Arizona, is in Denver A reporter for the Denver Republican interviewed him, with this result:
 R. A. F. Penrose, mining engineer and manager of rich mine in Ari- zona. is registered at the Brown Pal ace hotel. There has been little change in the, mining situation in Arizona this year, said he. "The mines of the territory are in spots, so to speak, but there are a great many of these, and they are cf great value, and there is every reason to be- lieve that the country will become a rich producer in time The copper deposits of the state are very rich and the four principal camps are already heavy producers. There are besides these a large number of smaller de- posits of copper, which are being worked and are paying quite well. Very little is done in Arizona during the summer on account of the heat, and the, heavy expense of mining there on account of the scarcity of wood and water is also serious draw back, but in spite of all these difficult ties the increase of the production of gold will be very large this year, the production of 1896 was $2,000,000, and I think that the output of 1897 will be not less than $4,000,000.
 q very much regretted my inability to attend the meeting of the commit tee appointed by the mining congress of fho vision of the inning laws, of which I am a member, but at the time of the meeting I was in Mexico and did not receive the notice until my re- turn which was two weeks after the meeting. I have general under standing of the main points agreed upon. however, and I heartily concur in the recommendations made. It is time that the mining laws of the Unit ed States be placed in line with those of the rest of the world
 s'I am strongly in favor of vertical boundaries for mining claims. A large share of the litigation which critics is directly traceable to the so- called apex theory, and it is senseless to continue policy which is the sdi-
 
 and so much loss to the miner. I think that the claims should be of lib- eral size, so that an inducement may be offered to claim owners, and that the legal amount of work to be done should be rigidly insisted on in order that there may be as little temptation as possible to the prospector to stake off all the ground in sight and thus prevent the development of the ter ritory. I also think that the locator or claim holder should be permitted to commute the labor for cash if he wishes.
 "If every locator is compelled to actually perform $50 or S100 worth ot work upon each claim or pay the same amount in cash, there would be fewer men who would depend up on shallow open cuts in the side of a hill for title to a claim which, were it not for this too common method would probably be developed by other parties, and in this connection I think that locators should be permitted tc take up claims regardless of surface or other discoveries of ore No one is likely to take up a claim unless h. thinks it is valuable, and if he wants to pay the government $100 year fol the privilege of locating sand bank he has only himself to blame. O course, claims with no mineral il sight would be taken up in order tt secure the extensions of known veins but as no one else but the owners O known contiguous veins would file up on such claims, can see no objection to that. There will always be som people who will try to defeat the pur pose of a law, but think that if tn suggestions of the committee ar crystallized into law there will b very much fewer difficulties in tn way of securing an absolute obser vance of the law than at present."