The Saint Paul globe., 1904-06-20
NERS)N TO ISSUE
MINERAL LEASES
State Auditor VIII Take This
Course In Order to Secure
Decision of Courts


In view of the refusal of the supreme
court to review the ministerial acts Of
the state auditor in refusing to grant
mineral leases on lands lying under lake
beds, State Auditor S. G. Iverson has
concluded to issue mineral leases to fully
a hundred applicants who have had ap-
plications on file in his office for some
months. The state auditor believes that
this action viii precipitate litigation
which will definitely establish the rights
of the state and the riparian owners to
beds of meandered lakes in Minnesota.
Accordingly the state auditor has had
his clerks remove hundred or more ap-
plications for mineral leases from the
pigeonholes that had sheltered them for
months and separate those which did not
conflict with each other. Where there
is no conflict he will issue the leases on
payment of $25 each, the limit of land to
any lessee being 160 acres, and the land
being contiguous tracts. Some of the
applications are more than year old
while the last application is dated June
of this year. and was made by John R.
Vanderlip, a Minneapolis attorney
The applicants ask to file leases on
beds of meaLdeTed lakes dotting both the
Vermillion and Missabe ranges in Nerth-
ern Minnesota, from Ely on the east to
Grand Rapids on the west, and cover
nearly every portion of the iron belt of
Northern Minnesota. Should the state
auditor be upheld by the courts in grant
ing leases to land of this character it is
probable that large amount will inure
to the state revenue fund
Auditor in a ouandary
State Auditor Iversen said that he was
In something of quandary, but he had
determined to issue the leases and let
interested property owners fight it out
between themselves. He had tried to se-
cure judicial determination Of the uues-
tion but without result
i first submitted the question to At
torney General Douglas said Iverson.
"and he gave it as his opinion that the
state should assert it's sovereignty over
the lake beds, and advised me that had
authority to issue leases. I knew the
question was one of great Importance and
tried to have a judicial determination Of
the question whether the state had anv
interest in iron ore under the lake beds
Finally, the lessees decided with me that
l should refuse to issue a lease. and on
my refusal they were to ask the court
Tor writ OF certiorari compelling me to
issue the lease, and thus get the Question
Defore the court for review. The hear
ing was held June and a number of
parties in interest fled briefs covering
the different contentious in the matter.
The supreme court, however, decided that
the actions Of the state land commits
sfoner were not renewable by that BODY.
and there the situation is at present.
Important to Taxpayers
1T was a great disappointment to me
not to get judicial determinat ton for I
realize the Importance of the question
to Minnesota. Most of the state lands
are so-called trust lands and the rev
enue from them goes to some certain
fund, such the school. university or
state school funds. The revenue from
mineral leases, however, is the propertV
or the general revenue fund, and any in
crease in that fund by so much reduces
the amount to be raised by taxation. It
is easily seen how important it is to
everybody who pays taxes in the state
nave issued notices to the anpli-
cants that l shall issue the mineral
leases on lands in lake beds, as asked
Tor, ana let the courts decide the cues
tions. The leases will. of course be
sub1ect to the interests Of the riparian
In the trial of the test case, added
State Auditor 1verson, 1.-The interyenors
did not question the sovereignty of fhe
state over the beds of neandered lakes
put they held that this right could not
be transferred to private owners If ia a
pretty badly mixed up affair, but if
there is chance for the state to realize
ON immense bodies of ore in the beds of
these lakes, and it seems to be the 1nin-
lon of many people that ore does eyisf in
a number of the lake beds. we will give
the courts a chance to pass unor, the
question before we refuse to isslln fhe
leases asked for