The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-01-27
TAKES ACTION ON
MINING BILLS
Commercial Club Committee Opposes
Joseph's Measures.
APPROVES ONE BY CURTAIN
FEATURES OF PROPOSED ACTS
ARE SEVERELY CRITICISED.

The mining committee of the Com
mercial club got busy last night and
after a two hours engagement house
Dllls NO. 9, % and 63. all of which have
been introduced in the lower branch OF
the legislature by Representative Har-
ry ;. Joseph, had been shot to pieces
House bill No. Is, by Curtin managed
10 run the gauntlet of discussion and
objection and emerged unscathed. rec
commended for passage by the CONNER
cial club committee
John Dern was chairman and H. NJ
Crowther secretary of the meeting
which was attended by about forty per-
sons, including the members Of the
senate and house mining commit tees.
The senate committee consisted of SEN
atorS Bamberger, Lawrence, Lewis,
Loose and Rasband. while the commit
tee members from the house were Rep
resentatiVeS Joseph, A V Anderson,
Gundry, Curtin, Daily, Hopes and Pet
eTSon.
House bill No. 3. entitled IAN act to
amend section 25O4, Revised Statutes.
1898, relating to taxing mines and ne;
proceeds, was first considered. The
new features of the measure are free
ing from ambiguity the present clause
OF the statute taxing coal and the levy
ing of a tax on all saline produce. Tn
der this latter provision the net annual
proceeds of ali salt obtained from the
Great Salt lake by the process of evan
al property. This ELECTED an objection
from w. s. Mccormick. and also from
Thomas Weir, both of whom declared
that such a law would work an injus-
tice on an infant, and as yet losing,
industry of the state.
Weir SHES at Salt Clause.
The greater part of the objection 10
the bill was made because of the salt
clause, - and stripped of that, it APP
peared to re-enact little more than the
original Statute- A vote was finally
called for on the two provisions, the
coal and salt clauses of the bill. only
members of the club mining commit
tee voting The result was as follows:
For the coal clause ayes 9 navs >:
for the salt clause ayes >, nays 9.
The bill was let down easily compared
with the inhosPitable reception given
house bill No 63, which was next con-
sidered- This bill provides that owners
of mining claims may, without any
process of law, drive tunnel through
patented claim provided the latter is
not molested in any way 1t was
thought by several that this bill would
nave a chance 70. gain the committees
approval, but objection. came not only
from club members but from Chairman
Banberger OF the, senate mining COM
mittee himself Judge c. S Varian
spoke at length on the inadvisab ility of
framing measure idisregarding entire
" thesaims of the law of eminent do
main, and stated that he doubted its
cOnstitutionality. The members adopt
ed motion unanimously expressing it
as the sense of the meeting that the
bill should be rejected in toto
n Treweek, Duncan McVichie w. G.
Nebeker, John Dern and w. F. James
spoke against house hill No. %, relat-
ing to the health and safety of persons
employed in and about metaIliferous
mines Mr.. McNichie thought that the
bill was entirely too sweeping i'm its
character and that the mine owners
would sufficiently protect miners with
out having imposed upon them the bur-
den Of the new law with its many pro-
visions. Mr.. James pointed out that
the measure would interfere seriously
with the driving of long tunnels be-
cause Of certain provisions relating to
the sinking of ventilating shafts re-
sdrdleSS of the progress made on the
existing tunnel or shaft Mr.. Nebeker
pointed out that the bill lacked lust one
thing to make it perfect-a section pro-
viding how the boarding house should
be run and specifying the kinds of
knives and forks TO be used.
On motion of Everard Bierer. jr.,
with Thomas Wier seconding. the sense
of the meeting was declared to be that
the bill should not pass.
After an explanation by State Coal
Inspector Gober Thomas and Repre-
sentative Curtin. author of house bill
NO. IS. relating to the regulation of the
use Of explosive oil in coal mines, of
the good points of the measure. the
club mining committee ''resoluted" to
recommend it's passage.
The members of the committee in at
tendance were John s. Bransford :
Bamberger. H NJ Crowther, John
Dern, J. S. Ferris. +. y. Gridley, T.. A.
Wall w. s. Mccormick. Duncan Nc
Vichie, j T Richards, g H Robinson,
W. II. Tibbals. Thomas Weir and n
Treweek, William @. Nebeker. s Is
Miner Everard Bierer, jr.. Colonel
William Nelson. Charles Read, w F.
James and G. L. Rood