The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-10-15
UTAH COAL LAND
MAY Be RELEASED
Assistant Attorney General
Discusses Purposes of the
Recent Withdrawals.
IMPROVE PUBLIC CHANCE
MATTER WILL BE CONSIDERED
BY NEXT CONGRESS.

Recent Withdrawals from entry of Utah
coal lands are only preliminary to throw
ing them open to the public later on
more equitable terms, according to Judge
Marsden c. Burch, assistant attorney
general of the United States, who was in
Salt Lake yesterday on his way to Mon
tana.
Judge Burch has general supervision for
the government of western land fraud
cases, including the Utah coal land Iitf-
gauon- Under the solicitor general hes
is chief counsel for the government I'm
these cases, and has Superintendent their
preparation While he expressly dis
| claims acting as a mOuthpiece for the
president o. any part of the admins
tratiOn. il is a fact understood in WASH
ington that he is in close touch
Judge Burch explained last evening that
the people should not feel alarmed over
the recent Withdrawals of coal lands. The
purpose OF this move is merely to stop
all further frauds until congress can
pass new and better legislation covering
! the disposition of coal lands. The pres
ent laws have been found woefulIy mad
equate. The purpose is to find some way
to have the coal deposits opened up so
that both the government and the pub
lie, as well as the coal OPERATOR shall be
protected. One plan which viii be con-
sidered is the leasing of tracts of coal
| lands for stated periods, on payment of
royalty to the government and with pro-
visions TO protect the public as to price
and service-somethng in the manner
that city grants a franchise to street
railway company.
Law Unchanged for Years.
THE federal coal laws have remained
unchanged for a quarter Of century"
said Judge Burch at the Knutsford last
evening. THE original purpose was to
give everybody fair chance at the coal.
The amounts which could be taken were
limited TO l6o acres for an individual and
$40 acres to an association. The price
was fixed at minimum sums of SO and
$50 per acre, all of which was unfair as
now appears. The interior department at
that time RULED that the minimum price
mentioned was intended by congress to
be the price which should be paid for all
coal lands Hence lands of excce5ing
richness and OF value exceeding perhapS
hundreds of dollars per acre were sold
at the same price as those worth scarcely
$40 per acre. This mistake is now rea-
lied. but until the awakening Of the
last few years occasioned by the coal
troubles of the east the situation was nev-
er understood
IF coal was used merely for local con-
sumption and therefore mined in a small
way and by crude means the 16O-acre
limitation would probably be all right
But in these latter days it is well under
stood that TO open and profitably mine
coal II requires large means, and there is
an absolute necessity of TRANSPORTATION
to market These two prime necessities
have naturally led to a combination OF
interests between railroads and coal mine
owners until in a large measure in the
east and with growing rapidity in the
west the railroad companies apparently
have crowded out all others in getting
coal lands.
Law Widely Violated.
ITO do this on a large scale it has been
necessary to evade the law and to use
rearly every statutory means (such as
the desert land act. timber and stone act,
homestead law. and the acts granting ag-
ricultural lands 10 a state as in Utah.
and to resort 10 the perversion of the
1R~ in rfy.ir,
tracts. The discovery of what was doing
in Utah was made earlier than in other
states. and hence Utah takes precedence
in coal land litigation. but suits are to
follow in certain other states
IN the broad and general plan to pre-
vent the unlawful requirement of coal
land the first thing necessary was to
stop the frauds now going on. AS the
president has no power to set aside a law
of congress or suspend its action. the
stopping of the widespread operations
was possible only on one theory. and that
was TO examine the lands to see whether
they contained coal to ascertain it's guam
tity and quality and then 70 fix some
consistent and reasonable scale of prices
This the president has power to do and
the courts will sustain him in the tempo
rary withdrawal of the land Ultimately
if the law were changed. that would be
all he could do. and the land must pro-
coed to be sold under the new price scale
which might be arranged.
Remedy Is In Congress.
But the chance for an ultimate rem
edy lies with congress, which has abSo-
lutte control Of ali public properties It
can give the property away. sell it. lease
it on royalty or anything else which in
this respect its sovereign will dictates,
for il is sovereign.
1T is commonly reported that the pres
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