The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1907-12-02
EFFORT MADE TO
PUNISH GUILTY
Commissioner General of Land
Office Says His Force Is Too
Small for Good Work.
COAL LAND LAWS OBSOLETE
CASH RECEIPTS FOR THE YEAR
AMOUNTED TO se,547,273.

Washington. Dec. 1.-The report of
the commissioner general of the land
Office, r. A. Ballinger. for the fiscal
year ended June 30. 1907. was made
public today. 1t shows that SUISSE
quent TO March 4. more than two mil
lion acres of public lands, previously
held under blanket orders Of suspen-
sion, were restored to entry. Nearly
ten million acres were released from
withdrawal in the same period.
The most rigorous effort" says Ii c
commissioner general, us being made
with the force at my command to &c
strain unlawful and fraudulent prac-
tees in the public land states, and to
secure evidence 10 prosecute those
guilty of violation of the law. The
field force is totally Inadequate i'll nIm-
bers to reach all such offenders; hence
the gross offenders are more pdrticu-
larly sought for
Obsolete Land Laws.
The report condemns as obsolete and
absurd some of the existing land laws,
in particular the act Of March g. 1888
governing the patenting of coal lands.
Title having passed, the government
possesses no guaranty that as a pubic
utility the coal can be made available
TO supply the market; on the contra
ry, these lands have almost uniformly
passed into the hands of spectators
or large combinations controlling the
output or the transportation SO that the
consumer is at the mercy of both in the
greater portion of the west" says the
report. "The induCemenr for much IF
the crime and fraud committed under
the present system can be prevented
by separating the right to mine from
the title TO the soil"
Cash Receipts and Land Sold.
The report shows the total cash re-
ceipts for the year from the disposal
of public lands to have been Sa.j47.2T3.
Miscellaneous receipts, including sales
of Indian lands, were s. 005. 904: a grand
total of S11,553,177. ~epresentinq an in
crease of S3,967.654 in the total re-
ceipts over the preceding year, or 52.3
per cent The total area of the land
disposed of during the year was 20.e97.-
566 acres, an increase over 1906 Of l.
556.379 acres.
There are now 1873 national forests
formerly called forest reserves) Gre
ated by presidential proclamation, en-
bracing $50. S31. 665 acres. The total in
crease in the area of the national for
ests since the last annual report is 43,
S32.242 acres.
Opening of Reservations.
The report concludes with these data
Of future openings 81 Indian lands to
settlement, already provided for by
congress;
Colville reservation Washingt0 on,
about 1,0OO,O00 acres will be opened I'm
year or so; Flathead reservation
Montana, about 10000 600 acres will be
opened in 1908: Yakima reservation
Washington, about 1,145.000 acres time
for opening not yet fixed; Blackfcot
reservation, Montana, about 900. 900
acres. may be opened in 1908: Ccaur
o'Alene reservation, Idaho, $4,000
acres, probably be opened in the fall
of 1908; Rosebud reseTva ton, South Da-
kota. about $4,000 acres. will be np-
ened in 1908; Lemhi reservation. Ida
no. about $4,000 acres, will be opened in
1905