The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1908-12-19

- tateN
a patent to any mineral claim in any
national forest. nor declared the same
to be invalid, for it has no right to do
so. But it is the duty of the forest
service, under the law, to report to the
department of the interior, upon its re-
quest. the actual facts on the ground
concerning any claim or location within
a national forest, to enable the depart
ment of the interior to form a judgment
as to the validity of such claim or loca-
ton. The department of the interior
forms that Judgment and acts upon it
the forest service merely reports such
facts as it finds. 1t is not the judge,
but merely a witness in the ease.
Practical Miners in Service.-So far
as the appropriation made for the for
est service by congress would permit,
the forest service has secured practical
miners, competent to make correct re-
ports of the facts. 1t has likewise Sc
cured the assistance of skilled mining
biologists from the United States
geological survey, and so far as | am
informed no hearing has ever been held
by the department of the interior on a
mining claim in a national forest at
which evidence has not been given
either by an expert miner or by a mem
Der of the United States geological ser
vey, or both.
Your editorial of October 10 says,
with reference to the 100000 acres
of national forests in Colorado, that,
cit is impossible to stake a mineral
claim in that immense mineralized area.
Such are the facts.'
These alleged facts have, l think,
been sufficiently disposed of in what l
have already said.
l revert to your editorial of October
is in which you say: "Coal lands were
withdrawn from entry. Prospectors
were denied permission to stake claims.
Farmers were refused irrigation rights.
Settlers were refused lands. Within
the last nine months nearly 1000 appli-
cations for homesteads entries and
mining claims ON those 10000, 900 acres
have been refused by the forestry serv-
lee = = = "There is no exaggera-
tion in this statement. Every word of
it is emphatically true.'
A statement was given out by the
forest service on June l, 1908, which
showed that during the nine months
ending March 81, 1908, unfavorable re
ports had been submitted by the forest
service to the department of the in
terror, for it's consideration as to
whether a hearing or investigation
should be ordered by that department,
in only 1855 eases of all classes in all
of the national forests in the United
States. This statement has evidently
been perverted and made to apply to
Colorado alone, which has less than one
tenth of the national area of the United
States.
Your editorial of October Is says,
after enormously stating the number of
homestead, desert land, and mineral
claims refused, and a%ttributing refusals
for mineral surveys to the forest serv-
ice, which has nothing whatever to do
with them: "And as this department
has been active for some five years, it
is reasonable to assume that over H.
900 settlers of one kind and another
have been denied the right and oppor-
tunity to develop the resources of Colo
rado.'
These figures Of claims refused are
evidently likewise perversions of the
statement of June l.. You editorial
makes these figures apply to Colorado
alone, whereas in fact they refer to
the whole United States.
The forest service has had charge of
the national forests since February l,
1905, something less han four years.
During that time the forest service, as
already explained, has neither approved
uor denied a single claim. The law alb
s~olutely prohibits any such action by
anyone outside the department of the
interior.
The forest service is not now, and
never has been, in politics. 1t has there
fore no alliance with any political fac
ton or party. / pass over with this
brief but emphatic denial your effort
to drag the forest service into the pres
ent POLITICAL campaign in Colorado.
Service Invites Candid Criticism
The forest service has always invited
candid criticism and cooperation of the
people of the west in it's attempt to give
them a steadily more helpful admins
~tration of the national forests, but it
insists that criticisms to be helpful
must have relation to the facts.
At my invitation of October 10, the
president of the American Mining Con-
gress is about to appoint a committee
of mining men to cooperate with the
forest service in the attempt to re-
move any and all legitimate causes of
complaint.
The forest service stands now, and
has ALWAYS stood. for the development.