Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-11-16
SAME LAW HOLDS
FOR ALL CLAIMS
FOREST SERVICE CANNOT BAR
PR0SPECTORS
ONE LAW GOVERNS RESERVES
AND OPEN LANDS
Foresters in Aiming to Enforce the
Law Bring EVasions of Law
to Department of the
Interior

The recent agitation against the for
est service on the ground that it in
terferes with the rights of citizens to
prospect for minerals upon the public
domain, naturally summons ones at
tention to the United States statutes
bearing upon these rights. From the
very foundation of the government,
taking it's cue from the common law
and the custom of England, the ma
tional legislature has invested in the
citizens as sovereign the rights in all
minerals underlying the public lands
subject, of course, to the statutes of
the United States. Consequently,
without congressional act, the setting
apart of a forest reserve cannot pro-
hibit the citizen from laying claim to
such mineral The only restrictions
under which he must labor are COM
pretended in the terms of the statutes
affecting the location of mineral
claims.
The interest at the moment, there.
fore, resides in the question as to
what constitutes a valid location.
Manifestly, a prOspector cannot assert
rights in a forest reserve that he could
not legally assert upon any other part
of the public domain, though some of
the critics of the forestry service APP
parently believe that this should hap
pen.
What the foresters have aimed at
is the enforcement of the law, and this
they do not themselves accomplish,
save by bringing evasions of the law
to the department of the interior. 1t
is largely because the department of
the interior finds it well nigh impos-
sible to prevent unwarranted or pre-
tended locations in other regions that
the vigilance of the forestry bureau
has been reproved as hardship.
1t so happens that a nice statement
of what constitutes a valid location
appears in a digest of federal de-
cisions Just issued. 1t is quoted for
the benefit of those who think that
the location of supposed mineral claims
should be treated as a perfunctory act.
ITO constitute a valid location there
must be such a discovery of mineral
as that an ordinarily prudent man.
not necessarily a miner, would be JUS
titled in expanding his time and money
thereon, in the development of the
property.
while mere possibility that tho
ground claimed contains gold, or that
there are mere indications of the eX-
istence of minerals in the ground, IS
not sufficient to justify a prudent per-
son in expanding money and work IN
exploration of it; yet where the evil
dence shows the actual existence of
gold in the claim, the locator is en-
titled to strengthen the proof upon any
of the elements which enter into what
is comprehended by discovery.
HE may supplement the showing
that mineral actually did exist by
proving, as a ground of justification
for the expenditure of money and time,
that the adjacent ground in the same
gulch is rich in the same mineral, or
that adjacent claims were developed
into paying mines after development
upon similar showings of mineral or
that geological conditions are so sim
liar that from the character of the
mineral discovered it is reasonable to
expect to find mineral in valuable
quantities in the exploitation of the
alleged claim. But there must be ac-
tuai discovery of mineral within the
limits of the claim before valid To-
cation can be established"
IF this be a hardship, then it is evil
IDENTIFY the fault of the mining law.
not that of the forestry bureau If the
government agents seek to prohibit
prospecting in the forest reserves there
would then be real ground for COM
plant.