The Ketchikan miner., 1909-08-21
Public Land Policy
 Requires Utilization

s. Geological survey spoke at the Nat lonal Irrigation convention and among other things said:
 The necessity for classifying the public lands is not recent discovery. The earliest land legislation in this country both contemplated differences in the quality and character of the public lands and planned for descrip- tions based on field examination.
 A period of national awakening to the worth of the public domain fol- lowed the close of the Civil War and another epoch of realization by the nation of the true source of it's wealth and prosperity has just opened. The earlier propaganda bore fruit in the creation of a scientific bureau among whose functions was the classification of the public land, but this specific duty was subordinated to the more general task of determining the nat ural resurces of the public domain. The duty of classifying the remaining unentered public lands is now defn- itely accepted by the United States Geological Survey and the opportu nty earlier neglected has for severa years been vigorously impro. ed.
 Utilization is the keynote of the present public and policy and by utii- zation I mean not that kind of local development that is promoted by the land skinner, but rather a developmenl whose plan weighs national needs and calculates future demands and whose accom- plshment will serve our coun- try's developn ent in the next century as well as in the present decade.
 Photographic and topographic sur eeys which are TOW in progress under instructions of the Secretary of the Interior have as their purpose the col lections of information that may be presented to Congress in aid of legis- laton looking toward the best utilza- tion of the water powers on the public domain. Reports on the mineral ol non- m neral character of coal oil, ano phosphate lands of which the Survey nas made actual field examlnation art now being transmitted to the General Land Office.
 The classification and valuation coal land is a special phase of public land work to which the Geologica Survey is giving increased attention. The geologic investigations of the last three held seasons have not only Iurn ished a knowledge of the quantity and quality of the coal on the public domain but have rendered possible the present policy of obtaining coal prices for coal lands. The General Land Office now depends on the Geological Survey to furnish detailed valuations or every 40-a trace of coal land that is placed on the market. In the tive and d half months follow Ing the adop- tion of the revised scheme of valua- tion the General Land Office released to agricultural entry approximate y two and half million acres in Colo rado Wyoming and Montana and placed selling prices on nearly 400, . GOO acres of ceal land with an aggr . gate valuation of over S15 GOO, 001. The price of Government coal land is now determined on the basis of estimated tonnage. the unit rate varying with 1 the quality of the coal from E cents to 3 cents ton for coal deposits within | l5 miles of railroad.
 A principle that is winning increased recognition in land legislation is that of relative worth. The present coal land law expresses this principle by giving gold, silver and copper deposits priority over the coal, and the coal in turn preference over agricultural val ues. These distinctions necessitate land classifcatious based on adequate fields examination. Wherever the diff- erent values can be separated that separation by appropriate legisla- tion is at once the easiest and best solution of the problem. and the first step in this direction was taken in March of this year in the passage ol the Mondell Act. whereby the home seeker may secure all for which he makes entry-all that he swears he is getting while the coal beneath his tillable land is reserved to the nation