Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1910-12-07

, .,nntn~ nj this administration tne~
1,,ara withdraWn from entry TOT puI-
osos of classification 17,867OO0 acres
Stnoo that time there have been with
drawn by my order from entry ioi
classification 78,977745 acres MAKING
+otal withdrawal of 96,S44,f4o acres.
meantime of the acres thus with
drawn 1861 ,889 have been ciasslneo
and found not to contain coal anu
have been restored to agricultural en-
trv and 4.726091 acres have been
olossified as coal lands; while 7,993,239
acres remain withdrawn from entry
and await classification. N aooltIon
927 600 acres have been classl1ed as
coal lands without prior withdrawal,
thus increasing the classified coal
lands to 10,429,372 acres.
under the laws providing Ior tne
dismissal of coal lands in the united
States the minimum price at WHICH
lands are permitted to be solo IS @lo
an acre; but the secretary OF the ln-
terror has the power to fix a maximum
price and to sell at that price.
LAS one-third of all the coal supply
is held by the government, IL seems
wise that it should retain such COLI
troll over the mining and the sale as
the relation of lessor to lessee Iur-
nishes.
1.-THE secretary of the interior THINKS
there are difficulties in the way OIL
leasing public coal lands, which Cd
iections he has set forth in his re-
port, the force of which / freely con-
cede l entirely approve his stating
at length in his report of the obJec'
tions in order that the whole subject
may be presented to congress, but
after full consideration, for the rea'
sons | have given above, | favor
leasing system and recommend it"
Water Power Sites.
Prior to March 4, 1909, there had
been, on the recommendation OF the
reclamation service, withdrawn from
agricultural entry, because they were
regarded as useful for power sites
which ought not to be disposed OF as
agricultural lands, tracts amounting
to about 4000,O00 acres. The with
! drawals were hastily made and in
( Guided a great deal of land that was
not useful for power sites. They were
| intended to include the power sites
f., on 20 rivers in 9 states. Since that
| time 3,475,442 acres have been re-
stored for settlement of the original
| 100000 because they do not con-
tain power sites; and meantime, new
| Withdrawals have been made which,
with other reservations based upon
| field examination, result in withdraw
ais at present effective Of 1,218,356
| acres on vacant public land and 2O2,-
1877 acres on entered public land, or a
total of 1,420,553 acres. These with
drawals made from time to time cover
all the power sites included in the
first Withdrawals and many more, on
151 rivers and in IL states. The dis
position, of these power sites involves
one of the most difficult questions pre-
scented in carrying out practical con-
servation.
'"The subject is one that calls for
new legislation. 1t has been thought
to obtain possession of all the power
sites and to unite them under one
control. Whatever the evidence of
this, or lack of it, at present we have
had enough experience to know that
combination would be profitable, and
the control of great number of pow
er at will within certain sections.
hn iC ho
plain duty of the government to see
to it that in the utilization and devel-
opment of all this immense amount
of water power, conditions shall be
imposed that will prevent extortion-
ate charges, which are the usual ac-
compartment of monopoly.
1.-The question of conservation is
not a partisan one, and l sincerely
hope that even in the short time of
the present session consideration may
be given to those questions which
have now been much discussed, and
that action may be taken upon them"
Alaska.
with reference to the government
Of Alaska, l have nothing to add to
the recommendations l made in my
last message on the subject l am
convinced that the migratory charac-
ter of the population, it's unequal dis
tribution, and it's smallness of num-
Der, which the new census shows to
be about $4,000, in relation to the
enormous expanse of the territory,
make it altogether impracticable to
give to those people who are in
Alaska today and may not be there a
year hence, the power to elect leg
islature to govern an immense ter
ritory to which they have relation so
little permanent"
Bureau of Corporations.
Referring to the report of the COM
missioner of corporations, the presi-
dent says:
THE commissioner finds a condi-
ton in the ownership of the standing