The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-11-17
Conservation Policy Republican
Administration Alone Respon-
sible for High Price.
MILLIONS OF ACRES OF
COAL LANDS HELD UP
All Competition Barred Out and
Sustained by Utah Con-
gressional Delegation.

will come to the conclusion that the
conservation policy Of the Republican
party in setting apart -Ich great tracts
OF public lands for so-cal1cd forest re-
serves for reclamation purposes aud
withdrawing from entry great tracts
Of coal and oil and phosphate lands
is not only not necessary but that IL
is 4 terrific drawback to the develop"
mcnt of the state and that this policy
alone is what is keeping up the price
of coal and which will cause Il further
advance in fuel.
Utahns will then also conclude that
The Federal bunch in Salt Lake City,
which bunch, acting for the Mormon
10 retard the development of the state.
for the opening up and the utilizing
Of the wonderful resources OF Utah
means the bringing into the state oil
'<ungodly Gcntilcs,' who would not
stand in with the bunch and the band
OF twenty-six ecclesiasts, and thus they
would lose out and their clnch hold
upon the state be lost,
What the Scheme Is.
1t has been charged, and justly, TOO,
that the congressional delegation was
eOlu out pY inc nlcIdTCnS W ."O -,
terests to secure the seating of Apostle
Senator Smoot. and that this socalled
conservation and the withdrawal or
lands Is part of the scheme. Of the
interests Of which the hierarchy is n
part 10 grab all the unoccupicd and
v"luablc lands. both mineral aud agrt-
cultural, III this state.
This is shown by the recent sale.
which was conducted Saturday last at
Provo, the home Of the chief repro
sentative of the predatory interests IN
Utah, of the uncutercd and unrcserved
lands in the former uiDtab reservation.
Advertisement of this sale was made
by posting notices in the postoftces OF
the country and in several OF the coun-
try newspapers IN Utah.
In this sale WIS a tract OF ll.OUU
acres bought for a company of salt
Lake men by Il, NJ. Pope of Theodore,
representative from Uiutah county IN
the legislature. anu among those said
to be interested in the purchase are:
Z. ID. r. Thompson. register of the
United States land office in Sa Lake.
Merrill kaghn, son OF the receIVcr
OF the United States land Office In Salt
J. f. Irrick, Justice Of tho supreme
court of the state.
D. n Straup. chief Justice of the
supreme court of Utah and Just re-
elected t. the supreme bench.
Joseph l.. Lewisohn of the firm o.
Booth, Lee Badger. Rich and Levi
sohn. Mr. Booth bcin~ United States
as Kinky.'
Mrs. Jennie Lee, wife of i. O. Lee
of the same firm.
F.. A. Wedgwood. adJutant general
Of Utah and therefore chief of the gov
crnor S staff.
Valuable Land.
All of this land is said to be availa-
BILE for agricultural purposes, hence the
purchasers have Il snap. Tho price
at which all tho lands were sold was
from 30 cents to 81 er acre. No one
person could purchase more than. 61o
acres. but an agent could buy for other
members OF the family--wife, sons,
daughters. domestics, etc,-the agent
signing the rolls simply his own name
as agent. This sale was made under the
act of congress of March 3; 1905.
All the unsurveyed lands IN Utah
have been Withdrawn from any class
of cutry. Hero arc some facts worth
considering:
The area of Utah in SQUARE miles is
1880; nrr- III acres, 54,393,60o. Ot
this acreage twenty million acres arc
in lakes and mountains, the remaI ndei
being agricultural and mineral, twenty
two millions of which arc subject to
cultivation. The total acreage with
drawn from entry is 14,3o9.oO6 acres
In forest reserves there re tied W
7,436,327 acres, In coal lands there arc
1894 .673 acres withdrawn. In oil lands
withdrawn, 50i ,546 acres; under recla
nation act, % $40 acres; III phosphate
lands, l07 ,5i3 acres.
Great Tracts Tied Up.
In other words, TWENTY SEVEN
PER CENT OF THE STATE OF UTAH
is tied UP in reservations under the so
called conservation policy Of the Re
publican administIa alton, an area three
times as great as the area Of Massa
chusetts, two and one-half times as
great as Maryland, almost as large az
all New England, excluding the statt
of Maine.
or these coal lands. namely, 1894 81;
acres, tied up in Utah under ruling o1
the depart of the interior, are no
commercially available under the classi
tication imposed which practically bar
out all purchasers, Here is the ruling
and b (which are anthracite. semi
anthracite. coking and blacksmithinl
Goals; also high-erade bitumncus non
coking coals) of any thickness at depth,
greater than 5000 feet. shall no classified
as on-coal lands. except where the rocks
are practically horizontal and the Goa
lies within TWO mics OF the oulcrOp u
u point at which it can be reached b.
q 3000-foot shaft.
Under these rulings, the minimum
price of coal lands is about $50 pc
acre, the maximum $500, but this max
imum can be stretched when tho Goa
lands are within districts containin,
largo coal mines and when the characte
and extent of the coal is well know
to the purchaser. The classification j
ambiguous and based upon impossible
estimates of the thickness of veins upOl
the practically" horizontality of tn
geological formation which are decide
by the special agents dcputed by th
administration to report upon the land:
Goal Supply Inexhaustible.
The contents OF Utah coal fields i
tons is estimated at 1876 ,45S 900 ,OO(
practically inexhaustible. The 6utpu
of these mines in 1909 in tons wa
2.322,209, and yet with this inexhaus,
ible supply of black diamonds With
the state. Salt Lake people have to pa
&6.25 per ton for coal This is not du
TO any increase in the cost Of produ,
tion or transportation. but simply I
ha "a fbof ba man uvhn oxyr ~,