Los Angeles herald., 1910-09-06

on public land is beyond the jurisdic-
ton Of the federal government. If any
thing can be done by law it must be
done by the state legislatures.
COAL DEPOSITS
'"The next subject and one most i'm
portant for our consideration, is the
disposition of the coal lands in the
United States and in Alaska. First, as
to those in the United States. At the
beginning of this administration there
were classified coal lands amounting to
5.476000 acres, and there were with
drawn from entry for purposes OF
classification 1887 900 acres. Since that
time there have been withdrawn by my
order from entry for classification u
GAS 900 acres, making a total With
lrawal of 95.515,00O acres. Meantime,
of the acres thus withdrawn, 11,31, 600
have been classified and found not to
contain coal, and have been restored to
agricultural entry, and 4,356,OO0 acres
have been classified as coal lands,
while 70, ,7SS, 900 acres remain withdrawn
from entry and await classification. In
addition 1000 acres have been classl-
fed as coal lands without prior with
drawal, thus increasing the classineu
coal lands to 10,16S,000 acres.
1.-THE Investigations of the geological
survey show that the coal properties in
Alaska cover about 1900 square miles,
and that there are known to be avail
able about $1,000, 0000 tons This is,
however, an underestimate, because
further Developments will probably in
crease this amount many times. There
are two fields on the Paclhc slope
which can be reached by railways at
a reasonable cost from deep Water-ln
one case of about fifty miles and In the
80 oh 111llPC-W
will afford certainly 5000, 900 tons of
coal. more than half of which is of a
verv high grade of bituminous and or
anthracite. It is estimated to be
worth, in the ground, one-haf a cent
a ton, which makes its value per acre
from $50 to $780,
OIL AND GAS
"In the last administration there
vvare withdrawn from agricultural en-
trv . 920. 900 acres of supposed oil land
in California; about million ana
half acres in Louisiana, of when only
6500 acres were known to be vacant
unappropriated land; 75,00O acres III
Oregon and 174,000 acres in wyoming,
making a total of nearly four millions
of acres. In September, 1909, dl-
rected that all public oil lands,
whether then withdrawn or not, should
be withheld from disposition pendlng
Conversational action, for the reason
that the existing placer mining law
although made applicable to deposlts
Of this character, is not suitable TO
such lands, and for the further reason
that it seemed desirable to reserve
certain fuel oil deposits for the use
of the American navy. Accorolngiy
the form of all existing withdraWais
was changed, and new Withdrawals
aggregating 2,750,000 acres were mace
in Arizona, California, Colorado, new
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Fleld
examinations during the year showed
that of the original WlthdraWals
2170,O0O acres were not valuable TOT
Oil and they were restored Tor agrl-
cultural entry. Meantime. other with
drawals of public oil lands In these
states were made, so that July l. i9IO'
the outstanding Withdrawals then
amounted to 4,550,0OO acres.
The needed oil and gas law IS es-
sentially a leasing law. In their nat
,,raI occurrence, oil and gas cannot be
measured in terms of acres, like coal,
and II follows that exclusive title TO
these products can normally be secured
only after they reach the surface. Oh
should be disposed of as a commodity
in terms of barrels of transportaDle
product rather than in acres of real
estate. This is, of course, the reason
for the practically universal adoption
of the leasing system wherever oil
land is in private ownership. The
government thus would not be enter
ing on an experiment but simply put
ting into effect plan successfully op-
Grated in private contracts. Why
should not the government as a land