New-York tribune., 1910-03-07
IFrom The Tribune Burean.1

u.
Washington, March C.
PRACTICAL RVATION.-D,ring
the first year of the Taft administration
iV'-io'oeo acres of the public domain have
oee" Withdrawn from entry in order to con-
! serve the natural resources. Not only have
'hese lands been Withdrawn from entry,
"Ilicn was the former custom. but expert
eHce haFing demonstrated that such with
uraWal was insufficient effectively to protect
these resources, the form of withdrawal in
all cases has been so changed as to pro-
hlbit not only entry which means the filing
OF the entry at the local land office, but
!ocation-tnat Is, the stalking out of the
claim. Furthermore. the orders Withdraw
ing from entry coal. oil and phosphate lands
and water power sites have been so amend.
go as to preclude all forms of entry. This
was demonstrated TO he advisable by the
TACT that under the previous withdrawal or
ders those seeking to acquire title to coal
lands, for instance, were entering them as
agricultural lands. Although entry of oil
lands was forbidden, prospectors were To-
eating on them. and under the pretence Of
doing the required amount of work were
pumping out great quantities of oil, in some
instances the entire deposit. Moreover, IL
was found that oil lands on which entry
was forbidden were being entered as min
eral agricultural claims, all of which is
now stopped. The total area withdrawn
from all forms Of entry to conserve water
power sites now equals 1.S0ooo0 acres Could
the most ardent conservationst ask more?
EFFECTIVE WITHDRAWALS.-As spirit
Of hostility to the former administration
might easily lead to the characterization
of the Garfield Withdrawals as ineffective
and insincere because many loopholes were
not closed. and those who have sought to
gain possession of these valuable properties
were not wholly stopped from so doing:
Such a charge would, however, be insin
cere Mr.. Garfield took such steps as eX
perience had then shown to be proper. But
the conservation policy is new policy, and
those who are sincerely following it are
constantly learning. 1t required experience
to demonstrate that to prevent title TO oil
lands being secured under the guise of
agricultural entries the withdrawal order
must be strengthened. EXSecretary Gar
field, in his testimony yesterday, asserted
that it was not until 1903 that be became
convinced that he enjoyed the power TO
withdraw parts of the public domain from
entry without authority of Congress, al
though he had long believed in the advisa
bilty OF that course, and he said further
that even after that power sites had been
withdrawn under the guise of ranger sta
tions that is, as land needed for admins
trative purposes on the forest reserves.
COAL LANDS.-One of the most mpor-
tant strides taken in the prosecution of
the conservation policy has been the re-
classification accomplished by the Geo
logical Survey For instance. under the
Oh
in eight widely separated townships, were
classed as coal lands and the sale price
fixed at s9.OSS, 500; whereas. under the
new order the area in these same eight
townships has been extended to include
1868 acres, an increase of more than
100 per cent, and the sale price has been
raised to Sl5,77G66S, an increase of more
than 500 per cent. Under the old regua-
tions the maximum price an acre for coal
lands was fixed at SIS. The maximum
price under the Taft administration has
been fixed for certain areas al s465 an
acre. The maximum value of a single
township under the former administra-
tion was $949,600. Under the new regu-
lations II has been raised TO s9,206,S94
PHOSPHATE LANDS.-All unpatented
lands in area of 2,50i. 1OS acres are now
withheld from both entry and location as
phosphate lands. And this despite the fact
that there has been no popular camor S
in the case of waterpower sites, for these
Withdrawals. During the year just ended
,, 3S9,ln acres of land Withdrawn to conserve
phosphate has been restored to entry, be-
cause on examination the Geological Sur
vey found that ii did not contain phos-
rhate. This policy of restoring to entry all
lands which on examination have been
found not TO contain the resources they
were supposed TO contain has been strictly