The Prescott daily news., 1910-09-06

laws affecting the disposition Of Alaska coal lands shows them to need amend ment badly.
 On November IF. 1906, President Roose- welt issued an executive order with drawing all coal lands from location and entry in Alaska. On May 16. 1907 he modified the order so as to permit valid locations made prior to the withdrawal on November 12, 1906. to proceed to entry and patent. Prior to that date some 900 claims had been filed most of them said to be Illegal because either made fraudu- lently by dummy entrymen in the inter- est of one individual or corporation, or because of agreements made prior to To- cation between the applicants to cooperate in developing the lands. There are 33 claims for 160 acres each, known as the Cunningham claims" which are claimed to be valid on the ground that they were made by an attorney for 33 different and bona fide claimants who. SIS alleged. paid their money and took the proper steps to locate their entries and protect them. The representatives of the government in the hearings before the land ofiCe have attacked the validity of these Cunningham claims on the ground that prior to their location there was an understanding between the claimants to pool their claims after they had been perfected and unite them in one com panY. The trend of decision seems to show that such an agreement would in- validate the claims, although under the subsequent law of May 2S, 1908, the con- soda,icn of such claims was permitted. after location and entry, in tracts of 2,560 acres. It would be- of course tIn- proper for me to intimate what the re suit of the issue as to the Cunningfla m and other Alaska claims is likely to be, but it ought to be distinctly understood that no private claims for Alaska coal lands have as yet been allowed or per- fected, and also that whatever the resul; as to pending claims, the existing coal land laws of Alaska are most unsati tory and should be radically amended To begin with, the purchase price of the land is a flat rate of sl0 per acre. all though as we have seen the estimate of the agent of the geological survey would carry up the maximum of value to $500 an acre. Tn my judgment it is essential in the proper development of Alaska that these coal lands should be opened, and that the Pacific slope should be given the benefit of the comparatively cheap coal of fine quality which can be furnished at a reasonable price from these fields; but | the public, through the government, | ought certainly to retain wise control and interest in these coal deposits, and ] | think it may do so safely if congress will
 
 [ ready suggested for government coal i lands in the United States, with provi- 1 sions forbidding the transfer of the 1 leases except with the consent of the l government. thus preventing their acqui- i sition by a combination or monopoly and l upon limitations as to the area to be in- | cluded in any one lease to one individual, and at a certain moderate rental, with ! royalties upon the coal mined propor- 1 tioned to the market value of the coal either at Seattle or at San Francisco. Of ! course such leases should contain condi- ] tions requiring the erection of proper | plants, the proper development by mod >rn mining methods of the properties leased and the use of every known and | practical means and device for saving the | fife of the miners
 Oil and Gas Lands.
 In the last administration there were withdrawn from agricultural entry 2.S20, l e90 acres of supposed oil land in Califor- ! nia about million and half acres in ! Louisiana, of which only 6.5oo acres ! were known to be vacant unappropria-
 ted land; 1000 acres in Oregon and 174,- 1 00Q acres in Wyoming. making a total of | nearly 4.0O0,000 acres. In September. 1909 1 directed that all public oil lands,
 whether then withdrawn or not. should
 be withheld from disposition pending con | gressional action, for the reason that the
 existing placer mining law. although
 made applicable to deposits of this char
 acter. is not suitable to such lands, and ! for the further reason that it seemed de- | srable to reserve certain fuel-oil deposits | for the use of the American navy. Ac-
 cordngly the form of all existing with | drawals was changed, and new with | drawals aggregatng 2.75O,0OO acres were | made in Arizona, California, Colorado, | New Mexico. Utah and Wyoming. Field | examinations during the year showed | that of the original withdrawals. 2,170.- | 000 acres were not valuable for oil, and l they were restored for agricultural entry. | Meantime, other withdrawals of public | oil lands in these states were r1-Ce, so | that July | 1910, the outstanding with 1 drawals then amounted to 4,550,0 acres.
 The needed oil and gas law is essential | ly leasing law Tn their natural occur
 renee, oil and gas cannot be measured in
 terms of acres. like coal, and it follows
 that exclusive title to these products can
 normally be secured only after they reach
 the surface. oil should be disposed of as | commodity in terms of barrels of
 transportable product rather than in
 acres of real estate. This is, of course
 the reason for the practically universal
 adoption, of the leasing system wherever l oil land is in private ownership. The | government thus would not be entering
 on an experiment. but simply putting
 into effect plan successfully operated in | private contracts. Why should not the | government as a landowner deal directly | with the oil producer rather than through
 the intervention of a middleman to whom
 the government gives title to the land?
 The principal underlying feature of
 such legislation should be the exercise oi
 beneficial control rather than the collec- | ton of revenue. As not only the largest | owner of oil lands but as a prospective | large consumer of oil by reason of the | increasing use of fuel oil by the navy
 the federal government is directly con- | cerned both in encouraging rational de