The Birmingham age-herald., 1911-10-02
FISHER REPLIES ID CHARGES AGAINST COAL LAND POLICY Prices Not PrOhibitive But PrOmOtive of Devel-
 0pment
 MONDELL OF WYOMING SUBMITTED PROTEST Prices of $15O to $500 An Acre Placed on Coal Lands Not Un-
 reasonable, Says Secre-
 tary Fisher


 the policy of the United States govern
 mept with relation to the valuation of
 public coal lands is not open to criticisms advanced against it, and that it Is de- signed to prevent monopolzation and to | encourage development, Walter L. Fish CT, Secretary of the Interior, tonight | made public his reply to protests against | that policy submitted to him last June | by Representative Frank W. Mondell of | Wyoming.
 | Representative Mondell, in a letter to I Secretary Fisher shortly after he entered
 the cabinet. charged that prices fixed by che government on public coal lands were prohlbitive; that they paralyzed the coal
 industry of the west; resulted in in-
 creasing the cost of coal to the con- sumer from 50 cents to $1 ton, and created monopoly in the hands of the government and those who acquired coal land prior to the adoption of the classi- | fcation policy July 1, 1907.
 | Mr. Mondell further stated in his pro- | test that prices for coal lands in all the working fields run from $50 to s50o
 an acre; that millions of acres are rated at values about $1S0 an acre that prices 1 in the better fields are in excess of those
 charged commercial parties in the same | field or for better grade coal in eastern | fields
 All these allegations, Secretary Fisher,
 after thorough study of the subject, sub
 mits are apparently based on a series
 of misapprehensions as to the basis on ! which valuations are made by the de-
 partment as to prices actually placed on coal lands, and the effect which the classi- | fcations have had upon the sale of pub | lie coal lands.'
 "The prices now fixed" Secretary Fisher | continues in his letter to MT. Mondell.
 ''are designed not to create monopoly in the hands of present owners of coal land. but to prevent monopoly by making it | unprofitable to purchase large acreage
 tracts for indefinite holding without de- velopment. This, in fact, Is the constant | aim of the department Tn the prices which | it puts upon coal lands to make them l low enough so as to encourage purchases | for immediate development, yet sufficient | ly high so as to discourage purchases | for long time holdings for speculation
 or for monopolization.
 Prices prohibiting development would
 be inimical to the present interests of
 the west and prices permitting purchases with a view to monopolization would be | inimical to their future interests" said | Mr. Fisher.
 "The sole object therefore is to solve | the question as to permit development
 and prohibit speculation" says the let | ter "In view of all the facts, how ever, I am convinced the prices now be- | ing placed on the public coal lands are neither unreasonable nor exorbitant, and that the increase in the sale of coal | lands for the four year fiscal period subsequent to July 1, 1907, in compari son with the preceding four year period together with the present condition of | the western coal industry demonstra- tive conclusively that the present clas- sification policy is not open to the criti- cism which you make"
 | Secretary Fisher suggests that a lib- eral but wisely protected lease law might be found to promote develop ments more vigorously than any system
 of outright purchase, such as has been i the case in Australia and New Zealand and adopted by Canada in it's Yukon  | territory.
 | He gives statistics showing that since | the adoption of the classification sys- | tenn the sales of public coal lands have | increased 121a per cent in acreage and | 36 per cent in value as compared with | the four fiscal years preceding that in | the first year of the classification sys- tenn the sales exceeded by 100 per cent l the average of the four years immedi- | ately preceding.
 Secretary Fisher further declared | that: Tt is plainly impossible that the
 net result of the classification policy l has been to increase the cost of coal to the consumer from 50 cents to s1 | a ton since the maximum price is only | 3 cents a ton"
 | The valuation which the department | under the present scheme of classifica- l tion places on any given tract of coal | land he says is based primarily upon | the tonnage and quality of coal which underles that tract so that the pur-
 chaser instead of paying flat rate per acre, pays by the ton for the coal | which he buys at values graded &C.,
 cording to the character of the coal. | Prices of land containing strata of
 anthracite and high grade btuminous coal are computed at maximum of 8 cents a ton, whereas sub- -bituminous coals are rated at 1 # a cent ton. No lignites, MT. Fisher says, are given any value greater than the mini- | mum of $20 if within fifteen miles of railroad, or $10 if at a greater distance. | Tonnage values placed on coal, MT. | Fisher asserts, are considered by no means unreasonable.
 | Referring to MT. MondelTs charges that millions of acres are rated at values above S1S0 an acre ''as the high est price paid" by coal purchasers, Sec retary Fisher says there cannot be mil | lions of acres of classified lands so rated since only otherwise 16,000,0O0 l acres of coal lands in the country have been priced to date.
 Values running into hundreds of | thousands of dollars" he says, will be found only in the anthracite, bitumin-
 ous and very high grade sub-bitumin-
 ous fields and in these only where ton
 mage of coal is large"
 \ Y r