Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1911-10-03
Walter L. Fisher, Secretary of the Interior,
Defends Policy with Relation to Val.
uati0n of Public Coal Lands

CHICAGO. Ill.,, Oct. 3.-Maintain-
ing that the policy of the United
States government with relation to
the valuation of public coal lands is
not open to criticism advanced
against it, and that it is designed to
prevent monopolization and to en-
courage development, Walter L..
Fisher, secretary Of the interior, has
made public his reply to protests
against that policy submitted to him
last June by Representative Frank
w. Mondell of Wyoming.
Mr.. Mon2ell, in letter to Secre-
tary Fisher shortly after he entered
the cabinet, charged that prices fixed
by the government on public coal
lands were prohibitive, that they
paralyzed the coal industry in the
west, resulted in increasing the cost
of coal to the consumer from so cents
to 81 a ton and created monopoly in
the hands of the government and
those who acquired coal land prior
to the adoption of the classification
policy July /, 1907.
Mr.. Nonde4 further stated in his
protest shat prices for coal lands in
all the working fields run from $3.50
to $500 an acre: that millions Of
acres. are rated at values above $3.50
an acre; that: prices in the better
fields are in excess of those charged
in commercial practice in the same
fields or for better grade Goals In
eastern fields.
All these allegations Secretary
Fisher, AFTER thorough study, de-
clares are apparently based on a
series OF misapprehensions as to the
basis on which valuations are made
by the department. as to prices actu.
ally placed on coal lands and the eff.
feet which the classiications have
had upon the sale of public coal
lands" ~-A~1.siN
"The prices are now fixed.' Sscre-
tary Fisher continues in his letter
to Mr.. Mondell ARE designed not to
create monopoly in the hands of
present owners Of coal land, but to
prevent monopoly by making it un-
profitable to purchase large areas for
indefinite holding without develop
ment. This. in fact, is the constant
aim of the department in the prices
which it puts upon public coal lands
TO make them low enough so as to
encourage purchases for immediate
development-yet sufficiently high so
as to discourage purchases for long
time holdings for speculation or for
monopolization.
prices prohibiting development
would be inimical to the present in
terests of the west: prices permitting
purchases with view to monopoliza-
ton would be inimical to their fu-
ture interests. The sole object, there
fore, is 50 to value the lands as to
permit development and to prohibit
speculation.
In view of all the facts. however,
am convinced that the prices now
being placed on the public coal lands
are neither unreasonable nor exorbi-
tant, and that the increase in the sale
of coal lands for the four-year fiscal
period subsequent to July I, 1907. in
comparison with the preceding four
year period, together with the prese<
condition of the western coal indus
Try, demonstrates COuCluSlSSly Ludt
the present classification policy is
not open to the criticism"
Secretary Fisher suggests that
literal but wisely protected leasing
law might be found to promote de-
velopments more vigorously than any
system of outright purchase, such as
has been the case in Australia and
New Zealand, and adopted by Canada
in its Yukon territory. The secre-
tary gives statistics showing that
since the adoption of the classified
ton system, the sales of public coal
lands have increased 1914 per cent
in acreage and 36 per cent in value
as compared with the four fiscal
years preceding, and that in the first
year of the classification system, the
sales exdeede by 100 per cent the
average of the four years Immediate
ly preceding
Secretary Fisher further declared
that lit is plainly impossible that the
net result of the classification policy
has been to increase the cost Of coal
to the consumer from 50 cents to 81
a ton, since the maximum price is
only three cents ton"
The valuation which the depart