Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1912-02-02
MESSAGE ON
COST Of LIVING
Taft Suggests international
Conference to Grapple
With Prablem
GENERAL CONDITION or LABOR
Commission Government For
Alaska and Public Lands
Reform.


dent TAFT today sent the following
message to Congress on the High
/ Cost of Living. the Condition of
Labor, the Public Domain and Alaska
To the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatiyes:
There is no branch of the Federal
! Jurisdiction which calls more i'm
pa' atively for immediate legislation
than that which concerns the public
domain, and especially the part of
that domain which is in Alaska. The
report of the Secretary Of the Inte"-
i ior, which is transmitted herewith.
and the report to him of the Governor
of Alaska, set out the public need in
this regard with great force and in
satisfactory detail.
The progress under the reclamation
act has made clear the defects of its
limitations, which should be remedied.
The rules governingg the acquisition
OF h0mesteads, of land that is not arid
or semi-arid are not we'll adapted
ito the perfecting of title to land made
arabic by government reclamation
work
| concur with the Secretary of the
Interior in his recommendation that
after entry is made upon land being
IIec!aimed, actual occupation as d
Homestead OF the same be not re-
quired until two years after entry, but
.that cultivation of the same Shall be
required, and that the present pro-
vision under which the land is to be
paid for in 10 annual installments
shall be so modified as to allow a
patent to issue for the land at the
end Of five years cultivation and
three years occupation with a reser-
walton Of a government lien for the
amount of the unpaid purchase
money. This leniency to the rec
iamation homesteader will relieve
him from occupation at a time when
the condition of the land makes it
burdensome and difficult, and at the
end of five years will furnish him
with a title upon which he can bor-
row money and continue the improve
| meHt of his holding.
| also concur in the recommenda.
ton Of the Secretary Of the Interior
that all of our public domain should
be classified and that each class be
! disposed of or administered in the
manner most appropriate to that par
! ticular class.
The chief change, however, which
ought to be made and which | have
already recommended in previous
messages and communications to Con-
gress. is that by which Government
coal land and phosphate and other
mineral lands containing non-metalli-
| ferrous minerals, shall be leased by the
Government, with restriction as to
size and time, resembling those which
now obtain throughout the country be-
tween the owners in fee and the les.
sees who work the mines, and in
leases like those which have been
most successful in Australia, New
| Zealand and Nova Scotia. The show
ling made by investigations into the
successful working of the leasing sys-
TEN leaves no doubt as to its wisdom
ard practical utility. Requirements
as to the working of the mine during
the term may be so framed as to
prevent any holding Of large mining
properties merely for speculation.
while the royalties may be made suf-
ficiently low, not unduly to increase
the cost of coal mined, and at the
same time sufficient to furnish
rea sonable income for the use of the
!rd5lic in the community where the
mining goes on. In Alaska, there is
- reason why substantial income
should not thus be raised for such
public works as may be deemed neces.
sary or useful.
There is no difference between the
reasons which call for the applica-
tion of the leasing system to the
coal lands still retained by the Gov
ernment in the United States proper
and those which exist in Alaska.
There are now in Alaska only two
we'll known high-grade coal fields
of large eXtent-the B@ring River
: coal field and the Matanuska coal
= field. The Boring river coal field.
while it has varying qualities of coal
from the bituminous to the anthracite
is very much lessened in value and
usefulness by the grinding effect to
which in geological ages past the coal
= measures have been subjected so
that the coal does not lie or can not
n be mined in large Jumps 1t must be
taken out in almost a powdered con-
dition. The same difficulty does not
appear to the same extent in the Mat
. anuska coal fields. The Bering Ri
y yer coal fields are only % miles from
= the coast, They are within easy dis
= tance of an existing railroad built by
D.; the Morgan-Guggenheim interests, and
may also be reached through Control
Ter Bay by the construction of other
and competing railroads.
: Controller Bay is not a good harbor
l, but could probably be made practical
e with the expenditure of considerable
II money. The railroad of the Morgan
" Guggenheim interests, running from
g Cordova, could be made a coal carry