The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-02-09
President Taft Reviews the
Work and Approves the
Recommendations Of thl
Interior Department.

Cost Of Living-Proposes commis-
sion to investigate Industrial Dis
putes and Kindred Matters Affecting
Labor.
TO the Senate and House of Repre-
sentatives:
There is no branch of the federal
Jurisdiction which calls more impera-
lively 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 interior, 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 governing the acquisition of
homesteads of land that is not arid or
semiarid are not well adapted to 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
reclaimed, actual occupation as a home
stead of the same be not required un-
til two years after entry, but that cul-
Gvation of the same shall be required
and that the present provision under
which the land is to be paid for in ten
annual inStallments shall be so mOdi-
fed as to allow patent to issue for
the land at the end of five years cul-
tivation and three years occupation,
with reservation of government
lien for the amount of the unpaid pur-
chase money. This leniency to the
reclamation homesteader will relieve
him from occupation at time when
the condition of the land makes it most
burdensome and difficult and at the
end of five years will furnish him with
q title upon which he can borrow
money and continue the improvement
of his holding.
also concur in the recommendation
of the secretary Of the interior that
all of our public domain should be
classified and that each class should
be disposed of or administered in the
manner most appropriate to that par
dcular class.
The chief change, however, which
ought to be made and which have al
ready recommended in previous mes
gageS and communications to congress
Is that by which government coal land
and phosphate and other mineral lands
containing nonmetalliferous minerals
shall be leased by the government, with
restrictions as 10 size and time, re-
sembling those which now obtain
throughout the country between the
owners in fee and the lessees who work
the mines and in leases like those
which have been most successful in
Australia, New Zealand and Nova SEQ
tia. The showing made by investiga
tionS into the successful working OF
the leasing system leaves nc doubt as
to its wisdom and practical utility. Re
auirements as to the working of the
mine during the term may be so fran
ed as to prevent any holding Of large
mining properties merely for specUla
ton. while the royalties may be made
sufficiently low not unduly to increase
the cost of the coal mined and at the
same time sufficient to furnish a rea
Eonable income for the use of the pub
lie in the community where the mining
goes on In Alaska there is no reason
why 4 substantial income should not
thus be raised for such public works
rs may be deemed necessary or useful.
There is no difference between the
reasons which call for the application
of the leasing system to the coal lands
still retained by the government in the
United States proper and those which
exist in Alaska.
There are now in Alaska only two
well known high grade coal fields Oh
large extent, the Bering river coal field
and the Matanuska coal field. The
Bering river coal field, while it has
varying qualities of coal from the bi
luminous to the anthracite, is very
much lessened in value and usefulness
by the grinding effect to which in geo
logical ages past the coal measures
does not lie or cannot be mined in large
humps. 1t must be taken out in almos
powdered condition. The same difh
Guilty does not appear to the same ex
tent in the Matanuska coal fields. The
Bering river coal fields are only twen
ty-hve miles from the coast. They ar,
within easy distance of an existing
railroad built by the Morgan-Guggen
helm interests and may also be reach
ed through Controller bay by the con
struction of other and competing rail
roads.
Controller bay is not good harbor
but could probably be made practica
with the expenditure OF considerable
money. The railroad of the Morgan
Guggenhelm interests. running from