The copper era and Morenci leader., 1913-10-31
FOR MINING LAWS ID FIT
 THE TIMES
DIRECTOR OF GEOLOGICAL SUR- VEY MAKES ADDRESS TO
 MINING CONGRESS
Says Because Mining Products Are Largely Necessaries of Life ln- . dustry Will Be Regulated
 By People.

Largely Necessaries of Life In- |. dustry Will Be Regulated
 By People.
 The disposition of the natural re- ! sources on the public domain was one of the principal subjects under dis cussion at the sessions of the Ameri- i October 20 to "A. Director George Otis Smith, of the United States Geo. logical Survey, in his contribution to this discussion stated that both ad-
 vances in public opinion and changes in economic conditions have placed . demands upon legislation, for the
 mineral laws of 20, 40 or 50 years
 ago can not, meet the requirements of today ''To illustrate this point, ' he said, ''the coal mined west of the Mississippi River in 1873 amounted to less than two million tons, but last year it was over 5S million tons. The oil production in the public-land states in 1907 was two million bar rels and last year Al million barrels, yet 1873 and 1897 are the dates of the latest Federal enactments pro- viding for the acquisition of coal and oil lands respectively. Here are some infant industries that have grown, up and deserve laws to fit.
 Mining a PubIic-Service Business. Regarding the future status of mining on the public lands the fol lowing propositions are believed to stand out plainly: The mining men, like the rest of the people, will see that this big productive business be- longs in the public-service class. Be cause it's products are so largely nec- essaries of life, the mining industry will be regulated by the people. The control of public mineral lands will be exercised largely through a leas- ing system, simply because in this way the public owner and private op- orator can best cooperate, and the purpose of this sympathetic co-opera- tion will be to lower costs of pro- duction in order to permit reasona ble prices to the consumer, and at the same time provide fair wages to the mine worker and adequate profits to the capitalist and operator.
 The new laws need to recognize every factor in the complex task of taking something out of the ground and making it useful. Every man who has a part in this undertaking, from prospector to ultimate consum- CT, has his rights and these rights must be recognized, measured and protected. All these men are in real ity partners in the enterprise.
 Protection of Consumer First Aim.
 We want these laws for the coal and oil and phosphate lands first of all for the sake of the citizens who wish to SC the mineral product from these lands. As consumers we are all concerned with prices, and to benefit the many as well as the few, legislation must favor low costs. Therefore the first essential of mln- eral-land legislation is that no pro- vision in the law should place any unnecessary charge, burden or, oper- ating cost upon the operator. Ac- cordingly no royalty should be i'm posed with the primary purpose of revenue. The most recently issued water-power permit provides that the Federal Government shall receive royalty which varies directly with the square of the average price paid by the public for the electric current. The less the consumer pays, the less the Government receives.
 ! Second in importance is the need of offering to the developer of an un- used resource an inducement com mensurate with the hazardous or speculative character of his under taking This cuts both ways. To promote development, mining laws should attract the men having the knowledge and capital necessary to engage in the business of mining, but too often in the past the practice has been for the majority of locators to sit by and watch a few real miners test out the ground when, if strike was made, these hangers-on at once had valuable claims to sell: This means unearned increment in large amounts, and in the end the consum- CT pays for it. To continue this kind of a mineralland lottery is bad economies On the other hand, how ever, any law for the disposition of Lmineral land, whether by lease or not. should provide large rewards for the real prospectors who so often stake their all against an uncertain and secretive Nature; when they lose out they have no redress and when they win their discoveries usually add more to the nation wealth than to their own pockets. They deserve to be in the preferred class.
 "A third side of this proposition is the question of the inalienable right of each citizen to his share of the nations mineral wealth as the some thing for nothing that goes with American citizenship. The citizens right and interest in any undeveloped minerals is a double one-first, that measured by the possibility of the minerals being mined and thus made useful at a cost to him that shall not be necessarily high and second, his right to an equal chance to undertake mining within the limits of his own ability. He has absolutely no right to a speculative profit from public mineral lands, and his profit as a producer should be measured by his own productive contribution.
 Federal legislation should recog- nize classes of land, and while the