Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-08-27
Dill PENDING IMscoMoNeoe Foa
sPEclAL B9NEFir or MI.
WAukEE RAILROAD.
PROPOSAL TO sell coat
At I CENT PIN ron
Measure introduced BY Msntans ssra.
tor Calling for Sale q Coal Laads u
West Slated for An Airing 0sssrs -
Passage Secretary Il Intsrisr -
esivsd.
Especial correspondence.1

kSVeCAA NO110vDOuoe0C0sJ
Washington, Ang. 2s.-n bill which
has just been reported favorably W ~
senate by the public lands oommltto0:
is enacted into law. the Chicago. MI.
waukee 4 st. Paul railroad win ~
. nice. fat hunk Of Uncle sans coal
pile at figures that are calculatsd 70
make the ordinary ultimate consumer
of fuel want to put on his paint and
feathers and 60 on the war path.
Senator Myers Of Montana. chairmAA
Of the senate public lands csmmittse,
- author of the bill. He has lately
been made chairman Of the. commit
tee. The blu authorizes the sale of
valuable coal lands In MI. Myers owa
state. Little delay in reporting Il re-;
suited after Mr.. Myers became chair
man. But it = likely to have trouble
In the process OF enactment for CON.
servationists are up in arms Over y
Coal AZ I Cent Ten.
AS originally drawn. the bin would
have enabled the Republica Coal C0m-,
pany. which Is subsidiary of the Nu-
waukee road. to get 100000 tons Is
high grade bituminous coal at . pF1e0l
in the region of cent ton.
w 0ll0 lLl8 l<au8 uA60 H61 USCu AlOAes@S
fed 20 az to enable the secretary OF til
interior to hx the price Of sale. in the
opinion Of friends Of conservation who.
have studied the measure the SSSS::: =
still left wide open for the sale q
highly valuable public resources 70 the
subsidiary Of the railroad corporation
for a song.
In all, there are over 1000 acres sof
the land and the geological survey -
Inmates 1t contains about 10.oo0. 600
| tons Of coal of the high grade bitumi-
nous variety. The lands are classified
as coal lands. values fixed thereon
ranging at $50 to $62 per acre. Under
the original Myers bill the maximum
figure at which the lands could have
been sold would have made the coal
unmined cost the Republic Coal Com
pany at the most 1920. 900. which =
approximately a cent ton. Actually.
the figure would have been considsr-
ably below this. az not all the lands
are classified as being worth ~.
9oerotry Lane 0seeivoa.
Secretary of the Interior Lane has
been led to favor the measure on the
ground the Milwaukee railroad needs :
large area OF coal lands. He hAs I'M.
Cured criticism from conseFvationist1
for taking the position he has. In his
report. Senator Myers takes the posi-
ton that the Milwaukee. or IT. sub
sidiary, the Republic Coal Company,
will soon exhaust its supply Of coal IN
Montana and that it il q public nece1-
sity for the road to have access TO .
large coal area. He says:
1.-THE more cheaply and conveniently
that fuel can be furnished for that
purpose the more readily can said rah-
road company compete with other lines
| of roads and the more reasonably may
its transportation charges be made.
1t Is the view Of some members o.
the senate that, while there - no oh
lection to selling coal from the public
| domain to q railroad company, y
should at least be compelled to give the
government q reasonable return 1of
property Of such enormous value pot
entially an this fuel supply has. Il q
likely the bill will be pretty thorough
" aired before it becomes law.