The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-07-30

year, SUCH WOih " w 1900
view of making a mineral discovery
At the earliest time consistent WIN
good work. The government snour-
have a competent engineer in the as
trict. whose duty it would be 70 sup
eryise for the governments interes'
the locating and developing OF these
protected claims AS soon as mineral
discovery is made on any claim
should be alienated from the protec''
ed area and subject to the genera
mining laws in force on the puDiic 40
main at large. At the time the mining
laws were made by congress no pro-
vision was made for such 1ondit''h
and it seems only proper nav INA
such a condition is known - eA's'
that the government should make ade
ouate provision to meet the SITUATION
| Under the act Of January ~, 1851
(26 Stat. 61) the locator is allowed th'
full calendar year next succeeding int
one in which the location IS mao'
within which to perform first assess
ment work, that Is to say, II loca-
| ton is made in January. 1914, the
claimant has until December 81, 1919
period of two years mills V. Fletch-
err, "a Pac 637), in which to do assess
ment work for one year. BY reiocat-
ing the ground every two years valu-
able niece of ground can be tied up IN
definitely and put beyond the reach o.
locators in good faith, or even OF the
government itself. This statue is no.
itoriously abused by that class OF mel
who make fraudulent mineral 'oca
lions on ground valuable for agricui'
lture. water power, townsite, right OF
way. ETC., and thereby make no end OF
trouble. l believe this law should DC
stricken from the statute DOCKS ah'
another substituted, if necessary
which would make it necessary to per
form 500 worth of assessment work
not later than one year from the dat'
of location, or in case of failure to &c
so automatically proclaim the location
legally abandoned. And in case a
claim becomes automatically aband-
oned there should be a period OF al
least one year between the date OF au-
tomato abandonment and the date. on
which it might be relocated by the
same person or company
The Door Thrown Open to Fraud.
| yiI in
locate land valuable for timber, agrl-
culture water-power, or townsite, as
mineral claims, and even to paten
such a group without having any indl-
cations of valuable mineral in sight
because the government has not sup
Piled the means of enforcing its laws
II is possible, even now, to do SO or
public lands outside Of the nationa
forests, for only fraction of sucf
aims are ever examined by govern
ment officers to determine their min
leral or non mineral character. Sucl
examination has been carried on With
in the forests and the records show
that hundreds of claims have beer
Cancelled, after hearing was had, be
cause of lack of compliance with th'
Federal statutes. 1t is true that
good proportion Of such cancele'
claims were protection claims bu
many cases of absolute fraud have
been brought to light. A perusal O
pages to 10 of the United States for
ester's report for 1928 will leave NJ
doubt as to this fact, and to my mlnt
is a very eloquent argument for thu
examination Of all mineral claims fo
which patent is asked. AS to the gro
lection claims, there is strong argu
ment in favor of the miner, sutticien
in many cases to justify the conclu
josin that there is defect in the Law
as it now stands.
The Size Of the Lode Claim.
In order to avoid the recessity-fo
lit is often a real necessity--of making
these blanket locations around a dis
Icovery, | propose the enlargement o
the lode claim from 20 acres to say Az
in the form of square or rectangula
tracts. laid out by legal subdivision o
1.-THE public survey. Such a chang
would make the claim large enough
flor protection against speculative 10
Gators whose policy it is to take ad
Vantage of the real discoveries labor
and at the same time would automati
cally do away with the necessity o
IeXtralateral rights, thus forestallin!
for the future the greatest cause TO
litigation the mining industry has hal
to cope with. This would automatical
lly stop much of the injustice perpe
trated by the wealthy mine owner
upon the prospector and miner, undel
the guise of the present apex law. II
case the size of the claim is increased
it might be wise to require 800 wortf
of work for each 20 acres, or Fraction
thereof, in the claim and to enforce thu
discovery requirements very strictly
in order to prevent tying up Of large
areas Of country. / realize that this
is touching upon dangerous ground
but it is presented only as a suggested
way out Of a real difficulty.
| In this argument, for which l an
personally responsible and act in nj
manner as a spokesman for any gov
l