The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-02-19
PROSPECTORs DESERVE
MORE LIBERAL POLICY
GOVERNMENT HELPS THE HOME.
STEADER BUT IGNORE THE
HARDSHlPS OF MINER.

The people of every mining state
have felt the injustice of the policy
Of the government toward the pros
pector and miner as compared with
the homesteader in the matter Of ac-
During and holding public land. 1t
Is not that the miner desires to i'm
pose hardships upon the homesteader,
hut rather that the miner and pros
pector should share With him the libe-
raj policy. Hardly congress meets
that some amendment is not made to
the homestead law with the view to
make it easier for the homesteader to
obtain title to his quarter section of
land, and he is even permitted to file
on land under the homestead law In
order to secure the timber standing
on it, and in many cases the same
land Is of mineral character, thus de-
priving the prospector of the right to
enter upon it. Numerous homestead
enteres of this character are made in
the mining districts, some here In the
Occur d'Alenes. from which an entry
man. no matter what his intentions
in making the filing, could not pos
sibly derive living from the cultiva-
ton of the soil. A Montana prospect
or regsteres his protest to the present
system of the following letter to the
Butte Miner:
Hardships imposed on Prospector.
Why should the government perse-
cute the prospector? He is hampered
IN his great work by the forest reserve
cranks, by the ruling of the interior
department and by the homesteade".
as well as by the laws which require
that he pay a penalty of 800 per year
in order that he can keep the vein
which he has discovered; in addition
he must pay not less than $3.50 in fees
and expenses before he can hope for
a patent which makes the land cost
him not less than $3.50 per acre and
If the claim is fractional the cost per
acre is proportionately increased. OF
the $3.50 which a full patented claim
costs the prospector, the government
actually receives $1o5, the other $645
is paid in the way Of penalties for be-
ing a prospector.
threats Prospector as Criminal"
In other cases a very different
situation confronts us. The homes tea
applicant gets title to 100 acres equal
in extent to about eight mining claims,
for the paltry sum of $35. and in adj
1it inp ha - do nd
months out Of the year and pillow 30
acres, but this labor and improvement
is for his own benefit and he may
truthflllly be said to make merry on
his land from the start. Not so with
the prospector, he usually finds no
ore for years; he must toll through
many years. indure an infinite variety
of hardships, often spending the full
measure of his life without reaching
the coveted treasure. The government
treats the prospector as q criminal.
Now what have these two done rela-
lively for cizlzation? Prospecting
and grub raising are both human
raits-distinctively so. But the low
est savages have always practiced
some form Of agriculture.
But metal mining is now, and has
always been, the work of advanced
Notwithstanding best in countries that
most advanced in light and knowledge.
Agriculture has advanced only because
1t has been helped by the prospect or
or metal miner without the pros
pector the agriculturist would have
nothing bnt stone and wooden tools
with which to work Only for the
penalzed prospector the world would
be back in the stone age. Stop the
prospector or metal miner today and
MS soon as the present stock of metals
become used up. which would be in
about Il 100 years, again we would be
back in the stone age or barbarc
night. How could civilization exist
without the steam engine and all of
the various tools and appliances now
existing? Without railroads, tee-
graphs, telephones, steam ships, ,the
mower, the reaper, the sewing mn
chine and the printing press--all made
Of metal--produced by the prospector?
From this it is plain that civilization
rests entirely on the shoulders of the
prospector; the man whom the govern
ment penalties. Respectfully
c. f. KINMAN.