The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-02-19

PEELED to alter its own statutes to har-
monize.
The Law Now Well Understood.
More important than all else. the
mining laws with relation to each 9TH
er, and with relation to all of our pub
lie land laws, have, during the years
of their existence, been interpreted by
the courts; and we now have built
up on these laws a superstructure
consisting of a long line Of decisions
worked out after years of painstak-
ing effort, harmonizing and correlating
and unifying not only the mining laws
themselves, but also these laws in their
relation to the non mineral public land
laws Decisions involving the effect Of
discovery of mineral exist with rela.
ton to homesteads, townsites, desert
lands, timber lands, railroad lands
state lands. national forests, ETC., and
almost every imaginable problem that
can arise where discovery is involved
has sooner or later been presented and
decided. This judicial Interpretation
of the effect Of these laws with rela-
tion to one another Is as important in
its way as is the organic law itself
which it interprets. 1t is more i'm
Iportant in one sense, for the funda-
mental law may be enacted over night
as 1t We're, while the judicial interpre-
tation and harmonizing of these laws
is matter of a great many years Of
laborious development.
The law as it-exists is now well UNI
Iderstood all through the mining re.
gions. Rights innumerable have be-
come vested and are being exercised
and to make a radical change will ma
Iterially unsettle conditions for years to
come. TO wipe out at one stroke ali
lof these statutes and all of this SUP
'erstructure of judicial Interpretation
will be most serious mistake unless
something materially better is offered
in its stead. The burden rests heavily
on the proponents of revision to estab-
fish this, for we are giving up tn. re-
Isult of years of labor and can no. ar
ford to take in exchange some substi-
|tute that somebody or other thinks will
improve conditions, unless it is quite
certain that 1t actually will have the
bepeficial effect claimed. We mus
have some valid reasons that can not
be satisfactorily covered by amend
mentto the existing law.
Tho Way Out.
No one conversant with the facts
can, however, fail to recognize that the
existing mining law is deficien. in
many respects and has been street .hed
ITO cover conditions it was never in
tended to govern. This is particularly
true in the case of a discovery le-
quirement as applied to deep lying oil
bearing strata, zones Of secondary m
richment constituting so-called cop
per porphyries and gold placers of
Alaska where the pay streak can only
be REACHED by sinking through many
feet of frozen overburden To such
deposits the rigid discovery require
ments should not apply. But, on the
other. hand because the law as to dis
cOvery has imperfections is no rea-
son for abolishing it in toto unless it's
shortcomings are incurable by amend :
ment.
This entire condition can be rem
edied very simply by applying to such
exceptional cases the following equita
Bile doctrine which has already been
. announced many times by the supreme
court of California:
"If a qualified person peaceably en- .
ters upon public lands of the United
States for the purpose Of discovering
, OIL or other valuable mineral deposits
therein. and such land is at the time
unoccupied, and there is at the tine
, no valid mineral location or !awfl,
entry thereon, under the land laws of
the United States, such person has the
. right to continue in possession co long
as he continues to occupy the same t.
the exclusion Of others, AMI diligently
i, and in good faith prosecu5es thereon
the work of endeavoring > discover
such mineral therein (Smith v.
Union Oil Co.. 1885 Pacific Reporter
966-967, and cases cited)
The citation from Erhardt V. Boaro,
already quoted. is also an announce
ment of the same doctrine by the su-
preme court of the United tSates 1t
Is true that some courts have limited
the locator's right prior to discovery
to his pedis possessio, or ground that
he actually has in his physical possess
sion, but it would seem that this is
taking too narrow a view of the stu
alton where the locator is using due
diligence in perfectng discovery.
The United States, through its mining
statutes. has extended to bin tact
Invitation by declaring that all of its
mineral lands are free and open to
exploration and purchase When he
enters upon such lands in good faith,
intending to demonstrate their mineral
character by making a discovery with
reasonable diligencethe government
should protect him to the extent Of his
located boundaries Of lawful size and
thereby prevent acts of violence and
IunSppmlV contests in n etr,ppIo for