The Alaska daily empire., 1915-03-16
RIDDEN DEFENDS
 nEE L-L.-N..L-.lLe. L-.A- "

RIDDEN DEFENDS
 TEE MINING LAW
 Henry Roden, short term Senator at lhe First Legislature, who passed through Juneau last week, on hl9 re- turn to Seattle, accorded on interview on general Alaskan affairs to the Fairbanks Times, early ,his month
 The Times says
 ~Quesdoned regarding the present mining law which he introduced at the first session Of the Territorial leg islaure, Mr. Roden requested that it be denied that he wrote the measure although he expressed the belief that the new lak had given better satisiac- ton throughout the territory than the one which t had supplanted. Tho pres ent law he said, was copied from the present Montana law, the Washing. ton law and the United States law. Some of the sections also were draft ed from the majority report of the Miners Association which was in ex- istence here in the early days of the camp
 "The only people who object serious. iy to the law. said the former Sena- tor are those who are holding min. ing claims for speculation, Che big companies, and people not engaged in mining at all. Tho real prospector the man who stakes a claim for the gold he can extract from 1t, is not clamoring for new law althought it Is generally believed among mining men that tho present law can be im- proved.
 "ln my travels over the Territory continued the attorney 'I learned that there are three objections to the law among the mining men. The first of these is the section requiring $1O0 worth of location work within 90 days and the recording thereof The sec ond complaint is that against the ai- ddavit requirement. It frequently happens that the place of recording is too far away from the claim to permit Of recording within the re- Quired time. after the location work has been completed The third ob. jection Is that the requirements of the present law do not conform to the conditions in all parts of the Terri tory. For Instance. there are no trees or rocks in the Nome country for marking the boundaries of claims, and in the Juneau district the trees are of such size that 1t is impossible for prospector to stake the claim prop. erly without taking an entire sawmiii outfit along with him on his stalking trips lt Is unfortunate, In this re- gard. that the Territorial lawmakers cannot lcgisiatc by districts If they had that authority it would be Q sim pie matter Co make regulations suit able to ,ac various mining districts throughout the Territory.
 "rhe chief complaint against the section requiring annual assessment work was found in the Iditarod and on Seawrd peninsula. In the former district the Guggenheims would like very much to be relieved Of the ne- : cessity Of doing assessment work, and the dredge companies made the Ioudest noise in the whole Nome dis trict" Mir. Roden said he recognized the handicap placed upon capital, but as there were two kinds of miners, it was hard to distinguish between them.
 Speaking Of the attitude of the Sen tors of the first Territorial legislature who wrote a letter to the Secretary of the Interior to the effect that tho ! people of Alaska were opposed, on principle to government ownership of railroads. Mr. Roden said that the wording of the letter was unfortunate and that the writers had acted in good faith He said that the Senators were aiT on record in the Senate as favor ing a railroad for Alaska, and in fur ther explanation Of the letter he said, in part: Delegate Wickersham de- clared himself opposed to the govern ment ownership of railroads. and as he ! had been reelected by a big majority, we took this to be the sentiment Of the majority Of the voters, and so in- formed Secretary Lane"