Bisbee daily review., 1915-03-07
APEX LAW Is \ MENACE
 ID MINING
Its Repeal is Urged by Amer ican Institute of Mi8iD En- gineers, Who Cali i the Curse of the Indusirv.

The apex law under which leelsla ton may arise soon in connection with several Arizona properties. and which governing the Goldheld situa- ton, is generally regarded by high class mining men in the United States as one of the most unjust laws that was ever placed upon the statute books. The American Institute or Mining Engineers has on several oc- casions agitated for it's repeal
 It is the great terror ana curse of the mining industry lt has ruined many honest mine owners and com, pleteiy stopped for years the opera. tions of profitable mines It has broken the heart and pocket of many @ mining investor and has done more to kin the prosperity and progress of lea.timate mining than an the other dangers which surrounds this indus try The apex law never benefited any one but lawyers and expert eeolo- gists.
 The United States is the only coun- try in ihe world which recognizes the apex law. In all other countries the rights of a locator are limited to the boundaries 6T the side lines of his law and originated on the Comstoct in the early sos when locations were limited 10 claims 300 feet wide and 1,SOO feet long instead of 500 by 1.5c) feet today
 The lew was really framed by the late Senator Stewart of Nevada. who was then practicing law on che Com stock and saw opportunities for build- ing ID au extensive legal business m connection with the numerous dis putes which occurred on the Com- stock lode in connection with tha mn, derground mining different orebodies.
 At that time representatives in Com gress from Nevada could obtain pl- most pny reasonable concessions ask. ed for an account of the fact tLat the Comstock mines were contrioutiug hundreds of thousands of dollars to the treasury of the North snabius it 70 continue the war against ehe South Indeed it has been frequent, said tho. the Comstock mines won the Civil War.
 Undas the apex law as 1t now exists a locator Of a claim has the right to follow the vein on its dip out of th, side lines of his property into his neiglbor's territory and extract the ore therefrom when once be has es- tablished that the apex of the vein lies within his boundary lines Itts not necessary for him to have dis covered this vein on the surface of his ground or to establish priority rights to it. It may be that the vein is discovered at a depth of 900 or 800 or even 1000 feet-he sU has the right 10 follow it on its dip to the other property This gives 10 lo- cator a right 10 ore which he never claimed, otherwise he would surely have located more claims on each side of his first location in order to cover the dip of his vein
 No suits have been SO bitterly fougat in the courts of the law as apex suits over the right to mine import ant ore bodies Not mfrequenty these suits haze ended disastrously for both parties to the dispute. Tn one ease in particular where the St. Louis Mining Company sued the Mont. ana Miees Company, an English cor porltion, for the ap,x rights 10 the extension of the famoos Dwmlomond lode the case lasted for seventeen years and was only terminated by the Montana Mines corporation present ing the property in dispute to the St. Louis Mining Company for the reason that the law costs and experts fees amounted to the sum far in excess of the value of the ore in dispute.
 In the year 1900 the famous Cali- forni7 Fuit of the Pennsylvania vs. the W. Y. o. D. property was decided in favor of the Pennsylvania after the case had been in the courts for nearly seven years, and the owners Of the W. Y. o. D. Company. who. when the suit started were prosper ous r,erchants in Grass Valley, Cal, owning valuable gold mint, had be- come bankrupt
 The iitigation in Butte, Mont. soD. menoed by Augustus Heinze aaaiust