Arizona republican., 1916-02-06
Arizona State Bureau of Mines

Arizona State Bureau of Mines
 It is reported by Professor Charles r. Willis, chairman of the Arizona Com
 mitee of the American Mining Con
 sress on Federal Legislation. that two
 bills which greatly affect Arizona min ing interests have recently been intro Guced into congress. and at the pres
 ent time look as if they were going the wrong way.
 H. R. 5 provides for the creation of a bureau of labor safety in the depart ment of labor. While it is believed that Q bureau of lalor safety is an eX- tremely important thing, and should be l passed, it should be so amended that it excludes the activities of the United 1 States bureau of mines. This bureau ! has done remarkably good work in the promotion of labor safety in mines and
 metalurGical plants and there has been | perfect cooperation between the mine
 mana gers, the mine workers and the l United States bureau of mines. To dis 1 turb these relations of confidence could | not possibly better the work and might i easily destroy the relations.
 | Should the bill pass in it's present
 form, it would mean duplication of
 effo It in mine safety work, which would
 rot only be Nasteful. but might lead to
 conflicts very harmful to the work. l Should legislation provide fof the transfer of all mine safety work to the department of labor. it would mean I the destruction of the United States i .ureau of mines machinery, and would ! lIroba bly lead to the destruction of that 1 sympathy for this work which has been manifest on the part of the mine op
 orators.
 1 The United States bureau of mines
 was created with a view to increasing
 safety in mining and metallurgical in
 dustlies, and it IS urged to amend the
 bill cl eating the bureau of labor safety
 by the addition of the following:
 Except that the bureau of mines, in
 connection with it's investigations
 looking to the prevention of accidents and the improvement of safety and l health conditions in the mining, metal 1 lurgical and other mineral industries. as required by existing law, shall pre-
 pare for said bureau of labor safety
 such reports on this subject as may be called for.
 l Some opposition has been brought
 against Senate Bill 52 which provides | for d commission to codify and sug geSt amendments to the general min . | ing laws. Ii has been argued that the | congressional sub committee would be | ia ,l a nf r1In | ing laws to be presented direct to | congress in the form of bill. and 1 thus do away with the necessary eX | pense of the commission. If~this bill i does not pass and a congressional i subcommittee prepares a code of mln- | ing laws, it will undoubtedly mean ! similarly loosely constructed set that 1 we have at the present time, which l only make business for the lawyers and | courts-it would be better to retain the present laws which have at least been 1 partially interpreted, than to have a ; new set which would take years of lit | igation and millions of dollars to get | interpreted.
 One source of opposition led by Del | egate Wickersham of Alaska is that | those asking for the revision of the
 mining laws are the big interests of tEe east, and assumed that the present laws. as interpreted by the courts, are 1 sufficient to meet the present require ments. This is not the case, as no one 1 desires more that the laws be changed than the small operator and the pros pector. because of the fact that the loosely constructed present laws allow for litigation, which is impossible for the smaller man. The progress of the state of Arizona as well as others of | the mining states has been greatly re- | tarded because of the inadequacy of CUT mining laws, and the revision of the code should not be to revise DOT tion of the laws, but to make a com l plete new code.
 l The present laws. framed in 1872, are forty years behind the times. They | have never conformed to the facts of
 geological structure and are not adapt ] ed to present methods of prospecting, i developing ard financing mining properties The wide dissatisfaction of
 the mining public has long been ex-
 pressed through every means at it's command. Judges, engineers. lawyers, seOlogist and mining men of every class have been pointing out the var
 iOus faults of the present code. Min ing law revision is necessary. and should be done crefully and completely
 It is urged upon all those interested
 ir mining to call the attention of the
 members of congress to these facts
 and show them wherein the opposition
 is mistaken.
 As chairman of the Arizona commit tee Gn federal legislation, Professo
 Willis desires very much that those in,