Mohave County miner and our mineral wealth., 1921-12-23

and all other surface features. Hence the sub-soil phenomena can not be af- fected by arbitrary cardinal lines.
 On perusal the bill shows evidence of collaboration. About half of it was reasoned out, and is good; the other half was figured out, and is bad. The first is human, sentiment and right, where the remainder is cold, inartic- ulate and indifferent. There is no oc- casion to discuss it in detail; its good features are faint and the bad points fatal, which, in its entirety, consigns it to the limbo of the scrapheap.
 COnstructiveness-Bed-ROck Principles
 Criticism is inane when no substi ute plan is offered. It is easier to find fault than to follow truth, or abandon obsolete, outgrown laws and notions of economies. A mining law promulgating exact principles of right and justice would meet with opposi- tion by those it would benefit most; nor is it possible that any one person could frame such a law alone. Yet each may give his mite toward the day when the whole can be assembled.
 First of all the law should vouch- safe and extend the right of Eminent Domain over all sub-soil minerals; clearly and concisely segregate and define the difference between sub-soil and surface values and rights; limit and define the right of discovery; es- tablish the source of value and worth; assert the authority to regulate and rule; and admit and enforce it's pow CTS to convey. These conditions may be illustrated by an example, as fol- lows:
 Columbus discovered America; the prospector does not discover the sur face land; he discovers, or unearths a vein or deposit of ore on land dis covered by Columbus. The surface right may, at the date of his dis covery, belong to a farmer; but the ,sub-soil ore does not, since the farm CT did not discover it. If the farmer, possessing only an agricultural sur face right, discovered the ore, it could become his only by location under the provisions of the mining law-because he has unearthed property and value which does not attach, nor belong to his surface right. This proposition limits and defines the right of dis covery.
 If, like Crusoe on the island, the prospector was alone in the world and monarch of all he surveyed" the pure gold he found would be as worthless to him as were the "charms of soli- tude" to Crusoe. The value of his ore is created by the demands of indus trial use, and not in any sense by the prospector. He discovers neither the surface land nor the value of his ore. He simply finds an ore on which the world of others and industry have set a price. This proposition estab- fishes the nature and source of value and worth.
 Therefore the state, representing the world of others, may not, properly dismiss by patent, nor surrender its right of Eminent Domain in perpet- uity, since the common property of value and worth would pass with a single right. Yet the state must po- lice and secure the prospector in his right of use and private possession; and in performing these functions it must determine by grant his right in area, depth and time; for he and the world of others are it's citizens.
 This proposition provides the basis and constitution of authority to be for the protectio nand conservation of common and individual rights.
 So, to continue, the honor remains, but Columbus right of discovery has expired; and the land he discovered belongs now to the world of others the United States of America. Hence it follows the right of discovery is limited and not perpetual. Quad erat demonstrandum-
 Features Needed in Equitable Mining
 Law
 Brushing aside as we have the cob webs of prejudice and the confusions of thought that have so long obscured a clear vision of what constitutes a discovery, a right, and their limita- tiOns, the work of framing an equit- able mining law is largely one of de- tail. So only a general plan, moder- nizing regulations, will need explana- tion here.
 The first thing to do is to segregate surface from sub-soh right. This is simply and easily done. Surface right is worth no more to the miner than it bis. to the. hamesteader-$1.25 per acre, which is the already fixed Eminent I Domain charge of government, and (which the claim holder must pay in annual installments of 25c per acre, or $10 surface tax per year on each 4O-acre claim held. So that at the end of five years (the discovery