The Nenana news., 1922-01-26
COAST PIONEERS PROTEST
 AGAINST MINING LAW BILL

| III pIOLSSL against SIS pdSSaSC VI House Bill 7736, known as the Arentz Bill, now pending in Con- gress and which provides for radi- cal changes in the mining laws of i the United States, said changes be applicable to Alaska. Both Anchor i age and Ketchikan Igloos have for warded resolutions to Washington, urging the defeat of the measure.
 The Anchorage resolution, adopt ed at recent meeting, reads as fol- lows:
 | Be 1t resolved by Igloo No. 16, Pioneers of Alaska, comprising 500 members, in regular meeting as sembled:
 That this igloo, composed of Pio- neers with more than fifteen years residence in Alaska, unqualifedly opposes the passage of the bill known as the Arentz bill for the re- vision and codification of the mining laws, being H. R. 7736, believing that if this bill became law in Alaska, the effect would be to cur tail prospecting, retard development in the mining industry, and serious ly injure the growth and prosperity of the Territory.
 Some of the principal objections to the bill, as applied to Alaska, we find as follows:
 1. The requirement for record ing of claims located in the land office only, with no provision for re- cord in the district where the claim is located, would practically put an end to the locating of claims in the Territory, except in the vicinity of the one and only land office, situat- ed at the capital of Juneau. From this point Alaska extends east 150 miles, south 300 miles, north 1000 miles. and west 2,0O0 miles.
 
 a surveyor, and usually cannot find or afford to employ one. To locate according to the cardinal lines in Alaska, which is not surveyed, would be prohibitive, and such at tempted locations made during stampede would be productive of un- necessary litigation-the amount and extent Of which can only be imagin- ed.
 3. Verifcation of discovery up- on lode claim by surveyor would be luxury not to be hoped for by the average Alaska prospector.
 1. We are not in favor of the complete change sought to be &C., complished by the proposed law in the theory upon which lode claims are now acquired. Under the present law the vein is the principal con- sideration, and 1t can be acquired to the limits of the length of the claim and to it's utmost depth, by discovery and development work, performed annually, till patent shall issue.
 Under the proposed law, the vein IS made secondary to the acquisition of the surface area comprised within the limits of the claim, and it's possession and ownership terminates when it departs from the side lines of the claim extended vertically downward; twice the area is allow ed, no discovery is required for five years, and S100 in assessment work may cover four claims.
 It is the belief of this igloo that this provision is not in the interes. of the prospector and the owner of non-producing mines; it is doubtful if 1t in the interest of producing mines to be developed in the future, or in the interest of capital seeking investment in the mining industry The long lines of mining decis- ions, so carefully interpreting the. terms of the present law, would be set at naught, and the courts would be confronted with the problem of interpreting the new law; the min. ing industry in Alaska would lan- guish and the prospector would be driven from the frontier. Adopted at Anchorage, Alaska,