The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-03-14
Charges Sustained That Millions Of Tons H.
 legally Taken
NAMES GUARDED
 PENDING REPORTS
Opportunity Will Be Given Trespassers To Settle With
 out Litigation
GOVERNMENT WILL TAKE
 GREATER CARE IN FUTURE
Whether Coal Was Pitched In- nocently Or Deliberately,
 Not Yet Revealed

Charges that private concerns had mined millions of tons of coal from government reserves in north Ala bama have been sustained by inves- tigators from the general land office of the department. of the interior, it became known Thursday.
 G. B. Morgan and J. A. Ramsey, investiga ting agents, after checking all available records in Montgomery and Birmingham as far back as 1851, are now in Jasper winding up their in- quiry. The probe has included acre age in Walker, Marion, Fayette, Tus- caloosa, Shelby and Jefferson coun- ties on which the government possesses all mineral rights.
 First reports said 100000 acres were involved but the inquiry uncovered in. Judgements on less than 7S,0OO acres. it was learned.
 Some of the most valuable coal land in the state was found to have bee, trespassed, it is learned. Whether this government coal was deliberately filch' ed, or whether the infringements were inocently committed, has not been an. nounced.
 May Settle Amicably
 However, the investigators state that all the alleged trespassers will be give, an opportunity to settle amicably b. paying the government for the coal taken from the reserves. If reimburse ment is refused, the government vii act quickly and positively to protect it's interests, it is learned.
 Morgan and Ramsey say they be- ieve settlements with all concerns in yolved will be reached without neces sity of litigation. The total sums dus the government will reach high figures but an official estimate is lacking i advance of the investigators formal re port to Washington.
 Names of the concerns and individ uals involved in the infringements ar, being carefully guarded by Ramsy ant Morgan until their report of finding: is completed and submitted.
 Although dispatches from Washing, ton, several weeks ago indicated thal general land office officials expectes the Alabama investigation to produc' a sensation of Teapot Dome propor tions, the investigators assert that this will not be the case
 Land office officials, at the time Nor gan and Ramsey were sent to Ala bama, frankly admitted the the gov ernment did not know where it stood. No definite check had been kept and the government throughout the years had not been certain that it's vaef mineral rights in the state were in- tact.
 Precautions In Future
 It is regarded as a certainty that the report of Morgan and Ramsey will ret'- ommend that the government in ths future take sucl precautions and mak, such annual inquiries as will fully pro tect it's coal reserve from infringement of usurpa tion.
 Throughout a long period of year the government transferred to the stats government hundreds of thousands oi acres in north Alabama but alway, reserved for itself the right to posse. whatever minerals might have been concealed under those acres.
 The single exception, according tc land office officials, has been in cases of persons applying for homesteads. Even then, it was always the intention to reserve the coal rights. However. officials said, it sometimes happened that a homestead patent was granted without reservations.
 The department is absolutely cer- tain, according to officials, that nc such accidents occurred in transferring titles to the state. Therefore, if sucl.
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