Douglas daily dispatch., 1926-09-21
SECRETARY OF IN TERROR H. WORK
TELLS AMERICAN MINING CONGRESS
ABOUT MINING AND PUBLIC LANDS

exclusive of territorial possessions, ma
tional forests, national parks. and
200, 900 900 acres. This known, total
includes now 14,432, $40 acres discover
ed over a year ago by the present COM
missioner of the general land office,
which resulted from errors in the gov
ernment's land statistics. The old sys-
tenn of contract surveying for the gov
ernment, abandoned in 1910, was re-
sponsible for endless inaccuracies and
recurring annoyances.
Of the remaining public domain, 49,
sOO0, 900 acres have been surveyed, while
i 81 200, 900 acres remain unsurveyed.
These lands are no longer valuable for
agricultural purposes. What remains
1 is chiefly grazing country.
There has been no revision of our
national land laws to meet these
changed conditions. The federal gov
ernment is still throwing open to
homestead entry large areas of land,
the character of which make the home-
steading of them impracticable. Yet
our citizens are being invited to waste
!
] enterprise. From the Arkansas river
valley in Colorado I have received
complaints regarding settlers who had
/ filed entry on number of tracts of
public land. Unable to obtain live
! lihood from the lands they had home
steaded, they We're making appeals for
charity from nearby town.
| we have no laws to conserve the ma
tive grasses on public lands and pro-
tect their granipg value. The public
domain is an unrestricted range for
those who desire to use it. The pre-
empting of water holes and the fenc-
ing of streams excludes range men
who do not control these first es-
sentials for range stock. This situa-
ton has in many instances resulted in
the conversion of this theoretical
grazing common into a private pre-
serve. With no tenure save force, the
first to arrive with his herd or flock,
if sufficiently powerful, takes all and
moves on to other areas.
The principal value of the remaining
public domain, however, is the untold
wealth of it's mineral contents. While
much of the gold, silver, copper, lead
and zinc lands, once owned by the gov
ernment, has passed into the hands of
private individuals, there are undoubt-
edly large deposits of these ores re-
naming in the public domain. The
states of Colorado, wyoming, Montana,
Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Washington, Ore
gon and California still contain areas
in which are metalliferous ores, the
quantity of which is unkonwn. There
are also at the present time hundreds
of thousands of mining claims located
on public lands throughout the west
which are being held by annual assess
ment work.
The federal government assumes lit
tie responsible relations in mining
these ores but is now co cooperating in
their discovery These minerals can
be mined by individuals, oil and coal
can not to advantage. The prospector
has become a geologist or associate
one but wild-catting is being prose-
cuted continuously leading to the con-
clusion that much petroleum still re-
mains in the public estate uncaptured,
the exact amount of which is not as
certainable. There are also large
quantities of natural gas.
1t is estimated that the public lands
contain 200, 1000 100000 tons of valuable
coal deposits, 5000, 100000 tons of phos-
phate; and oil -shale from. which Co.
OOO, 600, 900 barrels of oil may be ulti-
mate4y produced; while water, the ir-
replaceable mineral, gathered annually
by the land, has a potential value be-
yond estimate.
Congress in 1920 adopted a new poll
cy covering the mineral contests in the
nations public lands. This was the
so-called mieral leasing act, often re-
ferred to as the outstanding public
land legislation of the century. 1t did
not apply, however, to mining of gold
silver, copper, lead, zinc, and other
motalliferous ores found on public
lands, no change having been made in
the existing laws applicable to their
development.
The law assumed that the people hold
a continuing interest in our natural re-
sources. Under its terms these mineral
rights are leased, instead of sold out
right, and the government receives q
nominal royalty on all minerals pro-
duced.
/ Royalties to the government as re-
suit of this new mineral leasing policy
are large in the aggregate. Oil and
i gas land, the title to the minerals OF
which are vested in the United States
returned $S,sS4,71S in royalties last
year.
The governments royalties from Goa
totalled $236,710.
From potash leasing it collected $5,'
1884, AS compared with receipts from
minerals on the public domain, The
government erceived $73S,64S from pub
lie land sales last year and $753,23;
from the sale of timber on the publit
domain.
The general impression prevails tina
these royalties from mineral leasini
and receipts from public lands go int
lthe federal treasury to reimburse tn
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