Show the prospector the mining engineer and the proposed new mining act by S F hunt the passing of the prospector the licefi licensing sing of mining engineers and the bureau of mines proposed new mining act have been discussed pro and con with warm interest of late in most of the mining publications for clarity of presentation and regard to details there are three subjects that have been treated separately yet in truth they are closely interlocking questions in which the failure of one is the affair of all it is plain that these three factors involved in the production of the useful metals should operate cooperate co and balance to be effective and of service to the state the prospector has been compelled to abandon his chosen work for lack of support the engineer sees his number increasing and the number of mines decreasing thereby dividing his chances of success and all those interested in metal mining have realized for some years that the discordant jumble of mining laws now in force are antiquated and should be replaced by more intelligent and equitable legislation the bureau of mines therefore deserves due credit for finally getting a bill introduced in the congress and up before the miners for discussion As matters stand the prospector has ceased to be a recognized factor in mining in the form forin and manner in which it has been advocated the engineers demand for a license has been voted down by the members of his profession and the new mining bill has met with more criticism than support this state of affairs suggests a mess and a mix up that cannot be harmonized or handled along conventional lines and it will not be attempted to begin with precedent will be thrown to the winds and only fundamental principles of right and wrong conceptions will be accepted as tenets and guides lead where they may so to analyze and set forth tentatively a unified plan of cure in each case is the scope and purpose of this discussion the prospector search for the precious metals has ever appealed to the strong and intrepid there is a zest and fascination that belongs to prospecting and mining 6 the precious metals that attaches to no other occupation the prospector was until of late a picturesque and admired pioneer among us his adventurous spirit and sturdy energy has played ix part in the rapid growth and winning of the west why at this time his decimated numbers should become objects of disdain and neglect is not plain on the 6 grounds rounds of usefulness and past performance why should these brave unsophisticated volunteers doing sentry duty on the outposts of society be shunned by all except the bucolic nomad of the desert who swings his arm and shouts go way round em shep there are causes most of which are extraneous and have nothing whatever to do with mining but which are traceable to other social inequities and mainly to the faults and offenses of subnormal sub normal individuals who ape every line of legitimate industry for fraudulent gain these are the alluvial anthropoids anthrop at which all cerulean le legislation isolation is aimed but which has missed its mark and butil mutilated abed the miner since he is the most innocent and least able to shield his vocation from unscrupulous design or the freak doin doings 9 of unhappy that the ubiquitous frenzied and fraternity of Walling fords charlatans and mountebanks mount ebanks have taken their mining geologist salt lake city turn at fake mining as they are now at fake banking securities curi ties and exchange schemes is not denied but these invasions should not remain as a fixed blackmail upon the legitimate miner when they are not upon the banker and broker and again the inept mining laws in force have not allowed the public to distinguish the alluvial skinner from the subsoil sub soil miner owing to a slight similarity in the sound of their stage names which accounts for much of the attitude of hostility toward the miner any new mining legislation can and should make this distinction plain and prominent here are the reasons and the way all agricultural razing grazing forest and city lands are alluvium which is derived from the disintegration and decomposition of the subsoil sub soil or rock rocky crust of the earth the lithosphere all of the elem elements ants of alluvial soils that produce and sustain plant and animal life are derived from the bedrock bed rock formation it is a condition precedent limiting in quantity and kind every form of life now sunlight air water and the miner are the four active agents nature employs to perform her services to all sunlight and air perform their work on the surface where the workaday work a day world of others m moil and mingle for her gifts water and the miner descend int othe dark deep caverns of earth and return laden with iron copper silver and gold deprived of these useful metals civilization would perish hence a new mining act should clearly and concisely distinguish between alluvial an daub soil rights and workers such an act would tend to restore to the votaries vot aries of the deep ground a standing in and respectability they have lost the lie prospector has gone but he has not been killed by kindness his vocation carried him away from busy throngs and imposed a life of unwedded solitude upon him his dream of love was ore not oer 0 er and in that dream a fair vision of a prim school mam in an enchanted abode was ever beckoning him to take the wings of the wind and fly to her side they never met or married and he be is gone gone where no woodbine twines nor wan wang t doodle waits to mourn his loss over the dump with ta the i e waste ail and d worthless things mining engineers A generation ago there were but three engineering engineer engine erinO schools in the united states now there are about fifty that teach mining engi engineering cering 6 courses only a quarter quarte 01 a century ago the mining engineer clad in his high boots and corduroys was a rather spectacular figure yet the brilliant services he performed for his employers were even more commanding than his appearance and his inari int 1111 sic sic worth to the business of mining was recognized Z and re e warded seeing this many fond parents sent their sons to I 1 enTine engineering schools them for to 6 ering believing they were e preparing useful mining careers and certain positions then the w i mining field was fair open to all and rapidly exi expanding banding i no one could coul d foresee a general decline of public interest inheres and support and the slow gravitation of mining operations ope f into the hands of a comparatively few concerns nor the ek r ha of many ore deposits at comparatively khalio depth As a result of present conditions and other olId i circumstances included less than fifty per cerit cent ot of tny their fi number now find employment in their chosen professing 81 but they have found themselves es well equipped to other more remunerative lines of work nevertheless this hiatus amounts to a disappointment to not a few of them who would prefer to engage eng age in mining scanning the situation broadly some have noted and objected that almost any alluvial mountebank capable of putting on a front could pose as an engineer before the public and succeed with the imposition also that there remained reina ined in the employ of mining companies many technically untrained men in responsible positions that they could fill just what should be done was a question they realized and admitted it would not be ethical to di displace sp lace the thorough practical miner who had arose from the bottom he being the connecting link the interpreter that translates theory into practice and in this capacity as useful as the technical engineer and that his dismissal would tend to create a caved between the top and bottom levels of mining endeavor so consciously or sub con ly not a few have advocated the licensing of engineers as a corrective measure to protect their particular qualifications from counterfeit and abuse so far all plans proposed have met with weighty opposition and have been voted down while the invocations of the disappointed have ascended to the throne of pete for guidance in this unsolved dilemma economic fitness of things every calling 6 and profession has its limitations some are inherent and others imposed by terms of employment or habits of thought and action engineers have been better in mathematics than economics and not many have gone beyond the serious yet silly jangle over vertical lines and rights to question the basic principles underlying der lying I 1 the validity of any law mining or otherwise too much figuring and not enough thinking may be the trouble yet figures are good in their place the reason that figures cannot lie is because they cannot talk and the same reason prevents them from telling the truth they are dead inanimate things those who depend on being capable of figuring the angles of right and wrong are disconsolate in that they always fail to succeed they must consult the subconscious sub conscious monitor for reasons and formula superior to the trigonometric functions A globe of cast iron or lead is an orbicular mass of iron iron or lead throughout the peel of an orange or the shell of a cocoanut coco anut are the outer spheres enclosing the meats within which are composed of various properties the earth is composed of a number of elements combined and arranged in shells or spheres three of which limit and control existence and with which we have to deal in mining as in othet other vocations these are the atmosphere the hydrosphere and the lithosphere we discern land to be the controlling sphere since water drains to the sea and the air a is displaced and floats above and that the range and distribution of life everywhere is dependent upon land there is order and method everywhere the fishes swim swim down in the seas and the birds fly above in the air air land anit animals nals move about between hoth both in their appointed elements thus in the same ni manner anner organized society diversifies its s workers into numerous callings 0 trades and professions which are redu ceable into four grand divisions these are e from top to bottom aeronauts aero birdmen birdeen bird men allu vials far tanners ners als se seamen arnen subsoil sub soil or cs delvers and miners now there are aviation laws for birdeen birdmen bird men nien navi navigation laws for sailors a hopeless jumble of laws for al bial landsmen landsman lands men and no distinctive laws for the subsoil sub soil delvers nothing to regate or distinguish them from the windy watery dusty world horld of others therefore the subsoil sub b soil workers have a grievance and a right to demand the passage of mining laws which will distinguish them and their realm of work from all the others the policy and plan of separating subsoil sub soil from surface rights is is not new it was in spain years ago 6 in in france and italy ye years ars ago in all of the span ish american republics from their beginnings and in australia austraha the old english common law classed all mines as crown lands from which our term royalty instead of mine mine rent is derived mining lands are not patented or deeded in other countries they are granted in his mines of the world J H curle curie an eminent english authority estimates the average life of mines to be eleven years as statisticians estimate the life of a generation at 35 years now alluvial land is restored from year to year and can be cropped for generations as has the nile valley mining einings Min ings is transitory even some big mines are dug out and closed in a few years time why then compel the to patent at great expense land that must shortly become valueless for his use and which may interfere and conflict with a surface soil right the sub needs no patent but requires a federal mining grant covering the life of his mine or say for a generation or two in any event when his mine is dug out it has no value and can not be sold and he must go in search of another however at no time should the delver become an alluvial dusty land speculator it is no part of underground work leave this pastime to the riffraff riff raff and the top men to whom it belongs the surface ground the miner displaces should be limited by the size of his subsoil sub soil mine and plans of work and not other considerations in order to make his realm of action distinctive and all his own otherwise he comes up for air and loses his identity because our lawmakers law makers are to years behind the rest of the world in the matter of mining minin legislation le isolation need not discourage delvers anywhere fro from m attempting to wheedle and coax themon them on the united states sadly needs an up to date mining act licenses permits the mining engineer is the technically educated miner the mining geologist is the technically educated prospector this duo of delvers supply the brain and brawn and represent the four rocked in corners and the four equal sides of the square claim of the subsoil sub soil workers now these facts not only entitle them equally to licenses according to rank but should make it obligatory on each to hold one to distinguish his position and to secure each in his rights and privileges there should be a federal license at 5 per year to each but every mining partnership association or company should pay 10 underground foremen and contractors 5 this completes the list of so one 10 and one 5 license could cover any single mine even though men were employed this plan excludes the aviators navigators and allu vials and returns the business of mining to the delvers the license should be designated as united states eminent don domain lain subsoil sub soil mining license and permit it can and should be in blanket form serially numbered and graded about as follows 1st ast prospector 2nd and miner 3rd ard mining engineer ath mining geologist ath partnerships ner ships associations and companies and should be is issued by all federal land offices to applicants with proper credentials the license should impose obligations lof rectitude good conduct fair dealing r and faithful service service upon all alike with penalties of fine or forfeit forfeiture ture or both according to nature and seriousness of provision viola eions those excluded from eligibility should be bankers brokers all stock selling concerns and agencies except possibly mining exchanges and all manufacturing mercantile and surface enterprises of every sort then no citizen should be permitted to locate or hold mining land without a license license holders alone being permitted to locate and operate subsoil sub soil properties and no miner engineer or geologist should be allowed to survey sample examine or report on metal mines and prospects without a license but any reputable citizen male or female who desired to en engage b a b e in mining could do so by securing a prospectors license and begin at the beginning I 1 would specially include in the list of all editors and qualified craftsmen of technical mining publications and schools all ni members embers of the american institute of mining engineers and all members of the united states geological survey who should be admitted on application for licenses or who might be presented with licenses as a mark of respect to their professions distribution of funds every dollar collected by the U S land offices through the sale of licenses collection of fines etc should be turned over to the bureau of mines mine s as an earned income fund and to be used by it as it unquestionably would be for the advancement of mining and the benefit of the fraternity of subsoil sub soil workers grubstake grub stake regulation for the protection and security of the public and the delvers alike a common sense fair to all grubstake law or regulation should be incorporated in the act it should set a minimum amount to be paid equal to the annual |