Show LAND OFFICE ATTITUDE ON OIL it is the intention of the land department to give the little man a chance to develop oil under the mineral land leasing bill but lie he has got to show us said united states land commissioner william spry while in salt lake recently in conference with division chiefs of tile the field service we propose to allow the small every opportunity to develop his 6 ground round but we will not permit him to hold it longer than the prescribed period for speculative purposes commissioner spry made it clear that it is the policy of the land department as far as possible to aid the development alen of the west to this end it is intimated that where a man has asked for a permit to look for oil he will be given every opportunity to have that look the department will look into the particular cir cir ciri i f cum stances of each case said the commissioner if we find that a bonafide effort has been made either by the individual or the associates lie he may bring in to begin drilling operations and if investigation shows that further time should be oven given him if lie he has not been able to meet the exact requirements of the law then further time will be granted over the six months now provided by the statute there is a large discretion lodged in the secretary of the interior and the land commissioner and it is planned to exercise it if it can be done in the interest of development we ve do not propose however to allow tile the holding of permits for speculative purposes it would be obviously unfair to allow hundreds of holders of permits on a given structure to sit idly by while some one else drilled to determine the value of that structure and then ride on oil the tide of fortune if oil were found they will have just the time prescribed and no more it is estimated in land office circles that the government will go even farther in the effort to further oil development cases have already come to notice it is said where protests have been filed because certain permit tees have not started drilling operations the answer in ill these cases has been that such protests could not be entertained since the government is the best judge as to the good faith of the in other words it is proposed not to cloud tile the issue with a mass f protestations from still others who are anxious to get in on good permits if they could throw tile the original applicants out |