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Show THE WEST S DUTY That the western states should act ve b oppose the leas ng and water power b lis between now and the next congress s emphas zed by the M n ng Congress Journal Recently the Wyo m ng leg slature passed resolut ons con lem ng the leas ng pol y as a danger ous menace to a republican form of gov eminent The fa lure of the last ongress to pass the bills g es the western states an opportun tj to agitate aga nst them The neccss ty of such ag tat on cannot be doubted because congress would have passed the b lis had tune perm t tad By fa the large number of reu-reeentatlves reu-reeentatlves and senators have no real understanding of the s tuation They honestly bel eve that the b lis support ed by Secretary Lane conta n the con tes ons demanded by the. west The lo not know that the m rung states op 3 pose the pr nc pies upon wh ch the meas 1 ures are based The Min ng Congress Journal points I out the fallacy in Secretary Lane s re i ply to the Wyom ng resolutions The A secretar contends that metal m rung 1 de elopment s not retarded by the with 1 drawals whieh hae been made The i editor of the Journal goes into the see 1 retary s own office for evidence cit ' ing the Bolthoff case which is pending m the nter or department 1 Mr Bolthoff of the Hendr e and it Bolthoff Mach nery companj of Den f a ef Colo came into possess on of se j eral m rung claims and a m 1I te in n Clear Creek county Colo After sev A eral years of work and the expenditure j of many thousands of dollars he began to constru t a m 11 to treat the ore body f vh ch his development bad unearthed Then he appl ed to the government for a patent upon h a m 11 and mm ng cU ms hen he had spent $'5 000 n permanent construction work and had bought machinery costing about the same amount he was nformed by the federal land department that the m lis te could not go to patent because of the fact that the valley n which t was located had been w thdrawn from entry as a water power s te An appeal was made to the secretary of the nter or and Mr Bolthoff employed attorneys After considerable effort on the part of een ators from Colorado a hear ng was ar ranged before a subord nate n Secre tarv Lane s department The case is st II pend ng and the enterprise is re ta lei The e 1 tor of the Journal calls at tent on to the fact that pr vate land hold ngs arc doubly taxed because half of the laud s still in federal ownership although the law must be enforced by the states thro ghout the ent re area We quote The taxes n most western states lur ng each thirty year per od are ap rox mately equal to the value of the land The pr vatelj owned land less than one half the total area m Ht ea h th t ears fa enough in taxation to 1 u tie other half of the land n o Je to enable hese states to live r to the r contra t w th the at on to ma n ta n a rep bl can form of government The west now has another o) por tl n t to p e ent the aB age of he rf lis Isolate! prote ts w 1 be of Vi ava I E e the protes s ot all weste n membe s ot ong e s and thp senate w ot be suff ent t w II be ne e ar to on e the American reo le hat th 1 of Abraham 1 n o that the pi I la are a at ona os s on h st fo the a j, tat s s t or h west and I est for the o t y as a vhoe W tie west awaken to ts f0 n 7 |