Salt Lake Tribune | 1916-01-15 | Page 3 | Old Operators to Get Leasing Rights

on mm 10 " GET LEASINB RIGHTS: i House Adopts Provisions of Mineral Bill in Committee Commit-tee of the Whole. WASH! M.TOX. Jan. 3 1. J n cum- mittee of the -whule, the house today : adopted provisions of tho mineral and j leasing hill, which will giant ion sing 1 rights to oil operators in California and Wyoming- fields who were dispossessed ! by President Taft 's withdrawal and the j supreme court's approval. Tho vote in-j dirated passage, of the provisions of the bill on tinal vote. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of private investments are represented on the lands Uu question. The provisions as 'accepted by the house committee of the whole would giant no patents, but would permit the operators to continue their work on leases under certain conditions con-ditions which are said to bo satisfactory- to them. tli e provision is incorporated in tho bill on the final vote, as seemed certain today, it will be. of immense) importance to the oil industry, and par- j ticularly to the west.. The bill now would permit the leasing of unpatented oil and gas lands to all claimants who filed prior to duly 3, 1910, and who either developed the wells or were actively ac-tively engaged in work on January J, Claimants, would have 'to surrender sur-render their lands to the Tinted States within six months after the passao of tho act and then th secretary ot the interior would, in his discretion, 'grant leases. No person, association or corporation, however, would be permitted to lease more than rHO acres. Koyalty on -the land would be not less than one-eighth of the income from the product.