Show ii m STATE IS AFTER MINES i t li OKLAHOMA PLAN TO ACQUIRE f fl COAL AND ASPHALT TRACTS iv L t 11 h t Commission Is to Recommend Pur i chase of 450000 Acres of Land t 1 iI from the Choctaw and Chickasaw t z f e Chick-asaw Indians i Guthrlo OklaTho purchase by tho low stato of tho Choctaw and Chick r asaw segregated coal and asphalt I lands will be recommended In tho report of the commission named by the constitutional convention to investigate In-vestigate the lands This report is almost al-most ready to bo filed with the governor gov-ernor The lands amounting to 450000 acres have been withdrawn from sale by congress and without congressional congression-al sanction the tribal governments m uro powerless to sell them Tho corn I mission will recommend that congress ube ibo i-bo asked to permit negotiations for the purchase of tho lauds by the I state It will become necessary in all probability tho report will say for the stato to Issue bonds and as the question as to the Issuance ot bonds must bo submitted to tho people at a general election and as there will bono bo-no general election after this year tints 1910 and as no great deal of progress can bo made meantime until It is known whether the bonds for tho purchase of tho lands will bo issued is-sued your commission recommends that tho proposition bo by the legislature legis-lature submitted to tho people at tho noxt general election providing for tho Issuance of bonds In an amount not to exceed 10000000 or as much thereof as may bo necessary to bo used for tho purchase of those lands providing they can bo purchased at a reasonable rate Tho vaulo of the surface lands is estimated at not to exceed 8 an acre and possibly less In estimating tho value of tho coal deposits tho commission com-mission made no explorations of its own and relied mainly on public documents and tho testimony of such coal operators as could be Induced to attend its hearings One estimate of tho deposits was 2000000000 tons which at tho present pres-ent rate would require several hundred hun-dred years of mining to bo put on tho market Carl Scholz manager of the mining properties of tho Hock Island Railroad Company fixed the coal values val-ues at 5500000 and tho value of tho surface lands at 3600000 making a total of approximately 9000000 Charles D Walcott director of the United States geological survey was quoted as saying that the lands were worth anywhere between 5 and 40 an acre If these coal resources were controlled con-trolled by tho stato the price of coal would be reduced onethird the commission com-mission believes This would increase the demand for coal The commission has reliable Information that Uio cost of mining coal In the Indian Territory Terri-tory district Is from 125 to not exceeding ex-ceeding 2 a ton and that state ownership owner-ship would put the best quality of coal I on tho home market at not more than 5 a ton Because of the present monopoly I mo-nopoly the price is as high as 9 i ton |