Show COAL LANDS AND THE GOVERNMENT Sir Mr George Otis Smith director of or the United tos geological survey recently made an ap anad ad ad- adou ou the 1110 t o coal deposits of the west Ve We e copy following from his opening remarks wet of ot the toe cine one ne hundredth meridian lies liell the nations nation's I tet t coal reserve estimated at more than J tons too of or anthracite bituminous bituminous' and and sub sub-buu ins D fI coal and from 60 to 85 S per ner cent of oZ this tonnage This fu fuel ful is is the BeJ b bt bY the United States reserve to the to resent present and future futuro development of the tho Rocky Uon of qC the thi water po power er resources will be an factor fator 10 locally and for several doc decades des fuel 01 oil be l to affect the industrial situation but butTO t l T O 4 can now foresee Coal mu must mut t be regarded as aa f l. al future source e of P power WT n needs cds and d ha has a right to demand full fun on- on op for d development but t that at do los Joc g not do the thet Zt t t to inflict an 81 unearned speculative tax on the future The Thc coal operator ma may ju th ask k t two o things rpt tb the right to o cupY 3 an area large tor V Qi opt operation ration and second ond freedom fredom from Irom l t too o great reat t Both of nf f the Fo fa factors ors arc iro In m reality ol ot Tili lt I less lesa interest to the public than to the the operator k r thai the last Jast analysis much that l ar on It ron un th them m dep depends in Wl 11 prices and concerns general welfare PW to bould also Abo dem demand nd that no TJ right ht to the hU lUc coal shall be bo except for for pres present t use ue I Yb h d development must be made mado the tho first condition of ot remains of ot tlc the pub pub- It of or any part pait of what now 4 1 0 Domain 1 t iy I IIo IQ then cn proceeded to I explain h how w coal had hadn n on enthus thus far located and titles obtained med to coal r Then quoted approvingly from Secretary s follows t nut may well be that a liberal liberal- but wisely c leasing law aw would b be found to promote to more ioro vigorously than any system m mI I it purchase Tre re is more in n his address which v we wo c may r l later but after noting the amount lOu t of coal aAi hI i he says is already discovered on oil govern- govern l ands the question is wh why this present great coal lands lands' is isit it it necessary west ves and Alaska hi ui a perpetual worry o Sources lc s' s of their respective regions fells J of the estimated amou amount t of coal on j ef n ment lands and tells of it in figures which bould not comprehend in a year ear and which Td i is is it does when astronomers tell us that the i rest est fixed star is twenty millions of millions of ofes es es- awa away r rOW iSOw OW the the coal burned in th the United States up lie late docs clock not amount to one per cent of what J adr in sight and wh why pick ont out coal for the tle 1 j l 1 benefit of a few government agents and andla la l gh the th hope of an In everlasting cY graft make all trouble and fuss JIe i l e seems to think that the of the fu- fu t b be- be through rough tl coal Suppose it is which because as discoveries have been jn rd l' l the last twenty years it seems reason o suppose that long before the coal meas- meas r f exhausted for the most t Of f the work of 1 power will be obtained from the air or pr 1 le electricity in the air But no matter that Power Powei- is not so essential to this it a as f food od Now let us change th the matter for a little littlee i e o. o and nd consider another proposition The state J hrs has square qt re niles miles of Jand and or 3 35 boo acres Of those J acres at least r more ore is first class IL illand lahd It was sold to the people an and a per per- r. r given them for a dollar and anel a quarter a arc fot for the highest and often much less when script t was used and other depreciated ses se- se Jj i S soldiers soldiers' warrants homestead gifts and iff f that The people of the east were not so so- tous t l ITh to get a percentage from froni that land but most n of it was land on which all an that was P. P to begin cultivation was to turn o cr the thell ll b d sp the grain con come e down to some real figures A Ared Jl red d and aul ab sixty acres of that land ought tO t proF pro pro- I F r 1 a net profit every year taking one ono year ear with t ther of SOO or 5 an acre Win Wiy does it itt t. t government exact a tax on that 5 3 an anoLl of oLl J With the whole state under cultivation at att att t moderate loder te estimate the people owning the thel l t would clear per annum Now p o o the government was to tax tax that land landL landry L ry year ear at half a dollar an acre That would saved a ve to the government annually annu lly in ten thousand years and the tile j. j ought to tobe b be better then than it is now l w- w nv is not t that as reasonable as the tx ht on coal loal deposits Coal deposits spay inay last ten thousand tho years ears but bt eYer every ton that is taken pay away from any coal measure reduces it that nuch There is is' no dr drawing draving wi g new coal from th the as there is nitro nitrogen en for the Jand land in Towa Iowa The I Sensible person will ask perhaps why wh make mal an nn estimate of what will vill be ten thousand years from liow itow The he answer is that because it is just as sensible a as 35 the tak of Mr r. r Smith or Mr air Fisher or iny any n oth other r educated impractical gentleman in inY Y hin wh who M-ho i is trying to 1 make lake a i p reputation at aL atthe athe he be e expense of th the whole hol west est at an to the in iii finite demoralization of the industries o Ot the west By Bj that we do not moan to say that they the are arc rc not noL well meaning men but they arc are on tho the vron wrong track There is no more occasion to put an exorbitant ex cx- price on coal th than n there would have ve been to put an exorbitant price of l O au an acre on Iowa lands in tho the be beginning Not ot nearl nearly so much because men could have havo gone upon Iowa lands and g t a return the first year ar and no noman noman noman man or company can tian as a n rule get a coal mine in ill condition to ship coal conI for less expense than a hundred thousand dollars Yet all an that the tho whole thin thing w was tried in the or tried tried faithfully for five years Jears by b- the government on th the lead mines of Iowa and Missouri and when the whole thin thing was figured up not so much mone money had been bean received from the lands as had been paid the government officers to do the col col- col The whole thing ought to be bo quash quashed d b by congress congress in in thirty minutes as it was before when whon in the days ds of Calhoun and Webster and Clay an and andul ul Horace Greel Greeley y a n bill came up for abolishing the whole leasing system and there here herc was not a vot voto against it in either cither house of congress Conservation is run mad It It is is a fad of Pinch Pinchot's ts t's which lie injected into Colonel Volt velt an and we presume th that t he lie and md Mr 11 Roosevelt and anel Mr 11 Garfield and Mr Cummins of Iowa and Mr tr Clapp of Minnesota will make the tho whole cast east ring next year in the time advocacy of Mr 11 Roosevelt for president by telling the yaps of those states states- for they are arc yaps japs yaps yaps' who dont don't think beyond their own onn boundaries what boundaries what a a. saving originated in the brain of Colonel Roosevelt when he hit upon the I fad of enriching the cast where tl there ere arc are man many electoral votes at the expense of the tho west where men men are arc fighting the tho desert and poverty and all the th-e other obstructions of the frontier trying to tomake tomake tomake make a living The whole business should be fired out Up to date men have paid 10 an acre for coal lands There Thero is no reason why wh- they should pay more than farmers pay for going on public land and cultivating it The whole thing is an outrage one big enough if fully comprehended compre compre compre- d to beat any man for president who advocates advocates I cates it or r l lets ts any of his subordinates advocate it The excuse is fear of monopoly The cure for that is to tax companies if they charge to exceed a reasonable price for coal |