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Show CLUB MOVES TO HELP- Mill III LEASES Commercial Body Favors Amendment or Laws on Oil Lands A move in support t.f Km tor Keed Smoot to rnncnil lh mineral land leaning lean-ing bill for the brnrftt of oil prospecting prospect-ing applicant!, haa been undertaken by the bourd of ffovernnra of the M.-ili I jik. I jt'onimercial .rlu.w-h!ch. haa tele- I graphed a resolution to congress urg-ing urg-ing tht paiisae of the Smuot amend -I mnt. I Senator Sinoot proposes to amend the mftier.il land leasing law to allow all applicants for pronpectmg permits to secure their permits whether or not oil is struck in their vicinity. CAUSES DELAY. As the matter now stands there are I more than 2000 oil applications In for I'tah alone, and not more than a hundred hun-dred of them have been granted. According Ac-cording to the present ruling of the department of the Interior, if oil is f ou nd in any recognised geological structure, all permits not already pawned upon will lupse. The applications applica-tions have plied up so rapidly in the land office at Washington that it has been a physical impossibility to de- termine whether or not they should be I granted. In the meantime, companies who were first to get in and the first to get on the ground are drilling for oil. - If they atrlkeQiLhundreUgtjfappli-cants atrlkeQiLhundreUgtjfappli-cants will find themselves out in the cold. WILL CORRECT. The ISmoot amendment seeks to correct cor-rect this defeat and the proposed amendment is indorsed by the board of governors of the Commercial club as follows: 1 "Resolved, by the board of governors ' of the Commercial club of Salt Lake City, that It Indorses and urges the enactment of senate bill No. 4925, by Senator Smoot, now pending In the United States senate, fur the protection' and recognition of rights Initiated by I applicants for oil snd gas prospecting permits under the act of bruary 2.", j 1920, even though oil or gas be produced pro-duced within the geological structure before permits are issued to such applicants, ap-plicants, for the reason that under the act as new construed and applied applicants' ap-plicants' rights may be and will be extinguished, not because of any fault or lack of diligence upon their part, but due to the wholly fortultuous circumstances cir-cumstances that the department of the interior finds It physically impossible promptly to issue permits for the many thousands of applications which have I been and will be filed. I "Further resolved, that the thanks off the Commercial club are hereby ex-1 tended to Senator Smoot for his ac- tlon in the premises; and that copies! of this resolution be forwarded to the; senators and representatives ' from Utah In congress, and they are hereby here-by respectfully urged to use every legitimate le-gitimate effort In furtherance of the passage of said senate bill No. 4925." |