Show FISHER COAL LUND POLICY TO jada 4 BY congressmen MIN 31 ONDELL gol alii 14 1 to if consent to all ditc tortes if it countr ahe prices now 1 awl at t to create of f coul CHICAGO oct 2 maintaining the policy of 0 the united states government ern ment with relation to the valuation of the public coal lands is not open to the criticisms against it und and that it Is designed tu to prevent monopolization and to encourage development opi nent walter 1 L fisher secretary of the interior tonight made public his reply to the protests against tha policy submitted to him last june by representative prank frank W mondell of wyoming mondell charged that prices fixed by the government were prohibitive that they paralyzed tl i coal industry in the west resulted in increasing the cost of coal to the consumer from fifty cents to a dollar a ton and created a monopoly Nl mondell ondell also hild wild that prices for coal lands in all the working fields run ran from a hundred and anti fifty to div hundred dollars an acre that millions of acrea acres ae ate rated at values above a hundred and eighty collais an acre that prices la in the bettor better fields aro in excess of those charged in commercial practice in the same fields or for better grade grado coals in cistern fields all these allegations secretary fisher after thorough study submits as apparently based on misapprehension as to the bisla on which valuation Is made as to the prices placed on coal lands and ao as to the effect which the classi classifies fica tlona have had on the sale of pub lie lands the prices now non fixed secretary fisher continues are designed not to create monopoly 1 in the hands of pre present ent owners of coal lands but to prevent monopoly by making it unprofitable to purchase large areas for indefinite holding without development I 1 this in fact Is 1 the constant aim alm of the department in price prices which it puts upon public coal lands to make them low enough so as to encourage purchases for immediate development yet sufficiently high so its to discourage purchases tor for long timo time holdings for speculation or for monopolization prices prohibiting development would be inimical to the present interests Interest ig of the west prices permitting ea with a view to would be inimical to their future interests the solo bole object therefore Is so to value the land as to permit development and to prohibit speculation in view of all the facts ho however am convinced that the price prices no now being placed upon the public coal lands tire neither unreasonable nor exorbitant and that the increase in the sale of coal lands for the four fiscal period subsequent to july 1 1907 in comparison w with ith the preceding tour four year period together with the pres preset nt Londi condition tion of the western coal industry demonstrates conclusively that the present classification policy Is not open to criticism critt clam which you make secretary fisher suggests that a liberal but wisely protected leasing law might be found to promote development more vigorously than any system of outright purchase such as haa has been the case in australia new bealand and adopted by canada in its yukon territory referring Reter rinK to darc that millions of acres are rated at values above a hundred and eighty dollars an acre as the highest price paid b the roal coal purchasers secretary fisher saye says there cannot be millions of acres of classified lands so rated since only sixteen million acres of coal lands lu iii the country have lo oen loen en driad id to date |