Ogden Evening Standard | 1912-01-19 | Page 6 | Phosphate Land Law is Defined

PHOSPHATE LAW LAW ISJEFINED Copies of the decree of tho United States circuit court for tho district of Wyoming, In the cases of Morse S. Dufficld and Lewis A Jeffs vs the San Francisco Chemical company, have been received by tho plaintiffs of Salt Lake City, the plaintiffs winning win-ning their cases for phosphate lands In Wyoming against the defendants, the qtiostlon Involved being the proper pro-per method of locating phosphate lands. Tho plaintiffs maintained that such lands should ho located and pat-, entcd under tho United States laws governing lode claims, while the defendants de-fendants maintained tho placer law appllod. The determination of this point is extremely timely, for it has been recognized rec-ognized for soveral years thatt tho laws touching upon this vital p'olnt wero uncertain, considerable confusion confu-sion and litigation resulting The de-qroo de-qroo of tho court positively stating that the lode location, law should apply, ap-ply, and not that of placer, sets a precedent in a state where Is located a liberal portion of what the United States geological survey terms one of the greatest deposits of phosphate rock known. Aside from the legal points raisod by tho advocates of the lode location law and its application to phosphate lands, they have maintained that from the standpoint of conservation their attitude was tho correct one. A lode claim Is composed of twenty acres, while an association placer looted under un-der eight names consists of ICO acres To proceed to patont for the placer claim of 160 acres would coBt In tho neighborhood of .920, while to patont pat-ont ICO acres of lodo claims would cost $5,700. nn