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Show oo MINING NEWS POTASH POLICY OF UNCLE SAM Bitter disputes, amounting almost to warfare, that have resulted from the attempts to secure title to the jotdssium-rlch lands of Searles lake, Cal., since the discovery of potash there have not only resulted in the postponement of the highly desirable experimental work on the deposits themselves, but have shown the utter Inadequacy of the present laws for the acquisition of lands of this type. Tho bed of Searles lake is blanketed with filings tho majority of which have been made under the general placer law providing that 160 acres mav be entered as an association placer, but there Is danger that the legality of these filings may be do-stToved do-stToved bv agreements, made prior to patent." to combine a group of placers after patent Is received. In order to obtain an area large enough to sene as a basis for a plant tor extracting and refining t&e saiib. Tn short, the whole situation Is clouded and perhaps 'egally Irremed -able under the present statutes It IS In recognition of this condition that the presidential withdrawals have been made Thv are tn aid of legislation legis-lation of a type that will PfL'e security secur-ity of tenure and eertaint; In operation opera-tion to whoever mav desire to undertake under-take development of these or other deposits. The withdrawals are not destructive of any valid claim? Jha may now exist. In fact, In order that any rights heretofore lawfully Initiated Initiat-ed may be preserved the withdrawal order itself has been made Jo Include I he following phrase- "This withdrawal with-drawal is made subject to all rights lawfully initiated under any valid mining locations made upon such lands so long as such lights arc maintained in full compliance with the law ' The president has recently approt -cd the withdrawal of three tracts of laud of the desert-basin typ In California Cali-fornia and Nevada that are believed. i as the result of Investigations by the United States geological survey, to contain valuable deposits of potassium salts and brines The aggregate area thus withdrawn Is 133.820 acres. The first of those withdrawals covered Columbus marsh, Nev, and was approved ap-proved on January 16, 1913. The Bccond Included the famous Searles i lake, Cal , and was approved on February Feb-ruary 21. 1913. The third Included lands in the Panamint valley, Cal , the acreage affected being 24,667 acres Searles lake is the last remaining re-maining pocket of a great ancient lake, which has almost dried up, thus concentrating a vast amount of saline m r.erals Millions of tons of salt, soda, and borax fill the bottom of the lake, and the deposits of soda and borax have been worked, but the development of the potash In tho lake deposits had not been considered until un-til recently The constructive good faith of the government in the withdrawal of these lands In aid of legislation is Indicated by the fact that concurrently concur-rently with the withdrawal the tn- I terlor department has prepared the d i aft of a law intended to relieve the present chaotic situation and provide a safe and sure legal basis for the development de-velopment of the deposits now known 'and any that mav be discovered In the future This draft has been sub- ! mltted to congress for Its considera- t;on. and Its enactment will be urged In order that American potash depos- j its may be developed under conditions i that are favorable to the producer and will at the same time protect the consumer. NEW YORK BROKERS PROVE EASY PREY The New York Mining Age of March 1 says; i Florence Goldfield was the center of ' interest on the curb on Wednesday last, when It climbed rapidly from an opening bid and asked of 40-43 to 56-57 56-57 The movement came so suddenly sudden-ly that the Goldfield Crown was tak-j tak-j en by surprise and It was some little j time before they began to wonder whether they had been made the victims vic-tims of a practical Joke or were receiving re-ceiving orders from a lunatic A flood of telegrams reached the city at various times during the da from a person who signed the telegrams tele-grams in various ways, but mostly wtth the same address nt Philadelphia. Philadel-phia. As near as could be ascertained ascer-tained about 25 curb brokerb each received re-ceived a wire from this Philadelphia address to buy Florence Goldfield at the market, and wire the price at which the stock was bought The west was also flooded with orders of B similar nature On these orders some brokers bought 100, some 200 and on up to 500 shares, thus Illustrating Illus-trating the trusting nature of curb brokers After the flurry Florence promptly dropped to 46-48 Up to the time of going to press there is no Philadelphia money in sight for the taking up of the stock, and the "long Interest" among New-York New-York brokers, so far as Florence is concerned, is of considerable magnitude. magni-tude. Subsequent Investigation brought to light the fact that two brothers who live in Philadelphia and who occasionally occa-sionally make trades in the miuing markets were re&ponslble for the first real activity Florence has seen for many a day. One of these brothers, who seems to possess a certain acumen acu-men in a way, had placed a dozen or more bets In Philadelphia that Florence would sell above 60 cents before March 1. Hence the telegrams. The kindly brothers co-operated Florence sold above 50 cents tho bets were won and everybody's happy The brokers' Why, they have the stock and will be eligible to receive dividends just as soon as they are declared. de-clared. . nn |