THE NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 321 



surface, and the prices are fixed so that the earnings will only be a 

 reasonable profit upon the amount paid and the investment necessary. 

 But, of course, this is more or less guesswork, and the government parts 

 with the ownership of the coal in the ground absolutely. 



Authorities of the Geological Survey estimate that in the United 

 States to-day there is a supply of about 3,000 billions of tons of coal, 

 and that of this, 1,000 billions are in the public domain. Of course, the 

 other 2,000 billions are within private ownership, and under no more 

 control as to the use or the prices at which the coal may be sold than 

 any other private property. If the government leases the coal lands 

 and acts as any landlord would, and imposes conditions in its leases like 

 those which are now imposed by the owners in fee of coal mines in the 

 various coal regions of the east, then it would retain over the disposition 

 of the coal deposits a choice as to the assignee of the lease, a power of 

 resuming possession at the end of the term of the lease, or of readjust- 

 ing terms at fixed periods of the lease, which might easily be framed to 

 enable it to exercise a limited but effective control in the disposition 

 and sale of the coal to the public. 



It has been urged that the leasing system has never been adopted in 

 this country, and that its adoption would largely interfere with the 

 investment of capital and the proper development and opening up of 

 the coal resources. I venture to differ entirely from this view. My 

 investigations show that many owners of mining property of this coun- 

 try do not mine it themselves, and do not invest their money in the 

 plants necessary for the mining, but they lease their properties for a 

 term of years varying from twenty to thirty and forty years, under 

 conditions requiring the erection of a proper plant and the investment 

 of a certain amount of money in the development of the mines, and 

 fixing a rental and a royalty, sometimes an absolute figure and some- 

 times one proportioned to the market value of the coal. Under this 

 latter method the owner of the mine shares in the prosperity of his 

 lessees when coal is high and the profits good, and also shares to some 

 extent in their disappointment when the price of coal falls. 



I have looked with some care into a report made at the instance of 

 President Roosevelt upon the disposition of coal lands in Australia, 

 Tasmania and New Zealand. These are peculiarly mining countries, 

 and their experience ought to be most valuable. In all these countries 

 the method for the disposition and opening of coal mines originally 

 owned by the government is by granting leasehold, and not by granting 

 an absolute title. The terms of the leases run all the way from twenty 

 to fifty years, while the amount of land which may be leased to any 

 individual there is from 320 acres to 2,000 acres. It appears that a 

 full examination was made, and the opinions of all the leading experts 

 on the subject were solicited and given, and that with one accord they 



