TEE NATIONAL CONSERVATION CONGRESS 325 



gested for government coal lands in the United States, with provisions 

 forbidding the transfer of the leases except with the consent of the 

 government, thus preventing their acquisition by a combination or 

 monopoly and upon limitations as to the area to be included in any 

 one lease to one individual, and at a certain moderate rental, with 

 royalties upon the coal mined proportioned to the market value of the 

 coal either at Seattle or at San Francisco. Of course, such leases should 

 contain conditions requiring the erection of proper plants, the proper 

 development by modern mining methods of the properties leased, and 

 the use of every known and practical means and device for saving the 

 lives of the miners. 



The government of the United States has much to answer for in not 

 having given proper attention to the government of Alaska and the 

 development of her resources for the benefit of all the people of the 

 country. I would not force development at the expense of a present or 

 future waste of resources; but the problem as to the disposition of the 

 coal lands for present and future use can be wisely and safely settled in 

 one session if congress gives it careful attention. 



Oil and Gas Lands 



In the last administration there were withdrawn from agricultural 

 entry 2,820,000 acres of supposed oil land in California; about a mil- 

 lion and a half acres in Louisiana, of which only 6,500 acres were known 

 to be vacant, unappropriated land; 75,000 acres in Oregon, and 174,000 

 acres in Wyoming, making a total of nearly four millions of acres. In 

 September, 1909, I directed that all public oil lands, whether then 

 withdrawn or not, should be withheld from disposition pending con- 

 gressional action, for the reason that the existing placer mining law, 

 although made applicable to deposits of this character, is not suitable 

 to such lands, and for the further reason that it seemed desirable to 

 reserve certain fuel-oil deposits for the use of the American navy. Ac- 

 cordingly the form of all existing withdrawals was changed, and new 

 withdrawals aggregating 2,750,000 acres were made in Arizona, Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. Field examina- 

 tions during the year showed that of the original withdrawals, 2,170,- 

 000 acres were not valuable for oil, and they were restored for agri- 

 cultural entry. Meantime, other withdrawals of public oil lands in 

 these states were made, so that July 1, 1910, the outstanding withdraw- 

 als then amounted to 4,550,000 acres. 



The needed oil and gas law is essentially a leasing law. In their 

 natural occurrence, oil and gas can not be measured in terms of acres, 

 like coal and it follows that exclusive title to these products can nor- 

 mally be secured only after they reach the surface. Oil should be dis- 

 posed of as a commodity in terms of barrels of transportable product 



