476 ANNUAL REPOKTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



failure to comply with the requirements of the mining laAvs are 

 alwaj's examined on the ground by a practical miner or mining ex- 

 pert, and adverse recommendations are made only when such officers 

 certify to the malefides of the case. 



In reporting upon mining claims the question first considered is 

 whether the patenting of the claim will in any way affect adversely 

 the interest of the public in the land for national forest purposes. 

 If the claim is not located on land which is valuable for its timber 

 or of high value for purposes other than mining, and if it was ap- 

 parently taken in good faith for mining purposes and the mineral 

 laws have been complied with, the claim is reported upon favorably 

 as not prejudicial to national forest interests, leaving further con- 

 sideration of it to the General Land Office on the basis of its cus- 

 tomary requirement of proofs in the form of affidavits offered by the 

 claimant and his witnesses. 



Wlien, however, the examination of the land by a forest officer de- 

 velops the fact that a public interest is involved because of the value 

 of the land for national forest purposes — that is, for the present 

 stand or permanent production of timber, the protection of water- 

 flows, use for Avater-power development or some other form of occu- 

 pancy under special-use permit, or public use — a favorable report is 

 made to the Land Office only after it has been examined by a mineral 

 examiner of certified civil service standing or by a practical miner 

 competent to pass upon the questions involved. Adverse reports on 

 the ground that the requirements have not been complied with (the 

 only ground, of course, on which any claim is ever reported adversely) 

 are never made unless the claim has been examined by a mineral ex- 

 aminer or practical miner. Further, before an adverse report is 

 transmitted to the Land Office the showing of facts made by the 

 examiner is scrutinized, with reference to the evidence submitted and 

 the law involved, by the district assistant to the Solicitor of the 

 Department of Agriculture; and only if this officer is satisfied that 

 the evidence offered is sufficient to prove failure to comply with the 

 mining laws is the Chief of Field Division of the General Land 

 Office notified that the Forest Service desires to protest the claim. 



Such notification is in no sense a rejection of the claim. It merely 

 places before the Land Office the facts as found upon the ground 

 by the examining officer and the conclusions which the Forest Service 

 believes to be warranted by them. The Commissioner of the General 

 Land Office decides, with the evidence before him, whether a hearing 

 will be ordered. His action is necessarily largely influenced by the 

 recommendation of the Chief of Field Division, but is, of course, 

 subject to review by the Secretary of the Interior. 



The General Land Office is, under the laws of Congress, a land 

 court. The objectors to the present procedure practically deny the 

 right of the Government to appear before that court on behalf of the 

 people of the United States, as against a private claimant to mineral 

 lands, in order to introduce evidence of noncompliance with the law 

 under which the claimant seeks title. It is alleged that because the 

 Department of Agriculture is not refused the right accorded any 

 private citizen to seek cancellation of a claim thought to be illegal, 

 when an adverse interest exists, the mining industry is oppressed 

 and a bureaucratic despotism is permitted to overthrow and displace 

 the law. 



