MINERAL RESOURCES OF UNITED STATES 9 



has at times suggested the nationalization of oin* mineral 

 industr}^, with the object of checking the abuses referred to. 

 It may be doubted whether our practical good sense will ever 

 allow that question to come to the front. The nation as such 

 has only control now of these mineral resources which lie 

 dormant in the national domain. In order to encourage their 

 development, ownership is surrendered under easy conditions 

 to the discoverer. That policy has unquestionably fostered 

 enterprise in the past, but it is an open question whether the 

 time is not approaching when the nation at large must assume 

 the attitude of some state governments and of all private 

 owners of mineral lands. These demand a royalty which 

 may become an important source of revenue, and they gen- 

 erally produce what is more important to the nation, that the 

 mine shall be operated in a workmanlike manner. The 

 present generation has responsibilities to future generations. 

 In their behalf it has the right and the duty to demand that 

 the nation's gifts be not wantonly destroyed; that every 

 means which engineering skill suggests be exhausted; that 

 every reasonable precaution be taken to preserv^e from de- 

 struction useful mineral which, while not profitably available 

 now, may become highly precious to future generations. 



Nor should title to mineral property on the public domain 

 be given without some provision for its surrender as the 

 penalty for long continued idleness. It should revert to the 

 nation, when after reasonable opportunity the discoverer is 

 either unable or unwilling to utilize nature's bounty. 



The United States has been exceedingly generous in 

 throwing open mineral resources. It has been a w^ise polic}^ 

 which the results on the whole have thoroughly justified. 

 But conditions have changed greatly. The opening up of 

 our mineral resources has ceased to be the hazardous under- 

 taking it once was. Their utilization has become an under- 

 taking in which engineering skill can more readily guarantee 

 results. The splendid work of the U. S. Geological Surv^ey has 

 brushed away many uncertainties. The development of our 

 great railway system has lessened costs, and cheaper and 

 more confident capital has become a willing handmaiden to 

 enterprise. The time is therefore approaching, if it is not now 



