MINERALS 237 



property of the federal government. The question was what to 

 do with these minerals. That they required some special treat' 

 ment was recognized by the Ordinance of 1785 reserving to 

 the government "one-third part of all gold, silver, lead and 

 copper mines" which were to be disposed of along with the 

 other "western" lands. 4 



In 1807 this mineral land policy was changed. Congress 

 passed an act leasing to private operators several lead mines 

 in Indiana territory. Then in 1829 the leasing idea was aban' 

 doned and Congress passed a law which permitted the federal 

 government to sell outright reserved lead mines in Missouri. 5 



From 1845 to 1850 a series of acts was passed prohibiting 

 the leasing system and substituting the idea of outright sale. 

 President Polk, in his message to Congress, added one other 

 point to this program for the disposal of federal mineral lands. 

 He believed that some arrangement should be made in the sale 

 "reserving to the Government an equitable percentage of the 

 gross amount of the mineral product." 6 This was the first ap' 

 pearance of the royalty system in disposing of public lands. 

 The royalty system means that the government demands that 

 the purchaser of the mineral resource pay to the government 

 a certain percentage of the value he takes from the mine. Con 

 gress rejected President Folk's suggestion to do this in 1845, 

 but about ninety years later, Congress was passing just such 

 laws. 



From 1854 to 1936 the Lake Superior Region has produced 

 1,641,876,150 tons of iron ore 7 and 4,446,343 tons of copper. 8 

 If Congress had kept the idea of charging a royalty for mineral 



* Van Hise and Havemeyer, op. cit., p. 109. 



5 Loc. ctt. 



6 Loc. cit. 



7 Robert H. Ridgeway and H. W. Davis. Iron Ore, Pig Iron, Ferro'Alloys, and 

 Steel Chapter from Minerals Tearboo^, 1937, Review; of 1936. United States 

 Government Printing Office, Washington, 1937, p. 590. 



8 Letter from J. H. Hedges, Acting Director, Bureau of Mines, August, 1938. 



