MINERALS 255 



government tests specimens of ores to determine their mineral 

 content. 



On the whole, however, the chief influence of the federal 

 government on our mineral problems has been exerted through 

 its distribution of the mineral lands to private individuals dur' 

 ing the last half of the last century. This surrender of control 

 over mineral development has led to wasteful exploitation and 

 has created a series of complex conservation problems. In this 

 respect the federal mineral policy is similar to the surrender of 

 public control over forest and range land and water power. The 

 American people are now trying to recapture some of this lost 

 control. So far they haven't gone very far. In the case of min- 

 erals, this effort has until now been devoted principally to get" 

 ting certain mineral users to cooperate so that some essential 

 minerals like oil and coal will be exploited less wastefully. 



This control of mineral use is in most cases a state right. 

 The states have two types of control. One of these is the police 

 power. As in the Oklahoma Oil Wars, the state can, if neces' 

 sary, call out the National Guard to enforce regulations re 

 garding the use of minerals. In addition to this, the states, 

 through their power to tax, can control the use of minerals. 

 Taxes of this sort are the severence laws of Wisconsin and the 

 iron ore taxes of Minnesota. 



However, with the possible exception of petroleum control, 

 no plan to control minerals comparable to the federal control of 

 agriculture has been successfully undertaken. 



The wish of the Conservation Commission of 1909 for "the 

 immediate creation of a national agency" to control mineral 

 use has not been answered. It is difficult to work out any 

 effective control so long as the industries that believe in, or 

 are forced to wasteful use of minerals are powerful enough to 

 block government control. That conservation and regulation 

 of minerals is essential to the well-being of the people as a whole 

 is unquestionable. The mineral producers, on the other hand, 



