her should be sold at public sale, separately from the land, 

 which might be disposed of later. 



Here luck stepped in to bestow upon these pioneer con- 

 servationists a rich treasure of which they had not dreamed. 

 Underneath large tracts of these timber lands lay deposits of 

 iron ore, all undiscovered. Had the usual policy of dispos- 

 ing of the land along with the timber been followed, this 

 great source of wealth would have gone into the hands of 

 individuals. As it was, it has been reserved for the state. 



Even so, Minnesota owes much to the refusal of State 

 Auditor Braden to sell lands in the iron range at the mini- 

 mum price fixed in 1863. Believing that the law should be 

 amended so as to retain all mineral rights for the state, he 

 stopped sales of such lands, and in the end the legislature 

 passed a law providing for the leasing of ore areas, and nam- 

 ing a royalty of 25 cents a ton on ore mined under these 

 leases. 



It has been since felt that this sum is too small, and the 

 law has been repealed, with the result that leasing of ore 

 lands has ended. The state believes that there is no need 

 of haste, and that a suitable royalty can be fixed when the 

 demand for these lands becomes insistent. 



It would be a mistake to suppose that Minnesota has been 

 absolutely faultless in her administration of public lands. 

 One exception was made to the policy of a permanent fund, 

 when some "salt spring" lands were turned over to the state 

 university, to supply, by their sale, money for a geological 

 and natural history survey of the state. Over $300,000 of 

 principal went in this way. Another loss was of the pro- 

 ceeds from the sale of 500,000 acres of land which the people, 

 by direct vote, took out of the permanent fund and devoted 

 to payment of bonds that an early legislature had repudiated. 



With all deductions, however, the record of the state is 

 unique. Newspaper readers are becoming accustomed to in- 

 credible estimates of the income of Minnesota and the Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota from these ore lands so fortunately re- 

 served. But conservative figures are wonderful enough. To 

 be appreciated, they must be placed beside those of other 

 states. 



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