3i6 Proceedings oi^ the 



No. II reads as follows: "Upon receipt of applica- 

 tions for right of way by the General Land Office, the 

 same will be examined and then submitted to the 

 Secretary of the Interior with recommendation as to 

 their approval. Permission to use rights of way 

 through a reservation or any park designated in the 

 act will only be granted upon approval of the chief 

 officer of the department under whose supervision 

 such park or reservation falls and upon finding by 

 him that the same is not incompatible with the public 

 interest. If the application and the showing rnade in 

 support thereof is satisfactory, the Secretary of the 

 Interior will give the required permission in such form 

 as may be deemed proper, according to the features 

 of each case; and it is to be expressly understood, in 

 accordance with the final proviso of the act, that any 

 permission given thereunder may be modified or 

 revoked by the Secretary or his successor, in his discre- 

 tion, at any time, and shall not be held to confer any 

 right, easement, or interest in, to or over any public 

 land, reservation or park. The final disposal by the 

 United States of any tract traversed by the permitted 

 right of way is of itself without further act on the part 

 of the department a revocation of the permission so 

 far as it affects that tract, and any permission granted 

 hereunder is also, subject to such further and future 

 regulations as may be adopted by the Department." 



In short, gentlemen, the miner who, at a cost of 

 thousands, nay hundreds of thousands of dollars, has 

 constructed his ditches across the public lands of the 

 reservation in order to make profitable a mining prop- 

 erty otherwise idle and worthless, holds his investment 

 of dollars and brains subject not only to the changing 

 policy, to say naught of the whims and caprices, of an 

 administrative officer of the Government, but, what is 



