266 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



tains, directly on an electric car line leading from a city of consider- 

 able size. Along the Grand Canon there are many mining claims, 

 locations made years ago, ostensibly for mineral, but in reality cover- 

 ing portions of the canon rim and trails in such a way as to give the 

 claimants the right to exact a charge upon the traveling public/^ 

 Attempts on the part of power companies to procure title to power 

 sites by locating mining claims have been fairly numerous. 



Thus abuses of the mining laws have been much the same in recent 

 years as in earlier periods, except that, with the increasing vigilance 

 of the government, such abuses are undoubtedly much less frequent 

 than formerly. Most locations are made in good faith ; in fact, certain 

 officials have estimated that four fifths of the locations are bona fide. 



The man who engages in mining as a legitimate, permanent indus- 

 try has no serious grounds for complaint against the national forests 

 or the Forest Service. He is not limited as to the time within which he 

 must apply for patent, but is at liberty to develop the ground and 

 extract the mineral to any extent, subject only to the mining laws of 

 the state. The miner has no trouble in applying for patent under the 

 mining laws if the ground is chiefly valuable for minerals. The one who 

 has trouble is the man who tries to secure, under cover of the mining 

 laws, a town site, a summer resort, valuable timber land, a water 

 power site, watering places in the desert, or mineral springs in the 

 mountains ; or the man who tries to capitalize a worthless hole in the 

 ground, and sell mining stock to the gullible public. 



There is one way in which the Forest Service has perhaps retarded 

 the development of mining in the reserves, and that is by restricting 

 the use of timber for mining purposes. In an earlier period, miners took 

 vast quantities of timber absolutely free of cost, and under such cir- 

 cumstances could of course develop their mines very cheaply and 

 rapidly. However, as Pinchot has pointed out, the Forest Service, by 

 its conservation policy, provides the only practicable future supply of 

 timber for mining, and so provides best for its long-time develop- 

 ment.^* 



17 ^m. Forestry, Apr., 1917, 225 et seq.: Report, Forester, 1914, 3. 



18 See Cong. Bee, Feb. 26, 1909, 3040; Mar. 8, 1910, 2893; Mar. 1, 1911, 3772; 

 Mar. 12, 1914, 4752, 4753: Forest Bui. 67, 13: Report, Sec of Agr., 1908, 415; 1912, 

 475: Report, Forester, 1914, 3. 



