60 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



are reserving minerals. In Colorado, all such land 

 contracts reserve these minerals to the State. But 

 when it is asked how the State purposes to handle 

 them in the future, there is no answer. The States 

 east of the Mississippi River regard the Public 

 Lands of the West and the natural resources in them 

 as the property of the United States, in reserve. 



"The principal question now is whether the 

 United States as a central administrator, or segre- 

 gated States operating independently under differ- 

 ent State laws, would be the better agency to admin- 

 ister the remaining Public Lands and their mineral 

 deposits. Which would be least vulnerable to local 

 influence lending themselves to their disposition by 

 transfer at less perhaps than their potential worth? 

 Would any State having Public Lands prefer to ad- 

 minister them and pay the Government royalties in- 

 stead of the Government administering and paying 

 the royalties to the States ? How many of our newer 

 States could actually afford to own and administer 

 the public lands within their boundaries? Their 

 net financial income is greater now than if they 

 themselves administered them. 



"The mineral industry is vitally interested in 

 whether the remaining public lands with their min- 

 eral contents are administered by the National Gov- 

 ernment or by the States. Within each State there 

 would then be a different law with which applicants 

 for mineral leases would have to comply. This would 

 result in a multiplicity of laws with which the min- 



