42 BULIiETIN 102, VOL. 1, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



to undue trouble and expense in meeting the legal requirements of his 

 holdings. Moreover, the method of leasing under small-unit opera- 

 tions leads to a wasteful competition between neighboring wells in 

 their race to secure a maximum production within the period of the 

 lease — ^haste, with waste, being an economic necessity in such in- 

 stances. In regard to lands owned by the Government, the legal regu- 

 lations are so ill-adapted to progress that R. H. Johnson and L. G. 

 Huntley in their " Principles of Oil and Gas Production," ^ remark : 

 " Most of the public lands which seem promising for oil and gas have 

 been withdrawn,^ since there is universal agreement by both Govern- 

 ment and producers that the present law, by which oil and gas lands 

 are taken as placer claims, is utterly unadapted to the industry.^ 

 The development of the lands which are not withdrawn would best 

 be postponed until a new oil and gas prospecting permit and leasing 

 law is passed, and the oil placer claim law revoked, except where 

 work is already started."* 



TBANSPOBTATION. 



One of the remarkable and impressive features of the petroleum in- 

 dustry is the fact that the crude product is transported through a sys- 

 tem of pipe-lines that connect the points of production with refineries, 

 markets, and seaports. This method of handling is natural and inevi- 

 table with a liquid product consumed in bulk, as evidenced by a some- 

 what analogous method of transportation adopted for municipal 

 water supply. While petroleum shares with coal the main responsi- 

 bility for energizing the mechanical activities of the country, it is 

 interesting to note that crude oil, unlike raw coal, imposes normally 

 no appreciable burden upon the railroads. 



» New York, 1916, pp. 112-113. 



• That Is, closed to private development pending a determination of policy. The Sec- 

 retary of the Interior, In a letter to the chairman of the Committee on the Public Lands, 

 House of Representatives, under date of Apr. 24, 1917, writes : " Six million four hun- 

 dred and ninety-one thousand one hundred and forty-five acres of public lands believed 

 to contain oil are withdrawn from development. A part of this area is proven terri- 

 tory, in direct touch with pipe lines and refineries, and the product could be made im- 

 mediately available by the enactment of this measure. I therefore earnestly recommend 

 that H. R. 3232 be enacted at the earliest practicable moment as a war measure." 

 (Committee Print of Departmental Reports on H. R. 3232 and S. 2812, Washington, 1918, 

 p. 4.) The matter is still (July 1, 1918) under abeyance. 



» See letter of the Secretary of the Interior to chairman of the Committee on Public 

 Lands, under date of Jan. 3, 1916 (published in Committee Print of Departmental Re- 

 ports on H. R. 3232 and S. 2812, Washington, 1918, p. 8), which states: "Oil and 

 gas lands or deposits are now subject to location and entry under the placer mining 

 laws. These laws have generally been unsatisfactory, both from the standpoint of the 

 prospectors and operators and of the Government. There la nothing in the present law 

 to protect the prospector during the preliminary period, when, through the expenditure 

 of large capital, he is engaged in drilling, and the limitations as to acreage contained in 

 the existing laws are also a temptation to evade, through the use of dummy locations." 



* It is unfortunately true that mining in the United States has been badly impeded by 

 a set of laws handed down from the past and wholly unadapted to modem conditions 

 of mining. Sporadic attempts, usually unsuccessful, have been made to improve certain 

 details of these laws, but In general American mining law remains a discredit to the 

 Nation. In the present war emergency the country is paying a heavy penalty for its 

 neglect of this matter. 



