176 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



prosecution of work leading to discovery is discontinued. A power- 

 s-ite withdrawal is without effect as against a valid subsisting home- 

 stead or desert-land entry or claim of valid settlement so long as it is 

 maintained and perfected pursuant to law, but the withdrawal be- 

 comes effective whenever the entryman or settler no longer continues 

 to comply with the law under which the entry or settlement was 

 made. With the foregoing exceptions, a power-site withdfawal 

 under the acts of June 25, 1910, and August 24, 1912, is effective 

 against all claims or entries on which rights have not vested prior to 

 the date of the withdrawal. 



Withdrawn lands having valuable possibilities for the develop- 

 ment of power are alienated in the usual way if they are included 

 in the excepted classes described above, although possibly the claims 

 for such lands are subjected to a more careful scrutiny. If it ap- 

 pears that the claimant is attempting to obtain title to land because 

 of its value for power, and if its power value is greater than its 

 value for the alleged purpose of the claim, patent may be refused 

 and the entry canceled. Cases of this nature arise most frequently 

 in connection with metalliferous mineral entries, although not a 

 few power sites have been homesteaded or acquired under the timber 

 and stone law. 



In the case of claims against which a power-site withdrawal is 

 effective, a most unfortunate situation occasionally arises. For ex- 

 ample, title to land may be sought by the application of scrip, and 

 the claim may be initiated in advance of a power-site withdrawal. 

 The claimant may have expended considerable sums in improve- 

 ment and cultivation and have proceeded throughout in good faith. 

 Nevertheless, the land sought to be acquired may be worth for power 

 many times its agricultural value, and when this dominant power 

 value is ascertained the land is naturally included in a power-site 

 reserve. In such cases it is always a grave question whether the 

 public interest is best served by the defeat or -confirmation of the 

 claim. Under the strict rule of the law the claimant has no rights 

 in the case. No provision of law makes it possible to give him 

 agricultural rights and reserve to the United States the rights of 

 power development. Unless, therefore, the value of the land for 

 the development of power is so great as to demand reservation for 

 that purpose, public interest appears to sanction the claim of the 

 individual as against that of the Nation, and elimination of the land 

 from the power-site reserve is recommended 



NONPOWEK CLASSIFICATION. 



In connection with the office studies incident to the report on the 

 power-site possibilities of lands embraced in subsisting claims and 

 wilih the investigation of power sites a mass of informatiQn is 



