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The National Geographic Magazine 



been a great improvement in this direc- 

 tion in this country. It should be stated, 

 however, that we can never hope to 

 utilize the entire contents of a deposit. 

 Still, there can be no doubt that we 

 have paid dearly in wasted resources 

 for the achievements of opening them 

 up so rapidly. 



We have no particular grounds for 

 mere pride of possession in our mag- 

 nificent resources. Our glory, from a 

 national point of view, should be com- 

 pleteness of utilization, and that has at 

 times suggested the nationalization of 

 our mineral industry with the object of 

 checking the abuses referred to. It 

 may be doubted whether our practical 

 good sense will ever allow that question 

 to come to the front. The nation as 

 such has only control now of those 

 mineral resources which lie dormant in 

 the national domain. In order to en- 

 courage .their development, ownership 

 is surrendered under easy conditions to 

 the discoverer. That policy has un- 

 questionably fostered enterprise in the 

 past, but it is an open question whether 

 the time is not approaching when the 

 nation at large must assume the attitude 

 of some state governments and of all 

 private owners of mineral lands. These 

 demand a royalty which may become an 

 important source of revenue, and they 

 generally provide, what is more im- 

 portant to the nation, that the mine 

 shall be operated in a workmanlike 

 manner. The present generation has 

 responsibilities to future generations. 

 In their behalf it has the right and the 

 duty to demand that the nation's gifts 

 be not wantonly destroyed ; that every 

 means which engineering skill suggests 

 be exhausted ; that every reasonable 

 precaution be taken to preserve from 

 destruction useful mineral which, while 

 not profitably available now, may be- 

 come highly precious to future genera- 

 tions. 



Nor should title to mineral property 

 on the public domain be given without 



some provision for its surrender as the 

 penalty for long continued idleness. It 

 should revert to the nation when after 

 reasonable opportunity the discoverer is 

 either unable or unwilling to utilize 

 nature's bounty. 



The United States has been exceed- 

 ingly generous in throwing open its 

 mineral resources. It has been a wise 

 policy which the results on the whole 

 have thoroughly justified. But condi- 

 tions have changed greatly. The open- 

 ing up of our mineral resources has 

 ceased to be the hazardous undertaking 

 it once was. Their utilization has be- 

 come an undertaking in which engi- 

 neering skill can more readily guarantee 

 results. The splendid work of our 

 U. S. Geological Survey has brushed 

 away many uncertainties. The devel- 

 opment of our great railway systems has 

 lessened costs, and cheaper and more 

 confident capital has become a willing 

 handmaiden to enterprise. The time is 

 therefore approaching, if it is not now 

 at hand, when the nation is justified in 

 imposing conditions not hitherto war- 

 ranted. Conspicuous among these 

 should be a rigid enforcement of the 

 obligation to put a stop to wanton 

 waste. 



In the last few years a good deal of 

 alarm has been felt that very dangerous 

 monopolies may be created through the 

 control of our mineral resources by 

 powerful consolidations of capital. At 

 the first blush, in studying the magni- 

 tude of those resources, we may feel in- 

 clined to dismiss the danger as remote. 

 It assumes a somewhat different aspect, 

 however, when we begin to differentiate. 

 The conditions affecting the industrial 

 utilization of mineral propert}' vary 

 greatly, and a closer study reveals the 

 fact that a relatively small number of 

 the deposits, through favoring circum- 

 stances, give their possessors special 

 advantages. The deposits may be ex- 

 ceptionalfy rich or extensive, particu- 

 larly pure, or may be so located with 



