2 AGRICULTURAL ENTRIES ON OIL AND GAS LANDS. This committee, upon considering the matter, decided to limit the application of the measure to the State of Utah, where it appears that a large quantity of lands withdrawn as oil lands are, in all probability agricultural lands and not valuable for oil. Objections were asserted to making the bill general. Great demand has been made to this committee for the legislation affecting Utah. In many localities elsewhere the lands withdrawn as oil lands are not agricultural in character, and it is believed that the measure, which is in part experimental, should be limited for the present to the State of Utah. The amendments to the bill are designed principally to make the act conform to the law as now in force relating to agricultural entries on coal lands. The letter of the Secretary of the Interior approving the bill as passed by the Senate is herewith printed as a part of this report. Hon. KNUTE NELSON, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Chairman Committee on Public Lands, United States Senate. SIR: I am in receipt, by reference from the Committee on Public Lands, of a copy of Senate bill 3045, Sixty-second Congress, first session, entitled "A bill to provide for agricultural entries on oil lands," transmitted for information as to the law and the facts and for such suggestions as the department may see fit to offer. The language of this bill follows substantially that employed in the act of June 22, 1910 (36 Stat., 583), providing for agricultural entries on coal lands, the term "oil" being substituted for "coal," and the proviso of the latter being omitted, which is as follows: "Provided, That the owner under such limited patent shall have the right to mine coal for use upon the land for domestic purposes at any time prior to the disposal by the United States of the coal deposits." Under the present state of the law, unreserved oil lands are subject to disposition at the rate of $2.50 per acre, under the provisions of the laws relating to placer mining claims, as is provided in the act of February 11, 1897 (29 Stat., 526). Even where oil lands are withdrawn, valid placer oil locations, antedating such withdrawals, and those claims falling within the purview and protection of the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat., 847), and the act of March 2, 1911 (36 Stat., 1015), may be passed to entry and patent upon due showing of compliance with the requirements of law. As nearly as can be ascertained, there are about 3,800,000 acres of reported oilbearing lands in the continental United States which have been withdrawn by presidential order, under the act of June 25, 1910, supra, "from settlement, location, sale, or entry and reserved for classification and in aid of legislation affecting the use and disposal of petroleum lands belonging to the United States." Like withdrawal has been made of lands in Alaska known to contain oil. The Geological Survey has examined and classified as oil many thousands of acres in California, but these classified oil lands are still withdrawn pending legislation. See page 23 et seq., Bulletin 406, 1910, of the Geological Survey, being also House Document No. 184, Sixty-first Congress, second session. Consequently, all withdrawn oil areas are effectually reserved from disposition either under the oil placer law or under the agricultural law, except as above noted. The department views with favor the general plan of separating, for the purpose of appropriate disposition, the surface from the subsurface mineral deposits, where such segregation can be brought about without detriment to, and is compatible with, the ultimate effective utilization of both estates. The act of June 22, 1910, supra, opening coal lands to certain specified surface agricultural appropriation, has been of undoubted benefit. The extension of this method of disposal to lands containing mineral deposits other than coal is considered logical and desirable. This feature of the bill meets with the department's entire approval. It would appear that under section 3 of the bill, should it be enacted into law, any person qualified to acquire oil deposits will have the right at all times to enter upon the lands selected, entered, or patented under its provisions to prospect for oil. This feature operates in so far to restore oil lands withdrawn in aid of future legislation. It is recognized that the present oil-land laws are imperfect and do not adequately protect the oil deposits existing in the public domain. The department has under consideration proposed recommendations for legislation relating to the disposition of oil lands and oil deposits, which, in apt time, will be regularly presented through the appropriate channels. It is respectfully suggested, therefore, that the provisions of the bill, on page 3, line 5, beginning with the words "the oil deposits," etc., continuing down to and including the word "damages," page 3, line 25, be stricken out, and in lieu thereof substantially the following be inserted: "The reserved oil deposits in such lands shall be disposed of only as shall be hereafter expressly directed by law." In connection with the consideration of this bill, it may not be inappropriate to direct attention to the fact that gas and phosphate lands are in a situation very similar to coal and oil lands. In Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah extensive areas are embraced in presidential phosphate withdrawals in aid of legislation pursuant to the act of June 25, supra. Section 2 of that act in part provides as follows: "That all lands withdrawn under the provisions of this act shall at all times be open to exploration, discovery, occupation, and purchase, under the mining laws of the United States, so far as the same apply to minerals other than coal, oil, gas, and phosphates." A comprehensive plan for the separation of surface rights from the underlying mineral deposits might well embrace gas and phosphate lands, as well as coal and oil, except in those special instances where the reserved phosphate lands contain surficial deposits of phosphate rock, the successful working and operating of which would of necessity inhibit the allowance of surface agricultural entries. Lands bearing such surface deposits might be set apart from other phosphate lands by special appropriate classification, and be designated as not subject to limited surface entries. In connection with the present bill attention is also called to Senate bill 3116, which provides for an amendment to section 1 of the act of June 22, 1910, so as to include in addition to the specific surface appropriations there mentioned State land selections in satisfaction of grants made to States. Upon this bill the department, on August 9, 1911, submitted a favorable report, with a suggested amendment. The same reason exists for extending like privileges to the States by permitting them to make surface selections upon oil lands, and as well upon gas and phosphate lands. With the suggested amendment, expressly reserving for future disposition the oil deposits contained in oil lands embraced in surface agricultural appropriations, incorporated therein, the department recommends that the bill submitted be enacted into law. Very respectfully, SAMUEL ADAMS, Acting Secretary. O BRIDGE ACROSS MISSISSIPPI RIVER AT MEMPHIS, TENN. AUGUST 7, 1912.-Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be printed. Mr. SIMS, from the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce; submitted the following REPORT. [To accompany H. R. 26149.] The Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 26149) to amend an act approved July 20, 1912, entitled "An act to authorize Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge across the Mississippi River," having considered the same, report thereon with a recommendation that it pass. On January 8, 1912, a bill was introduced in the House to authorize the Arkansas & Memphis Railway Bridge & Terminal Co. to construct a bridge across the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tenn. The original bill was amended by this committee and, as amended, passed the House on March 4, 1912. The Senate amended said bill so as to read as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the State of Tennessee, its successors and assigns, be, and are hereby, authorized to construct, maintain, and operate a bridge, and all approaches thereto, across the Mississippi River at Memphis, Tennessee, at a point suitable to the interests of navigation, in accordance with the provisions of the act entitled "An act to regulate the construction of bridges over navigable waters," approved March twenty-third, nineteen hundred and six: Provided, That said bridge shall be so constructed, maintained, and operated that in addition to its ure for railroad trains and trolley cars it shall provide for a separate roadway and approaches and continuous use by the public as a highway bridge to be used by vehicles, pedestrians, horsemen, and animals, and all kinds of highway traffic and travel, for the transit of which reasonable rates of toll may be charged and received, but no rate for passage of a single passenger on a railroad train shall exceed twenty-five cents: Provided further, That the said Arkansas and Memphis Railway Bridge and Terminal Company shall not be required to construct the approaches to said bridge necessary to adapt the same as a highway for trolley cars, vehicles, travelers on foot, and other like traffic, until there shall be paid, or payment thereof secured to its satisfaction, the sum of fifty thousand dollars by parties locally interested in such highway feature of said bridge. SEC. 2. That the right to alter, amend, or repeal this act is hereby expressly reserved. In this form it was passed by the Senate, returned to the House, and the Senate amendment was agreed to and the bill was approved by the President on July 20, 1912, and became the law. There was dissatisfaction with this bill both on the part of the railroad company and upon the part of the citizens of Crittenden County, Ark., which is just across the river from Memphis. These differences resulted in many public meetings, both in Memphis and in Crittenden County, at which amendments to the bill were proposed, and finally it was agreed between the bridge company on the one part and the city of Memphis on the second part and the county of Crittenden on the third part that the bill should be amended so as to provide the following changes: First. The provision for trolley cars was to be left out, and the question of trolley cars should be governed by the general bridge law. Second. That the bridge company should be relieved from maintaining the approaches to the wagon way of said bridge and the maintenance of said wagon way itself, if the wagon way is transferred as authorized in said proposed bill. Third. That the bridge company should not have the right to charge any tolls for the use of approaches or for the wagon way itself if same is transferred. Fourth. The first section of the bill was to be amended by inserting the words "an adequate and" before the words "a separate," so that it will read "an adequate and a separate roadway, etc." At a public meeting held in Crittenden County, Ark., on August 5, 1912, the following proceedings were had: Minutes of a meeting of citizens held at Marion, Crittenden County, Ark., August 5, 1912. Pursuant to call, a mass meeting of citizens was held at the courthouse of Crittenden County, at Marion, Ark., at 11.15 o'clock a. m., Monday, August 5, 1912. Hon. A. B. Shafer called the meeting to order, and thereupon Hon. W. J. Driver, circuit judge, was nominated and duly elected chairman of the meeting and Mr. S. V. Neely was thereupon nominated and duly elected secretary of the meeting. Chairman Driver stated that the meeting was called to hear the report of a committee consisting of Hons. A. B. Shafer, J. B. Thompson, and J. B. Rhodes, appointed at a similar meeting July 29, 1912, to confer with citizens and officials of the city of Memphis and officials of the Arkansas & Memphis Railway Bridge & Terminal Co. relative to the proposed construction across the Mississippi River at Memphis of a railway and wagon bridge by said company, and to agree, if possible, upon a form of bill to be approved for passage at the present session of Congress. Thereupon Hon. A. B. Shafer, for the committee, reported the action of the committee in conferring with officials and citizens of Memphis and with officials of the bridge and terminal company, and submitted to the meeting a proposition from the bridge and terminal company, a guaranty by Messrs. T. K. Riddick and C. P. J. Mooney, of Memphis, and an agreement by the city of Memphis, through Hon. E. H. Crump, mayor, all appertaining to the construction of the bridge. Mr. Shafer then submitted a form of bill which the committee recommended, with certain amendments, for approval by the meeting, the report of the committee reading as follows: "We recommend that the proposed draft of the bill be amended by inserting in section 1, before the words 'a separate,' the words 'an adequate and,' so it will read 'an adequate and a separate roadway,' etc., and we recommend that there be added to section 2 the words and shall not receive or collect tolls for use of said approaches.' We recommend that nothing be said about interurban or trolley cars in the bill, but that reliance be placed upon the general law and the reserved power of Congress to amend the act to take care of such cars when they become available. "A. B. SHafer. "J. B. THOMPSON. |