coal trade bulletin - Clpdigital.org

48 THE COAL TRADE BULLETIN.
talist class. Does not the remedy for presentday
evils seem to be for the scientist, the engineer,
to enter the service of the people, simply
by taking a larger interest in civic questions and
exercising a larger influence in public matters?
To consider now perhaps the most important
matter in which this body is particularly interested,
namely, the federal legislation needed to
promote mining on the public lands, we will find
it imperative to recognize certain ideas that have
won large popular support, if not adoption, by the
majority, especially, as these ideas have never
been written into our archaic mining laws. Stated
plainly, some of these ideas sound commonplace.
but it is on commonplaces that we must build,
if we are to have laws fitted for everyday use. I
will mention ce'-tain of these almost axiomatictruths
for two good reasons: In the first place,
they are probably not accepted by all who are
connected with the mining industry, and secondly.
as I have just hinted, these commonplaces of today
have little or no expression in the statutes under
which the miner in the West must operate.
Here are some principles to which no group of
individuals can assert a claim based on prior discovery
or continuous possession; they belong in
fee simple to that large body of Americans who
have come to realize that unregulated private
monopoly and good citizenship are antagonistic
terms. The public possesses greater rights than
any individual or corporation. Private enterprise
must be subordinated to the public good.
Big business is not necessarily either vicious or
unfriendly to public interest, but big business
more than small business is in need of a strong
c ontrol by the people. The day of big business,
in the sense of unnatural and unrestrained monopoly
and special privilege, is passing. Effective
inspection and intelligent regulation of industry
by the people's representatives will increase. The
bright light of publicity should and will shine on
the inner workings of all private business which
either touches or controls the production and distribution
of the necessaries of life, and publicity
is logically the first step in regulation by the
people.
All these propositions must, I believe, he accepted
as premises in the formation of any new
mining statutes whose purpose is to provide at
all adequately for the present and the future.
Nor are these all; other principles applying more
particularly to
THIS LEGISLATIVE PROBLEM
are hardly less fundamental. Mining has become
a business rather than a gamble. The federal
government, no less than the state governments, is
concerned, not with restriction or reservation, but
with promotion and encouragement of new mines
and increased mineral output to the fullest extent
necessary to meet current market demands for
each product. Every generation has its own right
to use natural resources, but no generation has
the right to abuse or waste whatever mineral
wealth it inherits. Not only advances in publicopinion,
but also changes in economic conditions
place demands upon legislation, and the mineral
land laws of 20, 40 or 50 years ago cannot meet
the requirements of today. To illustrate: The
coal mined west of the Mississippi river in 1873
amounted to less than 2,000,000 tons, and last
year to over 58,000,000 tons. The oil production
in the public land states in 1897 was 2,000.000 barrels
ancl last year 141,000,000 barrels, yet 1873 and
1897 are the dates of tbe latest federal enactments
providing for the acquisition of coal and oil lands,
respectively. Here are some infant industries
that have grown up and deserve laws to fit.
In order to serve the American people, a term
which includes capitalist as well as mine worker,
and consumer as well as mine operator, the new
laws recognize every factor in the complex task
of taking something out of the ground and making
it useful. Every man who has a part in this
undertaking, from prospector to ultimate consumer,
has his rights, and these rights must be
recognized, measured and protected. All these
men are in reality partners in the enterprise.
Any undue advantage allowed to any one partner
is pretty sure to involve unfair treatment of one
or more of the others. The prices of mine products
cannot be regulated, as some radicals advocate,
nor can either the industry or the prices
even be subjected to beneficial influence, except
as full consideration is given to costs.
Increase in mine safety, decrease in waste
and improvement of working conditions, in
part at least, will involve increase in operating
expenses and may therefore raise prices. Open
books and standardized accounting will soon come
to be the rule in all large productive operations.
The people will demand full opportunity to knowall
the elements of cost in the coal they burn—
whether or not the land owner ancl the operator
are making a profit or a loss, whether the mine
worker gets a living wage and what are his working
conditions, whether the transportation company
and the middleman are receiving their share
or more than their share. The public doesn't
want to stop or obstruct private business, but it
does demand that fair play be the rule of the game.
To come now to the question of what is needed
in mineral land legislation, a
PLAIN STATEMENT OF FACTS
will help. Legislative programs too often resemble
the hotel bill of fare which the average
citizen has to ask the waiter to translate. In