The Bureau of Mines in carrying out one of the provisions of its organic act-to disseminate information concerning investigations made-prints a limited free edition of each of its publications. When this edition is exhausted copies may be obtained at cost price only through the Superintendent of Documents, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. The Superintendent of Documents is not an official of the Bureau of Mines. His is an entirely separate office and he should be addressed: SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, Government Printing Office, The general law under which publications are distributed prohibits the giving of more than one copy of a publication to one person. The cost of this publication is $2.50 per set. Cloth. NOTE. This report consists of two parts: PART I. Preface; explanation of entire report; a complete table of contents, and sections of the Revised Statutes and Statutes at Large relating to metalliferous and coal mining, with annotations. Pp. 1-860. PART II. Table of contents of Part II; Statutes at Large and sections of Revised Statutes relating to miscellaneous mining subjects, with annotations; a list of abbreviations; a list of sections of Revised Statutes; a list of Statutes at Large; a list of the sections of Revised Statutes cited; a list of the Statutes at Large cited; a table of all cases cited, and a word index. Pp. 861-1772. II First edition. 1915. PREFACE. In order to be able to point out the laws and regulations best adapted to increase safety and efficiency in the mineral industries in the United States, the Bureau of Mines has undertaken the work of codifying all laws, rules, and regulations relating to mining, the primary purpose being to aid legislative bodies in framing uniform laws that would be an aid to the mining industry. The United States mining statutes have been in force for almost half a century. The original enactment of 1866 was supplanted by the revision of 1872. No other revision has ever been undertaken, only a few amendments have been added, and the statutes have been made to apply to additional varieties of mineral deposits. The first statute was enacted when mining on the public domain was in its infancy and before the needs of the industry were either understood or appreciated. The act was necessarily imperfect and in many respects indefinite, uncertain, and subject to a variety of interpretations. A perfect system of mining laws could not be expected in advance of both experience and development, nor could the act of 1866, or the revision of 1872, anticipate the future demands of the industry and provide for the various and complicated contingencies that have since arisen in the conduct of mining operations. Since 1866 the mineral industries of the country have grown enormously. The capital invested in mining and allied industries in the United States amounts to billions of dollars, and these industries employ no less than 3,500,000 men. With this growth many legal questions have arisen that have led to a great number of conflicting decisions being handed down by the courts in their endeavors to define, construe, and apply to new conditions the vague or conflicting provisions in the statutes. As a result of defective or indefinite laws the miner, in pursuing his enterprise on the public domain and in attempting to locate and acquire what the Government intended to give him, has been involved in difficulties and in harassing and expensive litigation. This bulletin presents, in connection with each section and statute, abstracts of decisions of all courts and executive officers construing these acts, every such abstract being printed with appropriate title lines and headings in logical order immediately after the section or statute explained or interpreted. Thus the status of every Federal mining law is shown, the purpose being to make the abstracts intelligible to all interested persons and to point out how the courts eliminate many defects and uncertainties and aid in the practical application of the statutes. In this way one is aided in determining the course to be taken in applying the provisions of a statute to a particular contingency. This publication is for the benefit of those engaged in various mining enterprises, it being intended to serve as a guide in the location of claims and in the determination of mining rights and duties, and also to point out the right road to follow in order to insure increased efficiency and greater safety in the conduct of mining operations. J. A. HOLMES. AUTHOR'S EXPLANATION. This work is a codification and annotation of the Congressional enactments relating to minerals, mineral lands, and mining. It covers every enactment of Congress from the original ordinance of 1785 to the present time, as well as all sections of the Revised Statutes of the United States relating to these subjects. These laws are grouped according to their general subject matter, and are arranged thereunder in numerical or chronological order. Many of the mining statutes include matter not pertinent to the subject, and only those parts of such acts are quoted as will properly show their relation to minerals and mineral lands and indicate how they should be construed. Some mining acts have been repealed or have become obsolete, and others have become incorporated substantially in sections of the Revised Statutes; but these are retained in order to show the changes made, and the constructions placed thereon by the courts are given as aids in construing the new or repealing acts. The annotations consist of legal propositions abstracted from the decisions of the various courts and executive officers of the Government that have interpreted the sections and statutes so codified. These legal propositions are arranged under the different sections and acts with appropriate headings, titles, and subtitles, in logical order, exhibiting the present status of each particular section or act and its application to the subject of mines and mineral lands. The annotations do not purport to be abstracts of decisions on the substantive law of mines and mining generally, but are limited strictly to the interpretation placed on a given section or act definitely referred to by a court or executive officer by the number of the section of the Revised Statutes or the volume and page of the Statutes at Large in which the Congressional enactment is found. It may be observed that the legal propositions stated are not always pertinent to the particular section or act under which they are classed and of which they purport to give a construction. The arrangement, however, is not an arbitrary one, but is so made for the reason that the courts or officers in the construction of a particular section or act definitely referred to by number or volume and page incorporated in the decision matter not strictly pertinent to the particular section or act so designated. This statement applies especially to the interpretations placed on the sections of the Revised Statutes. The decisions abstracted for the purpose of this work are those of the United States Supreme Court, 234 volumes; the various Federal courts, 214 volumes; the decisions of the General Land Office, 42 volumes; the decisions of the General Land Office as reported in Copp's Land Owner, 20 volumes; Copp's Mineral Lands, 1 volume; Copp's Mining Decisions, 1 volume; Sickels's Mining Laws and Decisions, 1 volume; Opinions of the Attorneys General, 28 volumes, and the decisions of the courts of last resort of the several States. It is desired to make readily accessible to laymen and professional men alike the contents of this work. For this purpose, and because of their importance, the general mining sections of the Revised Statutes have been placed first, followed by the sections and acts applicable to coal and coal lands, as being second in importance. Then follow miscellaneous sections and an alphabetical list of the various other subjects treated. In addition to this arrangement there is a general index of the subjects treated; a complete table of contents of the annotated subjects; a table of all sections of the Revised Statutes and of all the United States Statutes at Large, arranged in numerical and chronological order, and a similar table of all the sections and statutes cited in the annotations; a complete word index to the sections, statutes, and the entire body of annotations, and a table of cases, alphabetically arranged, of every case cited, with reference to the page or pages where any given case may be found. The references to cases give the page of the volume of the report where the case begins and also the particular page on which the stated proposition is found. A list of abbreviations used in the work is given to show the system adopted and to designate by full title the publications so abbreviated. Much care has been taken in the preparation of the work and the object has been to make it both complete and accurate. Particular effort has been made to adapt it to the needs of the practical miner and to make it available and useful to nonprofessional persons engaged in the various mining enterprises. Acknowledgment is made of the valuable assistance rendered by Clarence B. Dutton and Union B. White. J. W. THOMPSON. |