e recognition of the fact that tariffs, taxes, conservation,
international mineral questions, leasing laws, and various technical
investigations of minerals are but parts of a great unit problem. With
this recognition there should follow naturally an attempt to correlate
and direct the many government agencies, legislative and administrative,
now concerned with different aspects of the problem. Under present
conditions, the various elements of the problem are considered by
different groups of persons, without sufficient contacts or correlation
to promise the development of a broad, underlying policy.

EFFECT OF OWNERSHIP LAWS ON EXPLORATION

The nature and the progress of exploration (and development) in
different countries have been more or less related to the character of
the mining laws.

Where the mineral resource has passed from government control into
private ownership, exploration is a matter of commercial arrangement
between the explorer and the owner. There is often some lag in
exploration, especially where the lands are held in considerable blocks.
The owner is often not inclined, or unable, to institute effective
exploration himself; and even though he is willing to offer favorable
exploration terms to others, the inducement is often less attractive
than on government lands. For instance, it is stated that in England,
due to the many requirements of law and custom, it takes on an average
eight years, and in some cases even longer, to close a coal lease after
the terms have been agreed upon. The slowness of exploration and
development on the great land grants in the United States, and on the
tracts of the large timber companies, also illustrates the retarding
effect of private ownership. It is partly this situation that is making
governments increasingly careful about parting with mineral ownership,
and that is leading to the introduction of more or less coercive
measures, either to regain control or to make it easier for the public
to explore and develop minerals on privately owned lands. Under the
great land grants to railroads in the United States it is becoming
increasingly difficult to secure mineral patents from the government;
and there has been litigation between government and grantees, as in the
case of certain oil lands of the Southern Pacific Railway. The taxation
in some states of mineral rights which have been reserved by large
owners is indirectly resulting in appraisal of these rights by th