Lapas attēli
PDF
ePub
[blocks in formation]

OIL SHALE LANDS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 1931

UNITED STATES SENATE,

COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS,

Washington, D. C.

in room

The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m., 326, Senate Office Building, Senator Key Pittman, of Nevada, presiding.

Present: Senators Pittman (acting chairman), Glenn, Kendrick, Walsh of Montana, and Bratton.

Present also: Hon. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior; Hon. Edward C. Finney, Solicitor, Department of the Interior; Northcutt Ely, executive assistant to the Secretary of the Interior; U. E., Goerner, Esq., assistant law examiner, General Land Office. Senator WALSH of Montana. Gentlemen, in the absence of the chairman of the committee, I will suggest that Senator Pittman be requested to act as chairman.

Senator PITTMAN. Very well.

The resolution upon which the committee will conduct its hearings will be inserted in the record at this point.

(Senate Resolution 379 reads as follows:)

Whereas it has been recently charged in the public press upon the authority of a former employee of the Government, of reputed good character, long in the service of and charged with the duty of inquiring into the circumstances attending the disposition of the public lands, that considerable areas of such, valuable potentially and otherwise because of the oil shales in which they abound, have been improvidently, erroneously, and unlawfully, if not corruptly, transferred to individuals and private corporations, to the great loss of the public: Therefore be it

Resolved, That the Committee on Public Lands and Surveys, or any subcommittee thereof, be, and hereby is, authorized and directed to inquire into the charges so made and into the alienation of oil-shale lands of the United States, so far as they have been alienated, and to the practices, rulings, and action of the Department of the Interior in relation to the preservation or disposition of such lands, or of applications for patent to the same, and to make such recommendations as to it may seem appropriate touching needed legislation or other governmental action for the recovery of any such lands as may have been wrongfully alienated, or for a review of any final award by the Secretary of the Interior of any such lands.

The said committee or subcommittee is hereby authorized to sit, act, and perform its duties at such times and places as it deems necessary or proper; to require by subpoena or otherwise the attendance of witnesses; to require the production of books, papers, documents, and other evidence; and to employ counsel, experts, and other assistants. The cost of stenographic service to report such hearings shall not exceed 25 cents per hundred words. The chairman of the committee or subcommittee, or any member thereof, may sign subpoenas and administer oaths to witnesses; and every person duly summoned before said committee or subcommittee, who refuses or fails to obey the process of said committee or subcommittee, or appears and refuses to answer questions pertinent to the investigation shall be punished as prescribed by law.

1

« iepriekšējāTurpināt »