cising that right. The statement that I have been subject to any pressure or have yielded to it is again a flat falsehood. Individual cases have followed the established departmental routine. They have been disposed of by able land office attorneys, reviewed by others in the department itself, and presented for my decision after compliance with the mature processes of this depart ment. I have confidence in the officials and employees of this department. I have never discovered any tendency toward laxity or dishonesty. Mr. Kelley is the only one of them who has sold out to outsiders the statements he should have made to the department, so far as I know. I called Mr. Kelley to Washington and asked the Commissioner of the General Land Office to place him in charge of all oil-shale work in the United States on July 7, 1930. Senator WALSH of Montana. This is the letter of instructions to Mr. Kelley? Secretary WILBUR. Yes. Senator WALSH of Montana. I will read it: Mr. RALPH S. KELLEY, JULY 25, 1930. General Land Office, Washington, D. C. SIR: Under the Secretary's letter to you of July 7, 1930, you were assigned to this office for work on oil-shale claims. It is desired both by this office and the department to expedite final action on cases involving oil shale. You are, therefore, directed to take charge of such work in this office under the supervision of myself and my staff and take such steps as will bring about the desired results. Very respectfully, C. C. MOORE, Commissioner. Secretary WILBUR. So, you see he was given full charge of the oil-shale work in the Land Office here in Washington. His course of conduct in Washington is significant. He was ordered to Washington on July 7. He left Denver on July 23, arriving in Washington, July 25. He reported for duty in Washington 10 days later. He worked until about August 31, and then disappeared from sight except for two day's work thereafter. I returned to Washington from an extended trip in the West on September 25 and was available to Mr. Kelley at all times. He did not call on me, did not telephone me, did not write me. Instead, on Sunday, September 28, I was surprised to receive a telephone inquiry from the New York World, asking my comments on a letter of resignation which they said Kelley had written and which he made public that day. I did not receive it until Monday. I declined the resignation, suspended Mr. Kelley and directed him to file with me proof in support of his charges. He failed to do so, declined to furnish his material to the Department of Justice and instead sold it to the New York World. Mr. Kelley's charges either are meritorious or they are false. If they are false, his failure to meet me or discuss them with me explains itself. If they are meritorious he is in the unenviable position of having had before him the choice of making his information an asset to his Government or making it merchandise for sale. The World has admitted paying $12,000 for it. The files and the cases which Mr. Kelley mentioned are all available to you. An exhaustive review of all of them will be welcome. Minds may differ on some of them; some decisions were difficult or they would not have to be made by the highest officer of the department. But as to the honesty of the decision, and compliance with proper public policy, I think there can be but one answer. I wish to assure you that, despite Mr. Kelley's nonsense, the oil and gas reserves of this Nation will continue to be conserved by this department as long as I am secretary of it, but with regard for all equities and with respect for statutory requirements. Any oil-shale claimant who complies with the law can expect his claim to go to patent uninfluenced by any hysteria arising from Mr. Kelley's statements. The speculator who is imposing on the public domain will continue to go through the house-cleaning process instituted by the posting of over 6,400 claims at my direction. Senator WALSH of Montana. Mr. Finney, as I explained to you at the outset, this is really in the nature of an inquiry by the committee as to whether the resolution for a complete investigation of the whole matter ought to be pursued or not. Secretary WILBUR. I understand that. Senator WALSH of Montana. It was my desire to explore the question to see whether it was advisable or otherwise. Secretary WILBUR. We appreciate your interest. Senator WALSH of Montana. Now, Mr. Kelley wants to be heard. and I am desirous that he should be for the purpose of eliciting any further facts in the matter. Secretary WILBUR. Yes. Senator WALSH of Montana. But, as Senator Glenn exhibited some interest in that part of the inquiry, I will recess the proceedings until some day when Senator Glenn can be present, of which all of the witnesses will be advised. (Whereupon, at 12 o'clock noon, the committee recessed subject to the call of the Chair.) OIL SHALE LANDS THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1931 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC LANDS AND SURVEYS, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 o'clock a. m., in the committee room of the Committee on Interstate Commerce, Capitol, Senator Gerald P. Nye presiding. Present: Senators Nye (chairman), Glenn, and Walsh of Montana. Present also: 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; Mr. Ralph S. Kelley. The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. Mr. ELY. Senator Walsh, these are the Obenchain reports and my reports to Secretary Wilbur. I think those should be incorporated in the record in order to clarify matters. Senator WALSH of Montana. Those may be included in the record. (The Obenchain reports, referred to by Mr. Ely, together with Mr. Ely's report to Secretary Wilbur, read as follows:) Memorandum for the Secretary. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, May 28, 1930. I have read Mr. Obenchain's report on the oil-shale situation in Colorado and Utah and concur in the report as submitted. C. C. MOORE, Commissioner. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, May 27, 1930. (Through the Commissioner of the General Land Office). SIR: In compliance with your instructions of March 1, 1930, and in accordance with the letter of the commissioner of March 3, 1930, detailing me to the field to investigate the oil-shale situation, I proceeded to Denver on April 2, 1930, and thereafter proceeded to Glenwood Springs, Colo., and Salt Lake City, Utah. I found considerable antagonism against the department, the General Land Office, and the field service, by the oil-shale claimants, their attorneys and others connected with such claims. This feeling is more acute in Colorado than in Utah, possibly because of the greater activity in Colorado and partly because of the way the situation has been handled. The Denver division has been very active for years in examining and reporting hundreds of oil-shale claims, resulting in many controverted issues, while comparative little of such work had been done in the Salt Lake City district until recently. The oil-shale controversy has been occasioned largely by the provisions of section 37 of the leasing act of February 25, 1920. Many claims were questioned and charges filed because of lack of sufficient assessment work for several years past. This action by the department was questioned by oil-shale claimants and suit was started in the courts to test the right of the Government to thus proceed, which finally resulted in a decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in what is known as the Krushnic case decided January 6, 1930. That decision was thought by the oil-shale claimants, apparently, to settle entirely the question of assessment work. But the department, in its decision of February 28, 1930 (Exhibit D), referred to in the attorneys' statement to me, did not give the Krushnic decision such wide interpretation. Accordingly, Mr. Kelley was, on January 15, 1930, directed to submit, as soon as possible, reports in all cases where shale locators defaulted on annual labor and there was no evidence of resumption of work, and to post notices on all such claims against which charges had not already issued, that the United States had taken possession of the lands because of claimant's default. Some progress along these lines had been made prior to my arrival at Denver, but it was soon evident that because of the great number of the claims and the inaccessibility of many, and the difficulty in locating the boundaries of claims on the ground in order that notices would be properly posted, without extra help and extraordinary effort the posting would be very slow. Soon after my arrival in Salt Lake, and finding similar conditions in Utah, steps were taken to increase the field force by transferring mineral examiners from the field division at Santa Fe, San Francisco, and Portland, besides drawing on the surveying service for surveyors and transitmen. Parties were then organized, both in the Denver and Salt Lake divisions, for the field work, Mr. Moore having a total of 14 men, or 7 parties of 2 each, and Mr. Kelley having 15 men engaged in the work of examinations and posting. Mr. Moore of Salt Lake City estimates that the total number of oil-shale claims pending examination and posting, for which applications for patent have not been made, as of May 7, 1930, approximate 4,000. Abstracts covering approximately 3,500 oil-shale claims have been taken from the county records, leaving about 500 claims yet to be abstracted. Mr. Kelley reports that he has about 1,000 cases which require investigation before posting. The investigation is necessary in order to determine whether there had been a default in assessment work and whether assessment work had been resumed, prior to the time of such investigation. The 1,000 oil shale cases in the Denver district upon which no patent applications have been filed, cover those which require investigation before posting and does not include all the claims in that district. Taking all classes of such claims, the number will probably exceed the 4,000 reported as pending in the Salt Lake district. Under date of May 17, 1930, Mr. Moore, of Salt Lake City, reported that he is making excellent progress in examination and posting oil shale claims. He states that approximately by July 1, 1930, the claims of principal importance will have been examined and posted, and that he has not found any unusual interest or activity on the part of the claimants to resume work. No progress report of the work in the Denver district has yet been received. An examination of the records of the district land office at Denver as of April S, 1930, showed that approximately 100 applications for patent were pending in that district upon which final action had not been taken. In 71 of these cases payments have been made for the land and final certificates issued dated from 1922 up to and including 1930. Payments were made in 10 other cases, but no final certificate issued, and in 18 cases no payments whatever have been made and consequently no final certificate issued. These cases cover approximately 96,000 acres involving approximately $190,000 paid to the Government as purchase money. Since that time, however, 11 cases have been approved for patent, after charges had been dismissed, which involve $14,370, so that there now remains approximately $166,000 which the Government holds as purchase money on unpatented claims. In the Salt Lake district there were only 17 applications for patent pending as of May 7, 1930, all of which, however, were filed within practically the last year. In the Denver district there are approximately 30 cases ready for hearing provided no interlocutory motions are filed as to the right of the Government to proceed against such cases, which motions raise points of law which must |