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OIL SHALE LANDS

SATURDAY, JANUARY 31, 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 room 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

The cost of said investigation shall be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate on vouchers of the committee or subcommittee, signed by the chairman and approved by the Committee to Audit and Control the Contingent Expenses of the Senate.

Senator WALSH of Montana. I dare say Mr. Finney is more familiar with these matters than the secretary, and I suggest that we begin with him. It will be borne in mind that the resolution was simply referred to this committee for a recommendation as to whether or not the Senate ought to adopt it, and I think we ought to try to get a general idea of what the charges are, and the foundation for them, as a basis for our further action.

Senator PITTMAN. I was going to suggest, Senator, that you have paid more attention to this than the other members of the committee, and I suggest that we proceed in any manner that you consider advisable.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Let me say to the committee that I have gone over the Kelley letters; the opinion of Mr. Richardson with reference to the charge therein made; the letters of Mr. Finney and of the Secretary in relation to them, and the proceedings before Secretary Work in connection with the reopening of the socalled Freeman-Summers case, made the subject of some considerable comment by Mr. Kelley in his letters.

For the information of the members of the committee, I feel that this preliminary statement ought to be made.

The charges center very largely about this so-called FreemanSummers case.

STATEMENT OF HON. EDWARD C. FINNEY, SOLICITOR, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Senator WALSH of Montana. Which of these, Mr. Finney, was the homestead claimant?

Mr. FINNEY. Freeman-Summers was the homestead case. That is, Summers was the homestead entryman who brought a contest against Freeman, the mineral locator.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Exactly. Summers had made an application for a patent, Mr. Finney.

Mr. FINNEY. Summers had an entry under the stock raising homestead act for 640 acres of land.

Senator WALSH of Montana. I mean Freeman.

Mr. FINNEY. Freeman had locations made prior to the homestead entry and filed a contest against the homestead entry. I guess I stated it wrong before.

Senator WALSH of Montana. It seems that a hearing was had to determine the rights of these two conflicting claimants, the one claiming under the homestead act and the other claiming under the placer mining act, claiming a location made prior to the leasing act of 1920, and the requisite assessment work done as required by the act of 1920 in order to preserve that right.

The question was presented as to whether Freeman had ever made a discovery, and that precipitated the question as to what would constitute a discovery of oil shale under the old placer mining act.

It was determined, as I understand the matter, by the department, when it eventually came to them, that Freeman had not made a

discovery, and accordingly his protest of the homestead filing of Summers was dismissed. Thereafter, a hearing was had before the Secretary, the matter being reopened, as I understand the matter, under the supervisory power of the Secretary, and thereafter the former holding of the Secretary against Freeman was reversed and it was held that he had made sufficient discovery, as I understand the matter, and his entry was approved.

I think we might very properly commence with the opinion, the original opinion, of the department in the Freeman-Summers case. Can you provide us with that, Mr. Finney?

Mr. FINNEY. I have with me copies of the principal documents in that case. Not all, of course, and I have arranged them in chronological order and, if desired by the committee, I could put them in in that way, Senator, beginning with the decision of the register and receiver of the local land office, which was the first decision rendered in the case.

What

Senator WALSH of Montana. That will be all right, but probably what they say about it would not particularly interest us. was the ruling of the local office?

Mr. FINNEY. After a hearing on the protest of Freeman against the Summers, homestead entry, the register, considering the record, found that the land in question was oil shale in character but that Freeman had not made discoveries sufficient to sustain the protest. Senator WALSH of Montana. Let me inquire who were the land officers making that ruling.

Mr. FINNEY. Walter Spencer, register, and Charles S. Merrill, receiver.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Where?

Mr. FINNEY. At Glenwood Springs, Colo.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Now, the area in question as I understand it, Mr. Finney, is in the neighborhood of Glenwood, in the western part of the State of Colorado.

Mr. FINNEY. It is north and west of Glenwood Springs, a very mountainous, rough part of Colorado.

Senator WALSH of Montana. Well, the opinion may go in the record, but I imagine we will not take time to read that.

(The decision referred to by Senator Walsh reads as follows:)

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

GENERAL LAND OFFICE, Washington, January 6, 1931.

I hereby certify that the annexed copy of decision, dated January 9, 1924, filed under Denver 032576, formerly Glenwood Springs 018825, is a true and literal exemplification of the original on file in this office.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name and caused the seal of this office to be affixed, at the city of Washington, on the day and year above written.

[SEAL.]

THOS. C. HAVELL, Assistant Commissioner of the General Land Office.

UNITED STATES LAND OFFICE, Glenwood Springs, Colo., January 9, 1924.

J. D. Freeman, Contestant, v. George L. Summers, Contestee. Contest 1490, Serial Nos. 018825 and 018827, involving the S 2 NE 4 N 2 SE 4, S 2 NW 14, lots 3 and 4, sec. 2; lots 1, 2, 3 SE. 4 NE. 4 sec. 3, T. 5 S., R. 97 W. sixth principal meridian.

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