The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 5, 1900, Page 4

5 e Call 1900 ..FEBRUARY 5, CKELS, Proprietor. ons to W. S. LEAKE, Mana OFFICE..Market and Third, S. F. Telephone Main 18568, PUBLICATION ROOMS. ...217 to 221 Stevensom St. Telephone Main 1874, EDITORIAL Delivered by Carriers, 15 Cents Per Week. Terms DAILY CALL (inelu ¥« including Sunday). 6 mont PAILY CALL (including Sun 1.50 DAILY CALL—By Singie Month. 65c SUNDAY CALL One Ye: e 1.50 WEEKLY CALL One Year... # .. 1.00 All postmasters are authorized to receive subscripti Sample copies will be forwarded when reguested OAKLAND OFFICE..... vess..808 Broadway GEORGE HKROGNESS, arquette Build- c. Manager Foreign Advertisin ing, Chicago. NEW YORK C(ORR €. ©. CARLTON. . PONDENT: ..Herald Square NEW YORK REPRESENTATIVE: PERRY LUKENS JR......29 Tribune Building CHICAGO NEWS STANDS: Sherman House: P. O. News Co.: Great North- ern Hotel: Fremont House: Auditorium Hotel. NEW YORK NEWS STANDS: . Waldorf-Astoria Hotel: A. Brentano, 31 Union Square; Murray Hill Hotel WASHINGTON (D. C.) OFFICE..Wellington Hotel J. F. ENGLISH, Correspondent. BRANCH OFFICES—3527 Montgomery, corner of Clay, open until 9:30 o'clock. 300 Hayes, open until 9:30 o'clock. 639 McAllister, open until 9:30 o'clock. arkin, open umtil 9:30 o'clock. 1941 Mission, open until 10 o'clock. 2261 Market, corner Sixteenth, open until 9 o'clock. 1096 Valenc open until 9 o'clock. 106 Eleventh, open until 9 o'clock. NW. corner Twenty-second and Kentucky, open until clock. —_——— AMUSEMENTS. Opera-house—""Aladdin Jr.” e Idol's Eve. Badayez.” Mechanics' Association, this mbra—*London Life" ornia—*"The Cuckoo.” reets—Specialties. y, Market street, ympta, corner Mason asd Ellis rama Battle of Manila near AUCTION SALES. ug Co.—This day, at 11 & m. and 2 p. m,, 142 Stockton street. Eléridge & Co.—Tuesday, February §, at Market stree y € at 11 o'clock, February 8, at 12 o'clock, ON AN EVEN KEEL e of trade throughout United exhibited by the bank clearings, feil per cent last week, as compared with nding week in 1899. As in the preceding 1 cities in the country showed the ing behind 33.1 per cent, the w York f C ago 4 'r cent, Boston 29.7 per cent, Baltimore 22.3 per 2 San Francisco showed a g 7 red from this exhibit that ar The movement rge all over the land, the decrease tive. It must not be forgotten phenomenal year. The panic of 1893 ed a long time, and it was only mes began to show marked everybody began to buy goods. ! on stocks of everything required a year of stead, hem. The buying was fever- er been seen before. Un- d ‘prices rose continuously, de no difference. Everybody ust the same. Not until the close wonderful demand slacken. It had fter it was supposed to be satisfied, orities were beginning to wonder from it s far as figures are any indication, this rush to ceased. Stocks of everything have been re- everywhere. This does not necessarily mean that a period of dullness will ensue, but it does the rush is over. The winter trade has been , according to some theorists, to excep- ld weather; but the demgnd for spring and is to-day, brisk. Money has be- come much easier in all positions, both here and abroad; all fears of financial stringency have vanished, and the country is now on a normal basis again, sub- ject to the orderly law of supply and demand. Spec- ulation is cautious, for the memory of the great panic of 1893 is still fresh in the public mind, and nobody desires a repetition of it. With moderation there is nro reason why trade should not continue active ani healthy for some years, though the unprecedented rush of 1899 may not be repeated in this generation. Perhaps it will be as well if it is not, for booms hatch panics. According to the commercial reports, business last week was featureless.. There was neither excitement nor depression in any line. Aside from the decrease of 25 per cent in the bank clearings, there was no un- favorable sign. The failures were only 171, against 207 for the same week in 1899. The restoration of normal monetary conditions in Wall street encour- aged the public to again operate in that mart, and fresh money accordingly appeared. It is gratifying to note that this fresh money was after permanent in- vestments rather than quick turns, and sought divi- dends rather than momentary profits. Hence there was more or less activitiy in bonds and gilt-edged dividend-paying securities. As long as this disposi- tion endures there will be no disturbance in the coun- try’s speculative center. This, in brief, is the record of last week in trade. Its very lack of color makes it interesting, as show- ing a corresponding lack of that fever which has char- acterized business for over a year. If the pendulum does not swing to the other extreme we shall have a Dutch year, the expression being synonymous with tranquil prosperity. d It is suggested in the interest of consistency that the Congressional committee now investigating po- lygamy direct its attention to the lately acquired Sul- tan of Sulu. The leaven of continued victory is having its effect | will reduce the Southern representation in the House on the Cape Dutch. They are rising against the Brit. ish . THE S FRANCISCO CALL, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1900, ! THE SENATORIAL SITUATION. ESPITE rumors that the thick and thin supporters of Burns will refuse to follow the majority of the Republican caucus, and will make a bitter fight against the nominee of the cau- cus, it is not at all likely any considerable number of ! them will do so. In the moment of their first feeling of sorene: | threats, but with the quiet of Sunday they have had i a i w he time comes | A g 2 | time to reflect and reconsider. When the ® | negro population increases, and is at its lowest where we may expect a well nigh unanimous Republican vote for Bard. The only parties who can expect to gain anything by continuing the fight are the bosses and political manipulators of the Southern Pacific Railroad. They stand at present utterly discredited. Their loud boasts of an ability to dictate to the Republican party in California have been proven false. In a contest in | which they appeared openly and in which they made use of all their resources and powers for bribing or | for threatening, they have been completely beaten. It might benefit them a little to carry the fight further for the purpose of inducing Huntington to believe they have still some strength left, or for the purpose of bringing about some sort of a compromise that will let them retire with a show of honor; but no one else can gain anything at all. The legislators who would serve the railroad purposes in making such a fight would simply ruin themselves for nothing. Even those members of the Burns following who have no higher wisdom than that of cunning can per- ceive that the time has come to follow the example of Burns himself and quit the fight. Reports from all parts of the State show that Republicans everywhere | rejoice over the action of the caucus on Saturday and hail the nomination of Mr. Bard as a most fortunate sutcome of the prolonged contest. It would not have been possible to make a nomination which has met with more general approval. From every point of view it is in the highest degree gratifying. The nomi- nee is not only personally worthy of the honor and | free from all alliances or affiliations with the railroad, or any other corrupting force in the State; but the fact that he comes from the south adds to the popu- lar gratification, since that makes his victory not only |a triumph over Burns, but blocks the further inten- tion of the conspirators to have followed the election of Burns by that of Gage as a Senator from the south when Perkins’ term expires. As the prospects present themselves this morning the situation is all that the true Republicans of the State can desire. The victory has been attained for honesty, the Southern Pacific has been driven from such hold as it had upon a minority faction of the no reason why there should ons in the Republican camp. An opportunity of rare value is offered for restoring harmony in the party councils and among the rank and file, and making everything ready for a united course of action in the approaching gn. That opportunity ord to overlook. sible there can be any in the Legislature so blind as not to perceive it, or so stupid as not to understand his own relations to it. The time has come to put an end to the strife which Burns and the Southern Pacific have stirred up in the party during the past vear, and the first step to that end will be the election of Thomas R. Bard to the United States Senate by the unanimous Republican vote. s T difference, to the speeches of Senators Morgan and Money in vindication of the disfranchise- ment of negroes in the Southern States, to be ef- fected by constitutional amendments. ler offered a bit of perfunctory opposition, as did Senator Pritchard of North Carolina, but no one suggested that Federal authority, under the fifteenth amendment, could be invoked to save the imperiled citizenship of the negroes. In at least three Southern States the black vote is in a majority, but it is never made effective at the polls, and the white minority dominates, undisturbed and without protest. In many other States the negro holds the balance of power between two almost equal parties composed of whites, but its balance is never thrown in the scale, for neither white party dare accept its affiliation and take office and power at its hands. The South has grown tired and perhaps ashamed of lawless suppres- any longer be disse no wise NEGRO DISFRANCHISEMENT. Senator Chand- | | i the South cannot eat their cake and keep it. They cannot claim power in Congress based upon enum- erating a population to which they permit no voice in their government. But this is not the final and most significant effect of nullification of the negroes’ right to vote. Wherever in the border States the negro vote is so small as to cause no fear of its domina- | tion the Republican party has become firmly estab- | | | | | | | | | | | | | | i iprinciples to government policy W n defeat some of them, indeed, made such | ;i (4 1 Delaware, Marsiand West Vieisia and Kentucky it is strong. Its strength declines as the | there is a black majority. Twice Republicans have carried Tennessee for Governor, and have been al- most openly counted out. When the Democrats of the South succeed in legally striking down the negro franchise they will have removed the only argument they have used for thirty years against the Repub- lican party. When it is done Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Louisiana will quickly become Republican States. Their commercial and productive interests will irresistibly lead them into the party which makes those interests its first concern. Every cotton mill, every iron furnace, every coal mine, every sugar, tobacco and rice plantation in the South is a Republican missionary. Eight of the original slave States have but one political future and party destiny, and that is with the Republican party. The disorderly and disorganizing course of Southern Democratic politicians, by which they struck down the only successful leader the party has had in nearly | fifty years, was not so much the result of personal malevolence as of the malaise of unnatural politics. The natural position of these States was with the Re- publican party, and when they had an administration of their own party its application of Democratic smote them and caused afflictions which they wrongly ascribed to the administration, instead of to the principles they had themselves advocated. We know not whether they now foresee the con- sequences of what they are doing. If they do, they are knowingly wise, for they are removing the last barrier between them and the party with whose prin- ciples their material interests are at one. If they know not what they are doing, they are unintentionally wise, for the final effect is sure to be the same. THE WARNINGS TO PHELAN. E have reached the day announced by Mayor Phelan as the date that would see Commis- sioner Biggy removed from office, and the Police Commission prepared to carry out the agree- ment made before the election to turn the police force over to Esola as Chief, to be used for the purposes of A. M. Lawrence and others of his class. If the Mayor | have any self respect left he will abandon the inten- It is hardly pos- | tion he so indiscreetly announced. The swallowing of his words may be a bitter medicine, but it will be better to take it than to commit political suicide in a moment of insanity. In the first place it is now evident it will not be easy to carry out the programme. To fix the board to suit the gamblers it will be necessary not only to remove Biggy but to accept the resignation of Thomas. Then the Mayor will have to find two citi- | zens willing to accept commissionerships under an | HE country has listened, with a degree of in- | express and open agreement to elect Esola and to obey the blacklegs who wish to run a wide-open town. The men who accept office under such terms will have tc be shameless indeed, for they will have to confront everything in the form of private scorn and public contempt. Those facts are in t‘l:mse!ves sufficient to make the Mayor pause, but they are not the only matters per- tinent to the issue that give him reason to lie awake at nights and ponder upon the advisability of reced- ing while there is yet an opportunity to do so. The | removal of Biggy will result in an appeal to the | short memory. courts, and Phelan and Lawrence know very well what will happen then. It will be an occasion when, as Portia said: “We shall have old swearing.” Esola will not be the only man of the gang who upon the witness stand will find it convenient to have a very There will be others, but in spite of | their failure to remember, there will be no lack of | evidence to establish the truth concerning that ne- | farious bargain, which, after denying for a time, the | Examiner has since admitted by charging that Com- sion of the negro vote, and seeks to make the same | act lawful by cunningly devised cons bilities. As a mass the negroes are indifferent to the franchise. When one of them, equipped with intel- ligence, essays leadership of the rest and seeks to rouse in them a sense of the value of the ballot to them, and the necessity for maintaining their right to it, he is marked as an agitator and his position at once becomes one of personal peril. When impeached for the nullification of a con- stitutional right belonging to the negroes, the whites respond with an argument to prove that the stronger race must rule, regardless of numbers, and that negro government of whites means anarchy. The country has seen the reconstruction acts fall one after another. The civil rights Taw, the force bill, the election law—all are gone. No statute intended to accentuate the results of the Civil War remains. All have been swept away in the slow reaction that has followed the mighty exertion of energy in which they had birth. Every impression made by that ex- ertion has faded except two, and these are in the con- stitution itself. One is the amendment abolishing slavery and the other that which gave the franchise to the negro. The latter is being obsoleted by State nullification, and is to-day as powerless and ineffec- tive as a by-law of Solon. Accepting this situation, it is well to look into the future. What will be the effect upon parties? Will a new alignment come when the South is delivered from fear of negro dom- ination? The Democratic leaders who are respon- sible for this nullification of the Federal constitution look to it as a useful party measure. Its first effect will be the surrender of such part of the Southern representation in Congress as is based upon the sup- pressed negro vote. The fourteenth amendment to the Federal constitution says: “Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States ac- cording to their respective numbers, counting the { whole number of persons in each State, excluding | Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants thereof, or in any 'way abridged except for participation in rebellion or | other crime, the basis of representation therein shall | be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.” ! It is estimated that enforcement of this provision lby about one-third. The justice of such reduction cannot be successfully denied. The white people of | the kops. S & missioner Biggy has broken a pledge made to the Mayor when he refused to vote for Esola. Moreover, the Mayor has had warnings. They itional disa- | have been uttered in public by men like Stewart Men- | zies, Joseph Britton and Morris M. Estee; and in | private by a host of others who supported him before they knew of his disreputable associations and dis- honorable bargains with blackmailers and other pre- datory creatures. Even some of the most strenuous campaigners like James H. Barry have revolted from him since the disclosures have been made, and on Saturday the Star, which has always upheld him in | the past, denounced him and his scheme in terms that cannot be misunderstood. Finally, Mayor Phelan may find it profitable to study the moral contained in the defeat of Burns at Sacramento. The spirit that animated the stanch Republicans and roused the storm of indignation that drove Burns, Herrin and all the bosses and touts of the railroad and the tenderloin from the Senatorial contest, is not confined to Republicans, nor is its force felt only in districts outside the city. It is a spirit which now inspires the intelligence of Califor- nia generally and is found among worthy Democrats as well 2s among Republicans. It is a spirit of revolt against bosses, against corruption, against all forms of dishonesty in politics. It has crushed at Sacra- mento the vast and long established machinery of the Southern Pacific Railroad, and can easily crush the | petty combination of rascals that the Mayor seeks to serve. Ii, therefore, he be wise or even have ordi- nary prudence, he will not attempt to remove Com- missioner Biggy, but out of his private fortune will pay Lawrence what he owes him and let the rest of the gang howl as they ma; A cablegram from Havre is to the cffect that the Turkish Minister to this country and his wife have sailed for New York. The cablegram fails to state how many staterooms are occupied by the “wife.” Joseph Britton, Henry N. Clement and Stewart Menzies, all charter framers and once stanch friends of the little toy Mayor, have declared that they are through with him. But he has Esola. From all accounts General Warren gained nothing by the capture of Spion Kop, the so-called key to the Boer position. He seems to be utterly unable to locate the keyhole. If local merchants continue their pressing demands for money from the city new San Francisco may startle her well-wishers by taking the benefit of the insolvency act. What the British seem to need down in South Africa is a thoroughly Phelanized police commis- sion. They would have no trouble then in reducing g THE CALL CONGRATULATED ON ITS TRIUMPH IN THE SENATORIAL FIGHT Editor San Francisco Call: magnificent victory you have won in the defeat of D. M. Burns for Senator. The Call has served the cause of thF people after a fashion that entitles it to their lasting grati- ; tude. Yours faithfully, * @reieieie Los Angeles, February 3. Congratulations on the E.R. DILLE. Devebeieieieg Sedebededededed sdeisteiede LOOMING FEATURES IN TROUBLED OIL FIELDS “Scrippers” Are Carefully Planning a Test Case Against Mineral Claimants. N a long-range view of the California petroleum industry, in which the multiplylng new derricks of various ofl flelds providing most of the cur- rent oil news are lost to view, several important features stand out to attract attention. One is that the Kern River district in Kern County, while still in the boom stage, has demonstrated that it will be one of the important oil fields of the State. While no wells have reached great depths several are producing in considerable quantities and their distri- bution shows that productive straia underlie a district of several square miles. An oil district is an ofl district when its land is belng grabbed by rushers and parted among suckers though no oil has been really found. The point about the Kern River district is that it has bezome a legitimate oil fleld through actual dis- covery and production and is regarded as a promising one by conservative oil experts. Not much ofl has been shipped, but the supply still underground aas been largely contracted for in advance, partly by the Santa Fe company, which will use ¢i! for engine fuel on the Vailey road exclusively. It remains to be seen how much wider the productive area will expand and how extensive and lasting will be the yield. Prospecting wells will determine the limits of the fleld and much deeper | ones will show what there is and how much of it in the deeper strata below. It {s quite possible that this new feld will add largely to the output of 1%00. There is, of course, the same %osslh]lll)‘ with other new districts now being cx- plofted. For torty years Contra Costa County has lured attention to its many oil indi- cations, consisting of seepages and out- croppings of bituminous sandstone strata, and several unprofitable wells have been put down in the region of Mount Diablo. The new oil boom with its more vigor- ous and more thorough search for oil is likely soon to determine about what Contra_ Costa County amounts to as an ofl field. 7 Prospecting operations of varying im- portance aud promise have been begua near Orinda Park and in the neifihbflr- hood of Pleasanton and Mount Diablo, but the operations that will attract most attention are new ones just planned by some high officials of the Santa Fe il- road. A company which includes Chiex Engineer Storey, Trafic Manager W. A. Bissell, Alexander Mackie, secretary of the Valley road, anu A. B. Butler has acquired optlons on tracts of several thousand acres in the San Pablo range of hills overlooking the town of San Pablo and the bay. Part of the land Is owned by J. S. Hittell, the historlan. The bonds contain stringent requirements for prospecting operations and material for a derrick was ordered to the ground last week, It is well understood that the ground will be prospected lhoroushly at a cost of thousands of dollars under ex- pert direction, and the standing of the men behind the operations, who are not | lending themselves to a stock deal, and who have acquired faith that good oil can come out of the bay region, will in- spire hope that pipe lines will yet bloom farther north. Those who have known of this qulet deal have supposed that the Santa Fe Company was looking for ofl there near its bay terminus, but Mr. Storey states that it is entirely a private venture on the part of those making it. For a long dis- tance through the region covered there are outcroppings of an Irregular sand- stone stratum, highly tlited, yielding | slight ofl seepages, and in places masses | of solidified bitumen. Prospect wells will rapidly develop the depth and contents of the sandstone. Should an ofl supply be developed the Santa Fe would of course be the consumer. Before 1°"f the Santa Fe Company will be practically through with burning coal in gahmm!m Ofl s its fuel on all its Southern California lines, and five engines north of Tehachapl have been within a few days equipped for ofl burning. As stated, it wiil_use ofl exclusively all the way to San Francisco, geltln% what ofl it can from the San Joaquin Valley and the rest from Southern California. Chief Engineer Storey tested the light ofl of the Coalinga field on the Valley road some time ago and thinks that its very excel- lence makes it unsafe for locomotive use, as it is too volatile. The huge legal tangle over the rights of mineral and agricultural claimants te public petroleum lands, especially in the Ban Joaquin Valley, steadily develops the long and lurid fi(rufgle with which it is pregnant. The California Miners’ As- soclation is committed to the petroleum miners' cause, and the combined forces are ready for a move on Washington, while all sorts of courts are busy out here. In accordance with the preceding action of the executive committee, John M. Wright, chairman of the mine: lands committee of the California Miners’ As- sociation, last week sent the followng to the secretary of the Petroleum Miners’ Co-operative Assoclation, Fresno, Cal.: Dear Sir: As chairman of the Mineral Lands Committee of California Miners' Assoclation u&z at & meeting of the executive committee sald Miners Association held in this city on the 2ith year said Mineral of o the rights enjoyed by locators of tunnels and tunnel sites under the provisions of section 2323 of the Revised Statutes of the United The proposed amendment will protect the ofl locator while drilling for ofl with reasonable ailigence within the limits of his claim during a prescribed period after the staking and mark- ing_thereof, so that dl: during such period shall relate back and take effect nunc Pro tunc ms of the time of such staking and marking of the claim. 1 shall be pleased to recelve suggestions from your association as to the proper wording of the proposed amending statute. And in this connection I may suggest that it should be brief in terms and that it will probably be best to have it passed as an amendment to sald sec- tion 2323 of the Revised Statutes, or as an amendment to the statute approved by the President on February 11, 1897, defining petro- Jeum lands as mineral lands. It is my further duty to Inform you that sald executive committee at its sald meeting pledged to your association the support and co-opera- tion of the California Miners' Assoctation in the matter of the pending contest between the locators of petroleum lands and the so-called “'forest reserve scrippers.” It is to be hoped there may be hearty co-operation between two assoclations in the aforesald matters. Uncle S8am has divided his empire among three children—the farmer, the miner and Collis P. Huntington. To the miner he set apart all that the two others couldn't get away from him, saying that his portion should be that “‘more valuable for mining than for agriculture.’ He meant it for the miner's good and blessed him. Since then the rallroads have been able to take about anything they wanted within their ‘enormous luuedgnnt limits, and when the miner protested in behalf of his heritage that it was mineral land the rallroad and the other land-grabbers said, “You can't prove it.”” And the Commissioner of the neral Land Office and the Secretary of the Interior and all the learned Judges have said: “No; he can't prove it."” They tills'v:huld: “There mgl tu‘.lil:ly be miner- ere, as you say, ve you reall: aiscovered 4 them in a rrul lw{l harno%uto-d you act! miner [t e if so, have able mine there? land, ough a thereon.” required to prove a ni Denefit of Al - L iy " ht‘!‘ ind has bee ?r-um lons’’ ai made to show that a vrul‘lu!.)ln mln:.couls be opened on the land at issue, while the lgflcultunl claimant is not required to sho could be w_that a hill of blue e Eies™ ra a1 the Bottom of Fhost of the miner’s legal troubles in claiming public land, and they are at the bottom of_the ofl miners’ present troubles. There are two views of the trouble—the legal view and the other ome. In the legal view the miner has no rights with a contested mineral location unless that ““discovery’’ has been made and in “‘valu- able quantities.” That is why the ofl miners in the San Joaquin Valley who have located many thousands of acres have the worst of the fight with the scrippers. The ofl is not on the surface in valuable quantities, and when he starts a hole where he may know oil will be struck, another man may come along be- fore his drill has reached oil, locate it as agricultural land, stop the miner and get it, regardless of its value for agricul- ture. Circuit Judge Ross of Los Angeles has recently been ?ultlng these established doctrines into force, and now Land Com- missioner Hermann has just interposed th‘e"m again in behalf of the agricultural seripper. ecision by him, dated January 22, 1900, addressed to the Rej cefver of the Los Angeles Land Office, has ust been recelved, which decides that no earings against the scrippers’ titles will be ordered by the General Land Office at the instance of the mineral claimants, unless the protests filed B‘fains! the scrip entry show that the land in question is actuall ties. mission’s decision shows how little grounds for hope the placer mining lo- cators have from that source: On December 22, 1599, James W. McDonald, Los Angeles, Cal., flled in this office a protest and petition for & hearing. The protest alleges the location of the La Malilla mining claim in conflict with the above selection. The afflants claim to have thoroughly prospected the land, and find that It is mineral land containing great deposits of petroleum: ‘‘that a vein of pe- troleum running all through the sald land is most_clear! is so much petroleum thersin contained that the same has forced its way to the surface, and the superficial earth is so completely sat- urated with petroleum that it burns when a light is applied to it. In several parts whers there are declivities the ofl in a liquid state exudes from the sides of the banks.” The Drotest does not, even with the showing made, present sufficiént reasons to warrant this office in allowing an order for a hearing. The date of the mineral location is not shown, but there is lacking the essential consideration in all this class of cases—specific evidence of the development of the land for its mineral product and the production therefrom in quan- titles and quaiities sufficient to indicate that the land is more valuable for mineral than for agricultural purposes. In the absence of this showing a hearing should not be ordered. By the way, who and what are those “scrippers” who are making so much trouble, threatening bloodshed and inter- minable lawsuits? Not many clearly know. In times past areas of the public domain, partly eld by locators, have been withdrawn from saie or location, as Indian or other reservations, or for other | reasons, and locators divested of their lands were given certificates by which they could transfer their right to any other similar subdivision of public land These certificates have been called and those using them “serip- pers. Serip was n market value. In California public land scrip brokerage has long been a business Not very much is left. ‘“Porter serip’ commands about $5. worth $50. There i3 considerable State leu land scrip at $4. The San Joaquin Valley ofl belts are arid and have “ar(ely re- mained in the public domain because no- body wanted the land. The oil boom gave the land great demand and the rushers went at it In two ways. Thousands filed mineral locatians. thers rushed for “scrip” and located ‘“agricultural land” with it, plastering it all over the mineral claims, and hence the war. Those who have used the scrip men- tioned are properly scrippers, but the great majority of the scrippers are only so-called scrippers. e woes of the oil locators date argely from the establish- ment of the big Sierra Nevada forest re- serves. An act of Congress of June 4, 1897, fl’ovlded. concerning these reserves, “chat n cases in which a tract covered by an imperfected bona fide claim or by a patent is included within the limits of a public forest reservation the settler or owner thereof may, if he desires to do =o, relin- quish the tract to the Government, and may select in lieu thereof a tract of va- cant land open to settlement,” etc. While important issues have already been joined in the Federal courts, leading scrippers are carefully planning a test case, which has not yet been filed, though the brief has been drawn by A. H. Rick- etts. A big array of lawyers has been engaged, consisting of A. H. Ricketts, F. M. Stone, Jefferson Chandler, Van Ness and Redmond and Shirley ‘. Ward and Attorney Pope of Los Angeles. The complaint will recite a forest re- serve scripper’s right, vested in him by the laws and his acts, holding his title is as perfect as it was In' the land ex- changed, and allege the entry of the de- fendants on the land to search for min- eral oll. The defendants have located mineral claims on the land before dis- covery, but if ofl is discovered that would establish the mineral nature of the land and oust the scripper, who seeks to eject the miner, as mineral locations made af- ter, dlu:over{ would be valid, The plaintiff oddly but legaily and safe- ly complains as a basis for his prayer that “it the land {s believed to possess oil it greatly enhances the value thereof, whereas if defendants, by their wrongful and continuous trespass, demonstrate that petroleum is not to be found on said land, thulmn.r‘ket Yalue thm to which your orator is clearly ent will diminished and lost.” - The agricultural claimant prays the court to protect him from the discovery that it is not mineral but agricultural land and that he is thus fully entitled to it. But that is proper before the law. Here, as_ elsewhere, it is the technical matter of discovery and valuable quan- tity that will determine rights. The equitles of the situation are mixed. The scripper is really after oil, or rather after land or stock to sell, as is the min- eral claimant as a rule. Discovered ofl fields will be developed if they are cov- ered by orange groves or office bulldings. The Los Angeles field is In a city, and most produch ofl land was first fn pri- vate hands, e scripper seeks the land under false pretenses, which are legally sustained. e says, “I want to mine here because it is agricultural land.” He “Jjumps” other men's claims and acts ap- parently aeccording to law, making the miners do so, too, and keeping within his legal rights. His rights are often wrong and the law needs reconstruction. The importance of the issue Is wider than the ofl flelds. J. O. DE! NEWS OF FOREIGN NAVIES. Augustine Normand claims that he in- vented in the early eighties the device lately tried with success in our navy for coaling at sea. Experiments were made with the contrivance in the French navy, but were evidently not satisfactory to the officlals. The new French submarine boat, Gou- bet No. 2, Is sald to have given very satisfactory results in her preliminary trials. She remained over two hours un- g:: ‘water at a -;lxukt: of sixteen feet, and speed was ots, exceed! anticl- pations by one knot. g ; Pigeon malil service has recently been tried on French transatlantio lners with success, and the steamship companies have been requested by M. de Lauressan for particulars, with a view of adopting pigeon service in the French navy. Of experiments on thirty-two ages only one proved a fallure. 2R Two iron-clads, Prince Albert and Shan- ster and Re- | producing ofl in valuable quanti- | The following extract from the com- | and unequivocally defined. There | otiable and acquired | ‘““Valentine scrip” is | non, have recently been struck from th, British navy list and sold. The Princ, Albert, of 3880 tons and 9.7 Knots spee. was built in 1866 at a cost of $1.013.33 the Shannon, of 53% tons and 11 speed, was built in 1877 and cosi 845. There are still twenty-eight iron-clads carried on the active | | navy, which were built between 1878, and their efficiency even as defenders is very doubtful. The vettes Cargsfort, built in 1578, and ¢ stance, buflt in 1880, were also sold, to- gether with the Acorm, a sloop of o tons, built in 1854 Warship building of the seven princi naval nations is steadily increasing, if the projects of France and Germar are carried into effect the output duri the next ten years will vastly lncrrnso “\ present tonnage under comstruction. . the beginning of the present year 1,582,313 tons are under construction, distributed as follows: Torpedo vessels 12,900 s Armored NAVIES. | ships. Great Britain leads, | thrid of the total tonnage, and the United States stands sixth, while Italy is lowest | on the Hst. with nearly one- | The subject of superimposed turrets, adopted in the battleships Kearsarge and | Kentucky, ts discussed at great length | and with thoroughness by the London En- | gineer. After considering the advantages and drawbacks that paper expresses its adverse opinfon as follows: “On the whole, then, while we are bound to ad- mit that the saving in weight and the re- ductfon of machinery !s advantageous we do not see that sufficient Is gained | balance the many disadvantages of ha | ing all the eggs in one basket and all the weapons in one hand.” The Kearsarge | and Kentucky were contracted for in | January, 189, and sufficlent time has | elapsed for other navies to adopt the sys- tem. That it has not been adopted wou | indicate that forelgn naval experts enter | tain doubts as to its practical utility, and | that actual tests alone will demons: it. The ships have not gone through s trials and the opposition of some of Bureau Chiefs to double turrets in | three battleships now being designed | not unreasonable [ o P e et ] I A DAILY HINT FROM PARE, ; w0+o+0+0+0+0—~‘ | zo 4 L 4 + > 3 + K3 i B R R R L S R S o e R e B S ST A o o Sk S0 e e o z + £ t ® $ ® t * i HATS FOR TRAVELING. The hats represented are useful for trav. eling. The upper one is of soft bright drab felt, bound with black velvet, | trimmed with drab taffetas, a dead gold | buckle and black and drab feathers. The other is of black felt with stiff brim and soft crown; garter of beige taffetas draped and owl on left side in front. Cal. glace fruit 50c per Ib at Townsend's.® —_—ee————— fipectal informe:on supplied dally to business houses und public men by the Press Clipping Bureau (Allen's), 510 Mont- gomery street. 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