United States Mining Statutes Annotated: Part 1 - Sections and Statutes Relating to Metalliferous and Coal Mining Page: III
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PREFACE.
In order to be able to point out the laws and regulations best adapted
to increase safety and efficiency in the mineral industries in the
United States, the Bureau of Mines has undertaken the work of
codifying all laws, rules, and regulations relating to mining, the
primary purpose being to aid legislative bodies in framing uniform
laws that would be an aid to the mining industry.
The United States mining statutes have been in force for almost
half a century. The original enactment of 1866 was supplanted
by the revision of 1872. No other revision has ever been undertaken,
only a few amendments have been added, and the statutes have
been made to apply to additional varieties of mineral deposits.
The first statute was enacted when mining on the public domain
was in its infancy and before the needs of the industry were either
understood or appreciated. The act was necessarily imperfect and
in many respects indefinite, uncertain, and subject to a variety of
interpretations. A perfect system of mining laws could not be
expected in advance of both experience and development, nor
could the act of 1866, or the revision of 1872, anticipate the future
demands of the industry and provide for the various and complicated
contingencies that have since arisen in the conduct of mining opera-
tions.
Since 1866 the mineral industries of the country have grown
enormously. The capital invested in mining and allied industries
min the United States amounts to billions of dollars, and these indus-
tries employ no less than 3,500,000 men. With this growth many
legal questions have arisen that have led to a great number of con-
flicting decisions being handed down by the courts in their endeavors
to define, construe, and apply to new conditions the vague or con-
flicting provisions in the statutes.
As a result of defective or indefinite laws the miner, in pursuing
his enterprise on the public domain and in attempting to locate and
acquire what the Government intended to give him, has been involved
in difficulties and in harassing and expensive litigation.
This bulletin presents, in connection with each section and statute,
abstracts of decisions of all courts and executive officers construing
these acts, every such abstract being printed with appropriate title
lines and headings in logical order immediately after the section or
statute explained or interpreted. Thus the status of every Federal
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Thompson, Joseph Wesley. United States Mining Statutes Annotated: Part 1 - Sections and Statutes Relating to Metalliferous and Coal Mining, report, 1915; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc38743/m1/3/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.