II
LAWS RELATING TO EXTRACTION OF MINERAL RESOURCES
Under this heading come a wide variety of laws and regulations,—national, state, and local,—affecting the manner in which mineral resources shall be mined or quarried. Such laws may specify the number of shafts or outlets, the use of safety and prevention devices, miners' compensation and insurance, and many other features. Most of these laws are framed for the purpose of conserving human life and energy, but they directly affect the mining or extraction of the mineral resources themselves. Geology plays but little part in relation to such laws.
Where the government retains ownership and leases or rents the resources, there are often provisions regarding the manner of mining and the quality and quantity of the material to be mined, in the interests of efficient operation and conservation. The geologist is often called into consultation both in framing and in dealing with the infraction of such provisions. It may be noted that the control thus exercised on the operator by government ownership is very much the same as that often exercised by the private fee owner. It is not unusual for fee owners of mineral rights to maintain a geological staff in order to follow intelligently underground developments, to see that the best methods of exploration and mining are followed, and that ores are either extracted or left in accordance with the best conservational practice.
III
LAWS RELATING TO DISTRIBUTION AND TRANSPORTATION OF MINERAL RESOURCES
Under this heading come governmental regulations affecting directly or indirectly the transportation and the destination of mineral products. Transportation rates, tariffs, zoning, duties, and international trade agreements of all sorts have vital effects on distribution. In framing any of these measures for a mineral resource, it is desirable to know all about the character of the raw material, its physical occurrence and distribution, and the possibilities for future development. In adjusting the scientific naming and classification of mineral materials with the crude names and classifications used commercially—as in tariffs, in import and export laws, in reports of revenue collectors, in railway and ship rates, etc.—the geologic information is likewise necessary.
Heretofore, the formulation of measures concerning mineral distribution has often not been done on a scientific and impartial basis; but in recent years geologists have been called on more frequently for aid and advice, as a means of checking or verifying the special pleadings of the different industries. The rude disturbance of trade routes during the war brought home the necessity of basing control of distribution of mineral products on fundamental facts of geology and geography; thus it was that geologists had a considerable voice in the vast number of special measures taken for war purposes by such organizations as the Shipping Board, the War Trade Board, the War Industries Board, and other public organizations. The same was true in relation to the mineral resource questions at the Peace Conference. In the reconstructive measures of the future, a still larger use of scientific considerations may be looked for. Further suggestions as to the relation of geology to laws affecting distribution appear in the chapter on International Aspects (Chapter XVIII).