Throughout the early part of my Administration the public land policy was chiefly directed to the defense of the public lands against fraud and theft.  Secretary Hitchcock’s efforts along this line resulted in the Oregon land fraud cases, which led to the conviction of Senator Mitchell, and which made Francis J. Heney known to the American people as one of their best and most effective servants.  These land fraud prosecutions under Mr. Heney, together with the study of the public lands which preceded the passage of the Reclamation Act in 1902, and the investigation of land titles in the National Forests by the Forest Service, all combined to create a clearer understanding of the need of land law reform, and thus led to the appointment of the Public Lands Commission.  This Commission, appointed by me on October 22, 1903, was directed to report to the President:  “Upon the condition, operation, and effect of the present land laws, and to recommend such changes as are needed to effect the largest practicable disposition of the public lands to actual settlers who will build permanent homes upon them, and to secure in permanence the fullest and most effective use of the resources of the public lands.”  It proceeded without loss of time to make a personal study on the ground of public land problems throughout the West, to confer with the Governors and other public men most concerned, and to assemble the information concerning the public lands, the laws and decisions which governed them, and the methods of defeating or evading those laws, which was already in existence, but which remained unformulated in the records of the General Land Office and in the mind of its employees.  The Public Lands Commission made its first preliminary report on March 7, 1904.  It found “that the present land laws do not fit the conditions of the remaining public lands,” and recommended specific changes to meet the public needs.  A year later the second report of the Commission recommended still further changes, and said “The fundamental fact that characterizes the situation under the present land laws is this, that the number of patents issued is increasing out of all proportion to the number of new homes.”  This report laid the foundation of the movement for Government control of the open range, and included by far the most complete statement ever made of the disposition of the public domain.

Among the most difficult topics considered by the Public Lands Commission was that of the mineral land laws.  This subject was referred by the Commission to the American Institute of Mining Engineers, which reported upon it through a Committee.  This Committee made the very important recommendation, among others, “that the Government of the United States should retain title to all minerals, including coal and oil, in the lands of unceded territory, and lease the same to individuals or corporations at a fixed rental.”  The necessity for this action has since come to be very generally recognized.  Another recommendation, since partly carried into effect, was for the separation of the surface and the minerals in lands containing coal and oil.