protective coating shall be U. S. standard gauge, the finished weights of coated sheets varying according to the weight of protective coating applied."

The Act of March 3, 1893, supra, omitting the table of standards, reads as follows:

"That for the purpose of securing uniformity the following is established as the only standard gauge for sheet and plate iron and steel in the United States of America, namely:"

(Here follows a table of gauge numbers giving the thickness and the weight per square foot and square meter of each gauge.)

"And on and after July first, eighteen hundred and ninety three, the same and no other shall be used in determining duties and taxes levied by the United States of America on sheet and plate iron and steel. But this act shall not be construed to increase duties upon any articles which may be imported.

"SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and required to prepare suitable standards in accordance herewith.

"SEC. 3. That in the practical use and application of the standard gauge hereby established a variation of two and one-half per cent, either way may be allowed."

Compliance with the standard gauge established by the above Act is not made mandatory either upon American manufacturers or upon the Government Departments in preparing their specifications for sheet and plate iron and steel. The only mandatory provision in the Act is that the standard gauge therein established "shall be used in determining duties and taxes levied by the United States of America on sheet and plate iron and steel." There is no prohibition against the importation of sheet and plate iron or steel not complying with the standard gauge, but it is provided merely that the standard shall be followed in determining the duties and taxes levied thereon.

In certain Acts subsequently enacted for standardization purposes the Congress has sought to make mandatory the use of the standards therein provided. The Act of March 4, 1915, c. 158, 38 Stat. 1186, to fix the standard barrel for fruits, vegetables, etc., provides that it shall be unlawful to sell or

offer for sale," or to ship from any State, Territory, or the District of Columbia to any other State, Territory, or the District of Columbia, or to a foreign country, a barrel containing fruits or vegetables or any other dry commodity of less capacity than the standard barrels defined in the first session of this Act, * * * "

The Act of July 18, 1918, c. 156, as amended by Act of March 3, 1919, c. 96, 40 Stat. 912, 1291, for the standardization of screw threads, provides for the appointment of a commission to ascertain and establish standards for screw threads, and to report such standards to the Secretaries of War, Navy and Commerce for their approval. The Act further provides: "Such standards, when thus accepted and approved, shall be adopted and used in the several manufacturing plants under the control of the War and Navy Departments, and, so far as practicable, in all specifications for screw threads in proposals for manufactured articles, parts, or materials to be used under the direction of these departments."

The Act of March 3, 1893, however, contains no such mandatory features. While the Government Departments, in preparing specifications for the purchase of sheet and plate iron and steel, may adhere to the standard gauge established by the Act of March 3, 1893, it is not necessarily incumbent upon them to do so.

In view of the fact that metal coatings on sheet and plate iron or steel vary in thickness and weight according to the amount applied, and as manufacturers of sheet and plate iron or steel do not always apply the metal coating specified, or if applied by them it is done as a separate operation, it is apparent that the gauge established by the Act applies only to the uncoated or black sheets and plates. Any other interpretation of the Act would nullify the purpose sought to be accomplished by it, namely, the establishment of a uniform standard gauge for the guidance, protection and convenience of manufacturers and purchasers of sheet and plate iron or steel.

I have the honor to advise you, therefore, that:

(1) In the preparation of specifications for the purchase by Government Departments and independent bureaus, of sheet and plate iron or steel, whether black or galvanized,

or otherwise coated, it is not mandatory that the specifications therefor shall conform to the standard gauge prescribed by the Act of March 3, 1893; and

(2) There is nothing in said Act, or in any other Act of Congress which precludes the Federal Specifications Board, in the preparation of specifications for the purchase of iron or steel sheets or plates, from specifying that all base iron or steel sheets or plates shall comply with the standard gauge established by said Act, regardless of the protective coating of other metal, or the thickness or weight thereof, which may be specified.

Respectfully,

To the PRESIDENT.

WILLIAM D. MITCHELL.

AUTHORITY OF SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO CONDITION EXTENSION OF OIL OR GAS PROSPECTING PERMIT

Oil and gas prospecting permits issued under the Mineral Lands Leasing Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437), may be extended by the Secretary of the Interior for a period within the statutory limit, and the Secretary and permittee may agree, or the Secretary may grant an extension conditioned, that drilling operations shall be postponed or suspended, leaving, however, remaining within the extension period adequate time to complete a well to the maximum depth required by said Act, by the exercise of reasonable diligence. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE,

May 6, 1929.

SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of April 27, 1929, in which you ask my opinion upon the following question:

"Is the Secretary of the Interior authorized to grant an extension of an oil prospecting permit in such terms that its period must expire within the maximum limit of the statutory period, and the duration of actual operations be for a lesser period within such extension, the dates of beginning of actual operations to be stated in the extension?'

Because of both physical and economic waste of oil and gas, resulting from excess production upon the public domain, a critical situation has arisen-especially in the Kettleman Hills field in California-which requires careful study and, in the meantime, a suspension of drilling operations

wherever practicable, until a solution of the problem may be found. You add:

"If I may validly condition an extension (whose period shall be within the maximum allowed by law) on confinement of drilling operations to a latter part of that period, I desire to do so."

There are now before you a number of applications for extensions of permits which directly involve the question upon which my opinion is desired.

The Act of February 25, 1920 (41 Stat. 437), entitled, "An Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gas, and sodium on the public domain," subjects all public lands, with a few exceptions set out in section 1, "to disposition in the form and manner provided by this Act to citizens of the United States," etc. Section 13 is in part as follows:

* *

*

"That the Secretary of the Interior is hereby authorized, under such necessary and proper rules and regulations as he may prescribe, to grant to any applicant qualified under this Act a prospecting permit, which shall give the exclusive right, for a period not exceeding two years, to prospect for oil or gas upon not to exceed two thousand five hundred and sixty acres of land upon condition that the permittee shall begin drilling operations within six months from the date of the permit, and shall, within one year from and after the date of permit, drill one or more wells for oil or gas to a depth of not less than five hundred feet each, unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered, and shall, within two years from date of the permit, drill for oil or gas to an aggregate depth of not less than two thousand feet unless valuable deposits of oil or gas shall be sooner discovered."

Section 14 provides, in substance, that the permittee shall be entitled, as a reward for his discovery of valuable oil or gas deposits, (a) to a 20-year lease of one-fourth of the land (at least 160 acres) included in the permit on a royalty of 5 per cent, and (b) to a preference right to a lease of the remainder of the land.

Section 32 authorizes the Secretary of the Interior "to prescribe necessary and proper rules and regulations and to

do any and all things necessary to carry out and accomplish the purposes of this Act

* * *99

Section 37 enacts "that the deposits of * oil shale, and gas, herein referred to

*

oil,

shall be subject to disposition only in the form and manner provided in this Act."

The Acts of January 11, 1922, 42 Stat. 356, April 5, 1926, 44 Stat. 236, and March 9, 1928, 45 Stat. 252, in substantially similar terms provide that permits issued under the Mineral Leasing Act (the Act of February 25, 1920) may be extended by the Secretary of the Interior, under the first of said Extension Acts, for three years, and under the last two for two years, if he finds that the permittee has exercised reasonable diligence to comply with the conditions of his permit. The Act of March 9, 1928, (45 Stat. 252) is as follows:

"CHAP. 163.-An Act To grant extensions of time of oil and gas permits.

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any oil or gas prospecting permit issued under the Act entitled 'An Act to promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, oil shale, gas, and sodium on the public domain,' approved February 25, 1920, or extended under the Act entitled 'An Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to grant extensions of time under oil and gas permits, and for other purposes,' approved January 11, 1922, or as further extended under the Act of April 5, 1926, may be extended by the Secretary of the Interior for an additional period of two years, if he shall find that the permittee has been unable, with the exercise of reasonable diligence, to begin drilling operations or to drill wells of the depth and within the time required by existing law, or has drilled wells of the depth and within the time required by existing law, and has failed to discover oil or gas, and desires to prosecute further exploration.

"SEC. 2. Upon application to the Secretary of the Interior, and subject to valid intervening rights and to the provisions of section 1 of this Act, any permit which has already expired because of lack of authority under existing law to