Gold Hill daily news. [volume] (Gold Hill, N.T. [Nev.]) 1863-1882, 1865-02-23
Sensible Suggestions.


Sensible Suggestions.
The Stockton Independent favors its
readers with the following sound sugges-
tons in relation to the mineral lands:
Capital is and will be chary of the mines
just as long as doubt or a shadow COW
ers title. If capital can secure title to its
mining possessions, it will invest more
largely. 1t will not until it can, unless at
the most enormous profits. In the mines
of this State there is scarcely any capital.
Whys Simply because-frst, capital has
no security that its investments and pos
sessions will remain undisturbed. Some
body owns the mines. Who? If the
Federal Government, then the Federal
Congress may be forced to sell, and some
body inimical to the possessor may become
the purchaser. If the State, it is all the
same. Meanwhile, the I" law of the vicin-
age" restricts capital and is liberal to ad-
venture which has no capital to develop
the mines. No man or company cares to
build mill and create improvements that
will cost from hundred to five hundred
thousand dollars, when their operations
are restricted to few hundred feet Of a
single lode, while all around them is open
to be seized and held for speculation by
shiftless and uncrupulous adventures.
Capital demands room as well as clear
title. Mariposa is not as rich in gold
quartz as either Tuolumne or Galayeras.
Yet in Mariposa to-day there are one hun
dred dollars invested in quartz mining to
one dollar in Calaveras or Tuolumne.
Why: Because the Mariposa Company
have clear title to their lands, and room
to search over A, 900 acres for new lodes
as the old ones give out, with the free, I'M
restricted use of timber and water. They
have, altogether, invested over three mil
lions of dollars, and within the last twelve
months have spent in building mills, open
ing mines, prospecting, and constructing
roads, canals, bridges, etc., nearly Sl,000,-
900. They keep in constant employment
nearly one thousand men, who are well
paid, we'll fed, and comfortably housed,
which is more than all the mines of Gala
veras and Tuolumne can do together.
These are facts that ought to have as great
weight with laborers as with capitalists.
The Mariposa estate at this moment is pro-
ftably employing more men than all the
mines between the Mokelumne and Mer-
ced, outside of that estate and exclusive of
the copper mines; and the Mariposa Com
pany wields in its mining operations more
capital than all the so-called independent
miners" from Auburn to Hornitos.
1t is, then, serious question whether
this State is not following an ignts fatnuS is
sticking out for what has been named by
demagogues free mines" Would it not
be infinitely better for the miners them
selves and for every interest of the State
and Nation, if the title of the mines were
passed by act of Congress to legitimate pur-
chasers, precisely as is done in the case of
other Federal lands: We think yes,
knowing very well what the demagogues
will say and do whenever the attempt is
made to change the rotten and pauperizing
old order of things. The time has come
when every honest, sensible well-wisher of
California should disregard the dema-
gogue's croaks for the good of the State
and the welfare of the laboring masses in
the mines. We speak whereof we know,
in saying that the poorest, hardest worked,
and most dispirited laborers in the free
United States are the so-called "independ-
ent miners" FE ..A .7......
No persons better understand this than
the demagogues who raise the cry of
monopoly" the instant the sale of the
mines is mooted. They know full well
that it is almost impossible to make the
condition of the miners worse than it is,
and that the steady employment which
capital would bring is precisely what the
laborer needs. Let the gold mines of CAL
averas and Tuolumne be sold, and in five
years each of these counties would enjoy
the benefits Of five millions of capital from
the East, in the development of their hid.
den resources and the employment of their
now poor, detected and despairing labor
ers. To encourage anything like an Or
ganization of the miners against the sale
of the mines or in favor of maintaining the
old regime,is like counseling them to en-
igrate or to starve. The restoration of
business in the mines and the profitable
employment of labor there, depend now
entirely on the introduction of capital, and
capital viii wait on title and elbow room.