The Montana post. [volume] (Virginia City, Montana Territory [i.e. Mont.]) 1864-1869, 1868-05-16

under present circumstances, and hold
ing fast to the determination that the
Northern shall. must. and will he built.
MINERAL RESOURCES IN CON.
GRESS.
j. Ross Browne made report to Con-
gress last year upon the mineral re-
sources of our country. The report was
especially acceptable to the people of
Nevada from the fact that four fifths of
il, N Mr.. Holbrook. of Iadho. asserted
in the House, was taken up with . de-
scription of the minee of that State. and
more especially with the description of
one Of them, the Comstock Ledge. The
introduction of resolution to have over
fifteen thousand of these reports printed,
gave rise the other day to very ami
mated Congressional discussion, in
which the Delegate from Montana par
ticipated, and of which we received q
full report in the Congressional Globe.
Mr.. Cavanaugh. in giving reasons for
his objection to the resolution, stated
that the report, SO far as it related to the
resources of Montana, was incorrect
from the title page to the end, and that
the facts upon which to base 1t were
furnished to Mr. Browne by DR.. Blatch-
ley after sixty days trip across the
continent, three weeks of that time only
being spent in Montana. Our delegate
stated that DIR. Blatchley, during his
brief stay in Montana, left not less than
fifty gulches and over one hundred
mines unvisited. and was not therefore
competent to give any facts concerning
this country. We can do no less than
commend Mr.. Cavanaugh's zeal in be
halt of our Territory ON this occasion re-
fcrred to, albeit the resolution to print
and send forth to the world over fifteen
thousand copies of l. work which fails to
do Montana complete justice. was eventu-
ally passed.
1t In doubtless true, with regard to
the report referred to. that DIR. Blatchley
endeavored to give fair and impartial
compilation of the facts which. by hard
work we believe, he gathered together
dufseg his three weeks stay with us. II
is also true that the compensation al
lowed for the work was not sufficient to
Justify such n thorough investigation OF
| ~ oh oil sa,ov ha
made in the preparation of any report
which comes to the people from such
high authority as the Congress of the
United States. We apprehend. indeed
that this matter of insufficient compen-
sation has been the casket from which
has arisen the cloud of uncertainty that
hangs about the ereports-morc especially
the mineral reports-of Congress, and
We do hope that that august body will,
in the future, have the wisdom to either
cxpend sufficient money to render its
reports reliable or else let the mineral
resources Of the country take care OF
themselves, however much the latter
course might lessen the feed of the vora-
cious public printing press. Unless this
proposed change is made. there are Ger
tainly great Inducements for the person
making the report to allow prominent
mine owners to pay a portion of his
travelling or other expenses, out of pure
ly friendly motives, of course; but mo-
tives, also. which could not be fairly
reciprocated save by a favorable, or ut
least not unfavorable, notice of the ben
efaetor's property. We are happy to
believe that no such considerations have
had any influence upon tho report of
Mr.. Browne; but speak of the matter
here for the pr-pose of showing why
Congress should either prepare thor
cugh reports or else abandon altogether
that .i:ertain kind of literature which
may, in time, come to rank but little
higher than q pamphlet of advertise
ments. What is worth doing is worth
doing we'll"
Another report upon mineral resources
was sent to Congress on the I'd inst, by
the Hon. James w. Taylor, Commits
sioner for the Collection of Statistics OF
Gold and Silver Mining. That portion
y this report referring to Montana was
repaired by Prof w. s. keyes, of this
city. who spent much time and labor
upon it, and who investigated the sub
ject upon which lie wrote, so far as lie
consistently could when the allowance
made by government for expenses was
taken into consideration. We do not
anticipate, however, that this report will
meet with full favor from our people, for
}, is useless to deny the fact that many
IT them have SO little idea of the signifi
eance Of figures that anything less than
= hundred million OF dollars seems like
~ mere baGateile 10 them, and report
Jon Montana's gold product which
Steals in anything less than TIE above
p ndsome amount is looked upon with
q favor. When TOO indolent 40 inyes-