Arizona citizen., 1873-09-06
ON MINING AND MINERS,
 LETTER TWO.
Mining in General.

Mining, next to agriculture, is the
 most important natural resource in
 the development of e nation; and as
 a civilizer, the coequal of agriculture.
 All countries deficient in mines, or
 with their mining resources dormant,
 or but partially and unsystematically developed, form the rear of our pro- gressive civilization, while those alive to their importance, and ever active in their healthy development, stand at the head of 1t. The products of mining are daily, hourly wanted in everything, in agriculture, in the arts, in sciences and commerce. Who then dares to say, that mining is but a game, swindle, and the ruin of thousands? Ay thousands and hun dreds of thousands of fools say 1t :; say it, because they have dabbled in 1t, took 1t as a game, and lost in it as game applied their ignorance and worst qualities in it, instead of their intelligence and best qualities en- ployed ignoramuses and pretenders, because such lend themselves to all kinds of dirty work they neglect the honorable professional man, because he does not do so, does not make false reports and misstatements to suit the stock-market, and to the detriment of others and mining ill general. Is mining 0 swindle, 8 game, because some hundreds of swindlers, gamblers and thieves, infest California, Wall and other prominent streets, thinking of and blaming best the ruin of min ing, and trying to find the mystic formula by which mi2ing might be reduced to scientific game or swindle? Will they succeed?
 Mining is as legitimate g. business as agriculture, more legitimate and hon orable than commerce, and as @ legit- innate investment, 1t pays better than either of the two. If therefore it has not done so on this Pacific Coast, the fault was not with mining, but with the mode in which 1t was and IS still, to a great extent, carried on. What merchant would think of putting at the head of his business, a | man altogether ignorant in all things appertaining to legitimate corners, its rules and formulas Not one in 0 million He would scorn at the very suggestion. And yet has the oommu- nifty of this country-in its character as capital-again and again put men at the head of its mining enterprises, | ignorant on all subjects appertaining to mining, wanting even in 8 general education, and sometimes in charac- ter and besotted in strong drinks and | only cheeky, extremely cheeky. But 1 one degree above this kind of {" min ing engineers" stands the so-called i business man, not less cheeky and ! ever ready to assert that he IS 9 jack of all trades, and can show you even the way to heaven and its best en- trance, provided you pay him for 1t. But after having been paid, he will | tell you that he lost the key to it. Needs mining less of study, less of practice, less of knowledge and bus mess capacity, than commerce? It f needs all these things in a much higher degree. Why then treat 1t but as an inferior trade {? when it IS trade in 8 higher sense, requiring 8 of art and science. Why ask more from it, as legitimate profit, or burden it (any company with ten millions of stock. when less than one hundred thousand dollars have been expended in its acquisition and development? Put mining on an equal footing with commerce, and you will see how 1t will come out. Take if out of the hands of swindlers, gamblers and ignoramuses and put it into the hands of those whose legiti- mate trade or profession it is, and you will see it rise, as 8 Phoenix, from its ashes. It is wonder that mining, as it has been mutilated and prostituted for the last twenty years, IS still what it is. It need, therefore, not despair, for it will purge itself of 5he dross in which it is still enveloped, take its place ss one of the powerful levers in the advancement of our race.
 J. J. M.