National Republican., 1874-05-08
SUTRO TUNNEL SCHEME.
ADDaTIoNAI PUBLIC OPINION FROM
THE PACIFIC COAST.


ADDaTIoNAI PUBLIC OPINION FROM
THE PACIFIC COAST.
TUE PASSAGE OF THE BILL DENOUNCED
HISTORY OF THE sCHEME-TaE INJURY
IT WILL WORK THE MINERs-soME IN
TEREstaNG FIGURES.
special to the National Republican,
SAN Francisco, May 7th.--The following
are additional comments on she Sutro tunuel
subsidgrscheme. The press of this State seems
to ha+e awaked to the Importance of the ocoa-
sion. s..
The Alta California this morning has shefol-
lowing on the Sutro tunnel:
'sWe sometime since called attention 10 the
fact that the public mind had become startled
by the monstrous fact that there was actually
danger of the passage of the most bgrefsced
and atrocious plunder bill, known as Sutro
tunnel scheme, through the House of Repre-
sentatives. 1t has now actually passed the
House, and if it passes the Senate it only needs
the Executive signature to become law. It
is hardly possible that President Grant, who SO
grandly rose above party considerations and
dhSOCldLlOus dS W NCIO LAc luudtlOu
bill, will put his name to
so INFAMOUS AN CT.
Of spoilation as the Sutro tunnel bill, and there
ishope that if it should be signed the United
States court will not fail to set aside so bare
faced an attempt TO rob the miners for the
benefit of schemers. The scheme was proposed
in 1866; is, eight years ago. The mines
had been-discoVered six years. The Gould &
Curry was the deepest, 900 feet, and the Saw
age 450 feet. These mines are now 1900 feet
deep, and all the difficulties that the Sutro
tunnel was proposed to overcome have disap-
peared, and the work demonstrated to be not
only useless but detrimental. 1t was intended
to overcome four great difficulties, the flow of
water, the cost of hoisting, the expense of
transportation and want of ventilation. For
these objects the miners agreed to pay him
certain amount of money il the tunnel should
be ready in given time.
HE FAILED IN HIS CONTRACT,
notwithstanding the large grants he obtained
from Congress. Meantime the mines have
been sunk to an average level lower than the
proposed tunnel; the water has ceased to
trouble them; the railroad has supplied trans
portation; improvement in machinery has
cheapencd hosting, and compressed air and
drift connections supplies ventilation. Every
pretense for the tunnel has fallen to the ground,
but Sutro meantime has interested foreign par
ties in the tunnel so far that he has found
means to procure the passage of law not to
build the tunnel to aid miners, but to tax the
miners TO support useless tunnel scheme.
T IJuS
him two dollars per ton whether they use the
tunnel or not. There were four numbered thou
sand tons raised on the Comstock last year. If
the tunnel had, under the law, touched the
lode, Sutro would have levied 5000, 600 on
miners annually, whether they used the tunnel
or not.
Let US take an example. 1t cost the Crown
Point last year S33 1882 to hoist IS 4S0 tons, or
less than one dollar per ton. 1t now hoists 500
per day at As cents expense from a depth
lower than where the tunnel would strike their
work Those works are 4 miles by drift to the
tunnel, and g. miles miles by tunnel to its
mouth; that is miles underground from the
ore to the mouth of the tunnel. To move ore
through that drift and tunnel 10 miles, in COM
petition with all other mines along the route,
would be very expensive, and they could not
get out 100 ton per day. 1t would be
mPRACTICABLE TO USE 1T
at alk They now hoist 500 tons per. day for
s225, but under the law they may have to pay
own hosting. All other miners must pay the
same tax. Thus Parke & Bowie last year
raised 10000 tons. They would have had to
pay Sutro $4,000 for absolutely nothing, and
a more arbitrary way of taking money out of
the pockets of miner to give to Sutro and his
scheming associates, it is scarcely possible to
put the fact that such iniquity gets through
Congress, strikes at faith in the stability of
vested rights. y
The saGtahnento Record of We dnesday, says
of Mr.. sutro: "Again the San Francisco
Chronicle appears to be filed with quite ten
der compassion for Mr.. sutro, and evidently
regards him as a much abused man; but con-
sidering that the Chronicle arrogates to itself
the position of the only daily paper on this
coast which has ever given Sutro and his
scheme the benefit of the simple truth, 1t is
rather surprising that it should manifest SO
slight knowledge Of the nature of the scheme
of the merits Of the case generally. It is
tolerably well known outside of the office of
our contemporary that the original purpose of
the Sutro tunnel has become incapable of full
6llment; that the tunnel is not required by the
miners on the Comstock code, and that the
protector is now seeking to compel these miners
to pay him royalty, for which he is not in
position to offer any material consideration.
THE PLAIN TRUTH
is that the scheme is failure, and that Sutro
refused to abandon it, and being backed by |
capitalists is doing his best to obtain by Con- |
gressional legislation that which he could have |
secured without any trouble at all had his un- |
dertaking been successful, and because these
are the facts, we were guilty of no exaggera-
tion when we spoke of his project as an auda-
cious attempt to legalize system of plunder.
SS22tro has nothing to offer the miners. He |
cannot benefit them, but he demands that they
shall pay him two dallars ton on all the ore
they take out as soon as mis- tunnel is com.
pieted.
'Should he be successful he will have secured |
the most incredibly iniquitous monopoly in the |
world. He will have obtained the right to tax |
every mine in the Comstock upon the strength |
ofhaving made preposterous hole which might |
as well, for all the use it is to anybody, have
been, bored through Mount Tamalpais or |
Shaeta diepatnh fror, tb;s |