Morning appeal. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1877-1906, 1878-11-21
OUR PARAMOUNT INTEREST.


duced by our sprightly nieghbor of the Foot
Lqht:
The frequency with which we hear the ad-
vocates of mining assert that 1t is Legitimate
pursuit implies of course, that there are those
who maintain the converse of this proposition.
II it were alleged that this business is some
times illeeitimately conducted, none would
question the truth of the allegation; but 1t
certainly sounds odd to hear one call in ques
ton the legitimacy of mining as business.
This comes from people confoundlng the
manner in which pursuit is sometimes car
ried on with the pursuit itself. But the two
should be segregated in the mind as they are
widely separated in fact. Mining is often
perverted to speculative purposes or managed
in a very unlawful manner Men also specu-
late in wheat, wool, meat. ETC., and yet it
would be absurd to seriously talk about farm
ing, stock raising or wool growing being
legitimate sort of calling. They are wholly
legitimate notwithstanding these abuses occu-
pying the same industrial status as gold and
silver mining. Mining for precious and useful
metals better measures nation advancement
than any other standard That people who
have made the greatest progress is the farthest
advanced in civilization and enlightenment.
Some comparatively barbarous races raise
grain and cattle, but only those who have
arrived at the highest development engage
much in mining, which is not only legitimate
pursuit. but it is the one on which all great
astainments are mainly dependent.
The Mining Press, i'll the foregoing has
struck upon the true vein. The paramount
industry of the Pacific States has been Knocked,
belttled and maligned quite long enough.
The popular mind is ripe for instruction and
reminding i'll another direction and in higher
tone. 1t is time that people began to reflect
what the brawny prospectors have done, what
they have taught themselves, what they have
developed When the Spaniards were at the
hight of their power-almost equal i'll its
vastness and grasp to that of Rome under the
Cesars-her venturesome set out for
E! Dorado-the golden synonym of the West
ern Hemisphere. She became still greater
as she became possessed of the greatest mines
Of silver and gold the world had ever seen.
She only began her downward career when
she had set foot her policy of expressing
her colonies source of hernewly acquired
wealth and power. The flower of America
came to the Pacific to work the gold fields of
California See what was done, however.
Mark one phase of the general policy or prac
sice of encouragement which came upon the
mining industries of that State. Contempt
raneous with the discovery and development
% any district came the leeches of society
the social fabric itself being made subject to
statutes which invited the destruction of min
ing The land owned in va t bodies by spec
uiators. the miner carried his business at
AL enormous expense, -e lornous because all
his provisions must be imported from afar at
his own cost; the merchant sapped the mine
and the miner, and the ''banker' with his
touchstone and his gold scales and his rates of
interest drained dry the merchant. As fast
any diggings were worked out or its work
ers were bankrupted, the "banker bundlng |
up his plumber made hasty steps to San Fran |
cisco. Meantime, while that city was absorb
ing all the outcome of the mines and wasting
the substance of the States manful toilers in
splendor and abundance and heartless waste,
the mon who had made her all her wealth,
scattered afar through the mountains, going in
search OF other fields of gold. Not anJ class
of workers were ever meanly held or I'M
Justly treated the prospectors of these
mountains No New Bedford whale fishing
house ever more cruelty or cody robbed it's
shpmen of their ''lays than these prospec-
tors have been robbed and Knocked and
scorned. Aud yet, look what they have done:
In 90 they found San Francisco bankrupt.
They poured their splendid treasures into it's
hungry vaults, and it rose again in unparal-
e!Ied spleudor. Still the mining interest,
Slapped as it has always been, has fed its
''bankers" with their cent per cent, its mer-
chants, it's lawyers, its satellites and its de-
pendents to its own constant detrment. 1t ,
has BEEN always, and under all circumstances,
the goose for all greedy hands to pluck The
laws of taxation; the purpose of the people;
the trend of public intent, all these have
looked toward the prospector legitimate
object of plumber. The MORNING APPEAL hopes
to awaken some sound public sentiment con 7
;erning these questions, to invite study 7
thereto and to ask, i'll justice to themselves,
hat the people of Nevada shall show larger
md broader appreciation of an industry which,
instead of meriting their suspicion and ex-
'iting their cupdity, shall arouse their sym n
>athy and receive their heartiest encouraging 7
TRAMP KILLED. Says the Reno Gn,ette of .
Tuesday u