Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1879-02-06
FACTS FAVOKlNG RAILROAD EN-.
COURAGEMENT.
BUTTE, NJ. L., January 26, 1879.

BUTTE, NJ. T., January 26, 1879.
To the Editor of the Herald:
1t strikes me that this reckless signing of
petitions against railroad exemption and the
indifference manifested upon the part of some
of the Montana papers on the subject is just
a little too short-sighted for people of the
intelligence generally credited to US. We
hear talk on the streets which would lead one
to think that this exemption means some ter
rible burden that threatens to drag us down
to ruin. am reliably informed that an ex-
for say fifteen years would amount to not over
1926, 1000. We imported $500, 900 pounds of
salt last year at an average cost of cents per
pound, or $4,000. Being compelled to layin
nearly years supply in advance, we have
lost the use of much of this capital. As the
salt is generally obtained in Idaho, near the
line of the Utah & Northern, we should save
enough alone each year on its freight and on
the interest of money now tied up for months
at time to pay this entire item of exemption.
During the past year we exported about
$4,000, 600 worth of pure silver. 1t Is we'll
known by miners and rail- men that after the
bars left the mills it cost ten per cent. of
their value to turn them into currency, the
expressage to market alone being from to
per cent, the balance being assayers' and mel
ters charges, bank commissions, express
charges on return currency, etc. Here is an
item of $200, 900 per year gone. Half of the
amount, or nearly enough to pay the entire
fifteen years exemption, could easily be saved
every twelve months with the railroad at
hand to cheaper manipulation of the bullion
and transportation of silver out and currency
into the country. The amount of capital in
vested in merchandising in Montana is esti-
mated at from $4,000 600 to 100000. Plac-
ing it at the lowest figure, at least half the
amount, or So, OOO, 600, is tied up in stocks of
goods, which on account of our imperfect
carrying facilities must now be bought from
six to ten nc onths ahead. Here is another loss
of 100000 annually in interest-an amount
nearly equivalent to the fifteen years exemp-
ton. Granting that freights would be laid
down by through railroad at our business
centers at only half cent pound less than
now by mule transportation, and on the co.
600 tons imported last year there would have
been saving of 5000, ,000-a saving in twelve
months to the consumers of the Territory of
an amount nearly double that which would
accrue to the railroad from an exemption of
Is years.
All acknowledge that property near the
line of the road would as soon as the rails
were laid be enhanced in value not less than
Is per cent. Granting that the road comes
over the Pleasant Valley divide the increase
in the assessed valuation of Beaverhead val
ley property alone at this rate would double
the amount of the exemption. Here at Butte
and in almost every other mining camp in
Montana are dozens of mines with thousands
of tons of low grade ore in sight, each of
which could and would be adding more to
the wealth and prosperity of the Territory
every year than this legislation could possibly
deprive us of.
I, for one, have roughed it and hoped for
some of the higher marks of civilization here
among these mountains through the best years
of my life and am getting decidedly tired of
it. Doing without the genuine enjoyment of
this life gets stale in fifteen or sixteen years.
Let us have the railroad, and with it our mails
fresh from Chicago or San Francisco in four
days, and telegraph line that will be worth
more than the pony express or the rotten
wires we have now; our fruits from the Or
chards of Utah in twenty-four hours, our
oysters fresh from the sea or the numberless
other luxuries that we have been deprived of
all these years-and an occasional invoice by
Pullman palace cars of some kindred spirits
in crinoline for a thousand of US old bachelors
now wrinklingu and becoming cross-grained
in the back-woods. AS for risking the COM
pany's building the road without exemption,
l would say no. We have waited for half an
average lifetime, and as we are taking nothing
out of our pockets need afford to run no risk,
but just make the most of the best offer we
have ever had or probably ever will have.
r. A. MINER.
Ingalls, Re-elected Senator.
TOPEKA, (Ks.) January 31.-The anti-1n-
gals element in the Legislature, after cau-