The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-05-11
LEGAL ~ADyERTIs1Nc.


Now, that Butte is the happy possessor of
two newspapers, We no longer have the
monopoly in the way of legal advertising,
which was ours before the establishment of
our local contemporary. There are now two
papers between which to choose in the bestov-
al Of advertising patronage, and since this
choice has led of late to two or three attempts
to beat down our already very moderate
prices, we beg the indulgence of our readers,
and especially of mine owners, from whom
such demands have usually come, while we
review briefly the past, and state our position
in the present. For three years after its es-
Enlistment the MINER was the only paper
published at Butte, and consequently during
that period it enjoyed a practical monopoly OF
certain descriptions of legal printing, partic-
ularly Of "appllcations for PATENT" which
must appear in the paper published near
est the ground on which patent is applied
for. h rule of the Land Office gave us an
undisputed claim on that class of advertising.
This will be admitted. So also we think it
will be admitted that it would not have been
ullICdSOiiAUlC, ilol VIC SCCu pIOpCi W Tx III
charges to correspond with the price paid else
where for that class Of advertising. Now the
average price charged at that time throughout
Montana for a patent application was $25, and
$25 we could have received for each Of the
scores of such notices published by us, had
we seen fit to demand it. But we did not de-
mand it. We wished to do what we could,
according to our means, towards encouraging
the mining interest in this district, and &C
cordingly instead of fixing our rates at $25,
we never charged more than SIS for a patent
notice of average length. Our action in this
matter was entirely voluntary. We could
have had $25, just as easily as SIS, had we seen
proper to demand it, but we did not. Ten
dollars on each notice published would have
made quite a difference with us in the severe
struggle of establishing a paper of wide circu-
lation, but for the reason already %given-the
wish to encourage the mining interest-we
p~referrd the moderate to the higher price, and
have never since regretted our decision, al
though we have repeatedly been reno ,strated
with on the %"folly' Of not asking all we
could get.
With the lapse of time the charges for ad-
vertising patents have not changed. In Lewis
& Clarke county the price is $25 and always
has been. Beaverhead was without a paper
until the establishment Of the Atlantis, whose
proprietor signalized his public spirit by his
endeavor to wiring $40 from the miners for
each patent notice published, and was only COL
Ct I'm; fo ,,Dl,,,ta Lie J>,,orl to 90. ,l>,o,
the course taken by the Hecla Company in de-
clarins they would continue to represent their
claims and allow them to remain unpatented,
rather than submit to such imposition. West
of us lies MissOula, 4 county known by those
we'll acquainted with it to be anything but
deficient in mineral wealth, but from which
mining capital has until the present been
pretty much excluded, owing to its remoteness,
the difficulty of freighting machinery over the
Mullan road, and above all, TO the enormous
depth of snow falling every winter III the
Occur D'Alene range. Notwithstanding those
obstacles a company formed in Butte recently
made a mineral location in Missoula county,
their application being published in the MIS-
S%Outiun. Missoula is q rich agricultural
county. 1t is the land Of superabundailt
plenty. All it lacks is a home market for tie
produce yielded so generously by its fertile
fields. Such a market would be provided by
the openin. of mines in Missoula, and ac-
cor1ingly the discovery Of a paying mining
camp has long been looked upon as the great
disideratum Of the county. The publisher OF
the MiSso"lidn understood this very well, and
accordingly when the Butte men strike into
the wilderness and entered upon a mimi. Ell.
terprise which, if successful, Will be of tie
utmost importance to the whole COMFY, lie
does what he can towards enco raging mining
and helping his county. by charging fifty dot
/ rs for their patent notice. 1t IS true the nc
tice was of greater length than The longest
ER's rates the bill for lis publication would
have been $25, a difference Of the Du,chmAl'.
one per cent il ourf4vor.
We mention those cases to make good 0ul
assertion when We claim to lave pursued IA
p1licy Of liberality, a policy the reverse OF
grasping in our dealings with the miners Of
the Summit Valley district. Well, with the
establishment Of another paper at Butte has
come competition for advertising. This com.
petition is not felt in commercial advertising
the interest of the merchant prompting Lin
to inser, his earl in the paper of the widcs'
circulation. Bat with legal advertising 1t i.
different. Publishing a legal notice in 9
newspaper of 80 subscribers answers the
purpose, as far as complying with the require
ments Of the law is concerned, fully as wei
as pub!isiin. it III Il paper having 4 ,~llousunc