The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1886-04-02
4 MINING FIGHT IN ARIZONA.

81
A MINING FIGHT IN ARIZONA. s
A Long LitiRation--Mixed Condition
OF Mining Laws-The Need and
Value OF Reform.
A Tombstone, Arizona, corresponds.
cnt of Tile NeW York EUcning Post
writes: An important mining suit, in
volving largo sum of money and vital
principles in the establishment and
maintenance Of miners rights, is now
in progress hire before the county
court, Judge Webster Street presiding.
The parties in action are the Copper
Queen Consolidated Mining company,
plaintiff, and the Arizona Prince Cop
panics are owned by New York people,
and their property lie side by side in
the town Of Bisbee, thirty miles south,
near the Mexican line. They are repre-
scented here by their respective presi-
dents, Prof. James Douglas, Jr., and
Arthur +. Wendt, of New York. The
case has excited so much interest that
Judge Street, in his injunctions to the
jury, used extraordinary precautions,
putting them under the restraints Gus
tomary in capital criminal trial.
1t seems that the town of Bisbce
grew out of the discovery about 1878 of
q valuable seam of copper in a canyon
of the Mule mountains. That property,
called the Copper Queen mine, passed
into the hands of the company now
called the Copper Queen Consolidated
Mining company. Ayear or two later.
about 1880, new vein was discovered,
having its groupings beyond the limits
ly running parallel with it. This is now
the domain of the Arizona Prince Cop
per company. All went well until. by
the development of the Prince property,
the discovery was made that the seam,
after running down vertically for a
time, dipped, and by an incline ran
directly under the side lines of the
Queen. Then there was war in the
household of course. The Queen re-
strained. The Prince sued and got
judgment, as the mining laws permit
the following of the vein, whose apex is
upon the surface, even under the work
ings of another mine upon its side
lines. The Queen appealed, but the
supreme court of the territory affirmed
the decision of the lower court. This
suit began in May, 1888. ran along for
months, and cost u great deal of money.
Then the work went on again.
But further developments made
new revelation, out of which has arisen
a decree of court granting rehearing
of the former suit (which will come of
at the next term of the supreme court),
an injunction granted in December last,
restraining the Prince from taking out
any more ore, and this present suit
now pending, of the Queen against tho
Prince, for damages. 1t is alleged that
the vein whose apex was upon the
property of tho Prince, and which the
law allows them to follow down upon
the side lines under the property of the
Queen, terminated at a certain incline,
running ut right angles with both
mines, and about five hundred feet
from their northern limits. This would
entitle the Prince to work under the
Queen up to that line, and there stop.
But once under ground, it is said, they
have gone on, and extracted immense
quantities of ore beyond the limits of
this vertical line. Hence the Injunction
and the suit for damages on the part of
the Queen.
Aside from teohnicalities incumber-
ing this case, which have nothing to do
with its merits, but which have absorb
ed the time of the court and counsel
thus far, it will be nice point of law
for the court to determine, mixed and
uncertain rs mining statutes and pre-
cedents are, whether the owner of a
mine is not allowed to follow his vein
to the utmost limits of his patent, un.
dor tho property of a foreign corpora
ton, even though its apex be not found
continuously upon the surface. Again,
it will he very difficult point of fact
for any ordinary jury of inexperts to
determine, in the face of opposing
counsel, what constitutes a vein, or
continuous vein, especially after the
ground has been worked over. If the
jury fails to agree, as seems to be prob
able in this case, the stoppagc of an i'm
portant industry results for an indefi-
mite time. If it finds for either party,
and the decision is sustained BY the
higher courts, to which it will undouht-
edly be carried, great and undescrvcd
loss will accrue to honest mon pursue
ing legitimate business, the effect of
which will ultimately fall upon the
mining interest itself.
The moral of this is plain, and both
parties to the suit feel it. The mining
laws of this country are framed in the in
terest of lawyers; whether so intended or
not, such is the fact. They begin in a
tangle, and the snarl is perpetuatcd Of
ten to the consumption of large por-
ton of the profits which have accrued
or which would have accrued but for
needless liti gation. Putting aside salt
ed mines, oreless holes, or gigantic
swindles originated to sell stock and
make money regardless of the pres
ence or absence of mineral, there are
legitimate corporations, with large cap
ital honestly invested, who are unwit-
tingly walked into expensive lawsuits,
to the absorption of all dividends,
through the defective litigation-produc-
ing mining statutes of this country.
Lawsuits, with all their intricacics, de-
lays, and uncertainties, are inevitable
SO long as fraud, accident. and crime
exist, but they ought not to be incvita,
Bile between honest men engaging in a
legitimate business. And vet iitiga.
ton is one of the contingencies put in
in tiguring on mining profits. 10 buy
a mine is to buy a lawsuit is trite
saying. The real suffering cntailcd by
such warfare, if it could be placed and
traced to its consequences, might be
found greater than that caused by the
dcpredations of the Apaches.
There is room here for the employ
ment Of capital to an almost unlimited
degree upon lowgrade ores when COM
panics of conservative eastern men can
be vested and protected in their rights
to mine and work the ore on property
which they know is their own, and
which they can control in all the de-
tails of property interests common to
capital and labor. Here is an oppor-
tunity for some member of the senate
or house to frame Il bill which will, at
least in future enterprises, make these
expensive lawsuits impossible. The