Salt Lake evening Democrat. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1885-1887, 1886-10-05
A MINING PROBLEM.
"Distance and Difficulty Lend En-
chantnent to the Views,
Correspondence DEMOCRAT.

correspondence DEhOCRAT.I
A startling story of mining find, at
tended by an advance guard of exclama-
ton points, is going the rounds of the
newspapers. A vein OF ore carrying
$3.50 copper, $1,000 in gold, and $3.50
in silver has been found imbedded in a
barren island rock in Lake Superior.
The finder is congratulated on all sides
as a acknowledgements by virtue of
ownership Of an undeveloped mining
claim in a semi-Arctc region.
Now, in the West Mountain Mining
District, within thirty miles OF Salt Lake
City, with railroad connections, genial
climate. and reduction works close at
hand, better-showing veins go begging
developed. And to-day in New York or
Boston, capitalists will jump at the bare
incorporated hook of water-logged and
ice-bound mine in Lake Superior, while
they turn up their noses at better prop
erty in Utah. What is the reason? You
might as well ask the why, the whence
and the wherefore of clam at high
water as to ask these sapient capt.
alists the reason OF their discrimina-
ton. Ask the bell-wether OF a
flock of sheep why, when he jumps
over five rail fence with an open gate by
its side, every woolly-pated fool OF a
| flock follows in the footsteps of his de-
mented predecessor. One may say with
some truth, "distance and difficulty lend
enchanement to the view" But this
does not solve the problem, for let a
prospect of silver or gold, no better than
many which lie idle in mining districts
adjacent to this city, be found in any
Eastern State, and what wave OF ex-
element goes sweeping over the commu-
nifty.
OF one thing we may be sure, that the
benetciares of the mining interest in the
Lake Superior region do not "damn with
faint praise" nor treacherously state the
imperial industry which directly or ndi-
rectly helps them to a living. In Utah
it is different. Let a capitalist come as
stranger to this Territory, and inquire for
opportunities to invest money. Com
mencing under the shadow of the tithing-
house, he will hear but one answer from
the tithe-eater and tithe-producer, from
Mormon worker and drone, and it is,
'beware of the minesn' AS he energies
from the darkness of priestly oneness
question in professional, mercantile and
banking circles, whose very existence
here is directly or indirectly depend
ent upon the mining outcome, how
much encouragement does he receive
with regard to investing his money in
legitimate mining? Stockholders and
money-loaners will expatate on tine folly
OF putting money into "holes in the
ground" and business men whose first
start came through some fortunate sale
OF "hole in the ground'' with silver
| lining peculiar to Utah, but made by
some other fellow to whom they had fur
nished supplies, will shake their fool
heads with asinine gravity and mutter
their thrice repeated falsehood about the
''illegitimate and lottery-like business of
mining" Even the successful mining
men OF the Territory do not assert them
selves. They do not insist that the Jour
nails they sustain should give due atten-
ton and support to the only productive
industry which lifts this Territory above
the plane OF a cabbage and carrot garden,
which lights the fires of every smelter,
keeps up the clangor OF every quartz mill,
dispatches long freight trains on their
winding way, fills the vault of every bank
and sends the financial life-blood cours-
| ing through every artery and vein OF the
body. polite. Where is the Mining Ex-
change, the mart OF trade for one OF the
greatest ore markets on this continent?
Where is the Miners Club, with its
reading room, with its collections of min
erals, its library and lectures, practical
and scientific? Echo answers where?
Like the patient ass who bears alike
the burdens and blows of his dependent
owner, the mining industry in Utah has
supported and been berated by Saint and
Sinner alike. Handicapped like every
other productive interest in this Territory
by the unmitigated curse OF priestly and
disloyal rule, it has borne additional
burdens laid upon it by Indifferent, faint
hearted friends and by open foes. In
this year OF depression, as in years pre-
ceding, it will furnish seven-eights of our
exports, home market for the farmers,
herdsmen and laborers OF the Territory
and commend itself as the most patent
factor in laying the foundations of a pros
porous and loyal commonwealth. More
than any other material interest on the
Pacific Slope, it commends itself to men
OF wealth at home and abroad, as an
avenue OF honorable and productive in
vestment.