The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-03-20

always be taken cum grGno sails on the bars
assertion of such authorities as the Tribune,
a paper which never hesitates to declare as
an established fact, anything, however
reckless and absurd, that may serve it as a
point to bolster up a rotten argument. But,
admitting the possibility OF its truth, what
Mexico or any other country as far behind
the surge and sweep Of the worlds pro
gress as she confessedly is, may think
of this important matter, is not and can
not be conclusive as an argument.
The United States does not think SO; the
foremost nations Of Europe do not think
so. No other country realizes it, except
perhaps Russia, the despotic and tyranni-
cal, whose Siberian mines and the cruelties
and atrocities associated herewith have
madeit the terror of it's natives and the re-
proach of the civilized world. In France,
the richest country of Europe, it is agri-
culture, not mining, that has aided largely
in making her La Belle France" the
wonder and admiration of nations, and
equally marvellous results from similar
causes are manifest in the growth and pro-
gress of many other countries, ancient and
modern Mining, it is true, has done
much in various regions toward civil
ization and wealth production. We do not
by any means decry its influence, or depre-
ciate its worth, as one Of the important
agencies of progress. But we do object to
giving it all the glory, as our contemporary
fain would do, even placing it in the scale of
material development ahead Of the grand
basic principle Of agriculture, the Oldest
and most important vocation in the worlds
history.
In what way imaginable, we ask, is the
miner "a creator" that the farmer is nota
Neither of them creates the elements which
minister to the wealth and subsis-
tence of themselves and their fell
low creatures. A Being greater than
the miner-though the Tribune may
doubt it-creates alike the precious
ores that his labor brings from the depths
to the surface Of the earth, and the crops
that are planted and harvested by the
farmer If the one "creates" wealth, as we
will admit for arguments sake he does in
one sense, the other creates the means of
subsistence without which the miner, the
the railway king or the
merchant would starve. BREAD is the
staff of life," but gold and silver are not,
though they may serve to purchase it, and
under certain conditions make it more
plentiful.
The Tribune has always been consistently
inconsistent in harpIng upon what it holds
to be the mistaken policy Of that great
leader and colonizer, BRIGHAM YoUNe, the
foremost founder of Utah, in not favoring
at once the opening of the mines in this
territory on the arrival here Of the Nor
mons in early days. But BRIGHAM YOUNG
knew, if the editor of the Tribune does not,
that gold and silver are very poor proven
der for. starving exiles, stripped of
their possessions and driven into a
wilderness to live or die, as
providence and their own wisdom or folly
should decide. He knew that his people
first Of all bread, and he theref ore
fostered agriculture; secondly, cloth
ing and he instituted home manufac-
lures and sustained them; just as his peo-
pie, if they are wise, will do to-day; for
the need Of home production of all articles
at home, is scarcely less urgent
now than it was in Utah forty years ago,
though perhaps for different reasons
Mining takes it's legitimate place in the
growth and development of country like
ours, but it is not, as some thoughtless peo-
pie as ert, the prime factor or basic princi-
pie of our material and social progress and
well-being
Still, we are willing to admit that the
miner is indeed "a CREATOR in every sense
superior to the man who, as maker of
literature and moulder of thought, can
create no better and more truthful an argyll
ment than the writer of the editorial on
Mining in Tuesdays Tribune.