The record-union., 1892-01-23
THE WORK OF THE MINERS con-
XENTION.

harmoniZing of interests and restoration
of good feeling that Will be hailed by all
friends ofthe State with satisfaction. The
valley is to be protected, the river to be
rectifed, the mining now inhibited to be-
stimulated, if engineering science can
suggest and the Federal Government
will provide the means to prevent it do
ing injury TO river or 1owIands-all this,
if the memorial adopted is approved by
Congress and the appropriations made
that are asked for both by the River and
the Miners Convention.
1t is recited that Government engineers
have made such preliminary examina-
tons of the river and mining field as to
greatly encourage the belief that the
desires of both the mining and river peo-
pie can be gratifed by proper works be-
ing ordered.
1t is petitioned that engineering exami-
nation and suggestion shall continue,
and that river reclamation and protection
shall proceed according to well devised
systems and with broad liberality, the
convention thus joining hands on that
subject, palm to palm, with the River
Convention of the preceding week.
The Miners Convention, in addition to
the strong memorial to Congress, adopted
number of resolutions, some of which
relate only to matters local to the mining
industry, and others general and related
to agricultural and river interests as well
as mining affairs. But they all hinge
upon the primal and confessed truths and
common agreement that the mining in
dustry is one of incalculable importance
and value to the whole people; that it
ought to be fostered and encouraged in
all right doing; that the valley right, I'M
der the DEGREES of the courts, to be free
from flooding by refuse Of the mines and
damage by wash from the mining
grounds, is one that must be and shall be
respected; that the rivers ought to be
rectified, freed from deposits of the past
and protected from all future damage by
reason of hydraulic mining operations.
Upon these levels of common agree
ment, the valleys and the mountains at
last meet, and the promise is bright that
the desire of each will be accomplished.
Both interests are to send delegations to
Washington to urge action upon the re-
spective memorials, and we take it for
granted that they viii operate together in
perfect harmony.
We congratulate the people of the State,
the mining and the river communities
especially, upon the work thus far
achieved, the good feeling and common
purpose now manifest, and the probable
ity of an outcome of joint and harmeni-
GUS effort, that will be of first import
ance to the river and the mining sections,
and in accordance with the expressed
desires of each.
The RECoRD-UNIoN feels that it has
the right to extend these congratulations
because it has long looked for the present
gratifying status of affairs to be estab-
lished; because it has never entertained
luminosity, or expressed unreason in the
issues between river and mining sections.
It has uniformly declared its desire that
the industries of both should be pre-
served and promoted, and to that end has
in and out of season urged that the best
policy, and the shortest road to final and
satisfactory solution of the debris ques-
ton lay in appeals to the Federal Gov
eminent to do its duty to the river as a
navigable stream. Many years ago the
RECoRD-UNIoN presented that phase of
the question, holding that persistence in
pushing before the Government the COM
mercial and navigable Importance of the
rivers must result in the Federal author
ity either utterly repudiating policy as
old as the history of the Government itv
self, or else in its entering upon the work
of river treatment and protection under
its obligation to preserve navigable
streams as the free highways of the ma
ton.
Confident then that if that were done
the debris question would be solved, we
are to-day equally convinced that such
will be the result when once Congress
puts its hand to the work.
And now to point out to the Miners
Convention, which has wisely made itself
permanent body, one important omis-
sion in its presentation of facts. 1t should
have recited, and in language forcible
and unmistakable, that the cessation of
hydraulic mining lost to all the counties
in which conducted not only vast output
of the precious metal, but it disastrously
reduced the population of such counties.
1t ought to have been shown that in
Nevada County alone there was, despite
the law of increase of population, a total
loss in the last decade-1SS0-ls9O- 5000
people. Now, the revival of the mining
industry viii repopulate the mountain
districts. This loss and this prospective
gain, and all it means to industry and to
civilization, ought, we submit, to have
been set forth.
As to the important question whether
the mining industry shall support Chi
nese or white civilization, that is mex
tricably interviewer with the other. Re-