The morning call., 1895-01-01
1T Is A ISLANDER.
Money Used in Mining Is
Not Misspent.
ONLY CHANGES HANDS.
An Attack on Mining Industry
Ably Answered.
w. s. CHAPMAN TO THE RESCUE.
A Writer in Harper's Weekly Say S
That Mining Is Game of Chance
With odds Against the Player.


of the mining industry. w. S. Chapman.
man of great experience in this particu-
lar occupation, had just finished reading the
criticism when seen yesterday, and when
asked what he thought Of the position taken
by the writer remarked emphatically:
81 think this whole story is SANDER
upon the mining industry. When he says
there is halo of romance surrounding
the mines and miners. tina: 1t is difficult to
get people to look at questions concerning
the industry in an unimpassioned light,
he does not know what he is talking about
There is no halo about it, Not bit Of 1t.
Il know of twoyoung men who recently
discovered couple of mines. They vera
found 10 be rich in ore, but the finders had
not the means to work them properly.
They came down to this city and tried to
find men who would invest money in
assisting them to erect machinery TO work
the mines, but failed. Does this look like
q 'halo?'
ut is true, when the bonanza kings
were operating in this city, on Pine street,
| people were daZzed and many of them
| lost fortunes 10 the manipulatons. There
| might have been halo around Pine
| street, but the writer is talking about
| mining people, and not the gambling side
of the question. at his point.
Again he says: For every dollars
worth of gold produced it is estimated
that So Is is spent in mining, and in silver
the comparison is still more alarming
"Well, what OF 1t? Has there not been
a dollar added to the worlds circu alton,
and has not So IS gone into the poke of
the mechanics and other employees? Then
he adds: When we were told that Colo
RADIO alone in 1898 gold produced TO he
value of S. 293, 036 aud of silver $40, 494, 657
N
sums of money that have been misspent
and the energy misdirected.'
1.-The last part Of this clause Is the most
startling. Money missDent and energy
misdirected.' Why, what absurdities
When q man puts money 10 a ranch In
| order that it may be productive, even If he
exDends more than his crops sell for, is the
money misspent? Is money used to
build fences, barns, bitches and other
improvements misspent? Why. how ridic-
ulous! The tworkmen in Colorado were
certainly benefited by this energy misdi-
Tected,' and the country to-day is nearly
$50, 900. 600 richer.
'If this great sum had not been spent
In mining l would like to know into what
channel he would have diverted all this
wasted wealth.
st is true In States like South and North
Dakota and Nebraska, where there are no
mines, money is scarce. People conse-
| mining districts. The majority of the
farms in these States are mortgaged for all
they are worth. If little more capital
had been misspent in those States I dare
say the people would be better off.
"When the writer says that money ia
misspent he tells an untruth. Money is
not misspent, but it merely changes
pockets From the owner 1t is given to
! the miner for services received. The miner
! in turn pays it over to the merchants for
goods and food.
Here is another queer statement He
says: Necessarily, the majority OF them
have lost money, and during the crisis of
1898 hundreds. yes, thousands, of them
suffered privstions as a direct result
| Y es, this is true; people have suffered, but
| not tor the reasons given Dy the writer.
| 'Misspent money was not the cause. nor
was 'misdirected energy 1t was John
Sherman of Ohio. He did the business.
| He brought on the panic.
"When silver was demopetiZed then TIE
people began to suffer privations, but not
| until this look place. 1t was not misap-
piled coin which produced all the trouble
| as the writer would like to have the people
| believe.
"Here is still another glazing mlsstate-
ment: The logical conclusion is that
| Colorado and the other mining States are
vast Monte Carlo, where everybody be-
| lieyes that luck will come his way. This
| is the same as TO say that the
mining business is nothing but huge
| gam bling institution. True, there is
| gambling in mining-stocks. Men have
made and lost fortunes. Mackay and
Flood came into possession of great deal
| of their wealth in this way. But in what
branch of industry is there not stock
gambling? There are railroad stocks.
Roads are wrecked by the GouIds, and
then built up only to be knocked down.
l. I,.~e. k..,t o Il
| selling of wheat, and l would like to know
! of cereal where stock jobbing does not
occur in its marketing.
"Then in closing his SANDER on the
mining industry he pictures the miner
| leaving this world in these words:
"'A fterward the average miner dies
Uhough romance never tells US of IT'D and
leaves nothing to show for his life's work.
There is nothing for bis family, il he had
one; but there Is no account that he can
give when summoned before the bar of
heaven: to show that his life was not an
absolute failure
"aow pathetic story OF miner who
has always received from 20 to "a
per diem that he should die amid poverty.
Where is there another industry which
pays its men So day at this stage of
the hard times? The truth of il is the min
ers are better paid, better fed and clothed
than any other class of people. l would
ven ture to say that this writer, whoever
he NAV be, never saw mining camp. He
writes like a man who Knows compare
lively little about the subject.
'Here is another rather amusing clause
In the conclusion. He says: Mother earth
is the house which has swallowed uD all
the profits and considerable more Quite
the reverse. mother earth has given up
her treasure. and has added millions of
dollars to the circulation of money.
Mother EARTH instead of consuming, has
been disgorging untold treasures.
81 can't see how such a paper as Har-
per's Weekly permitted such an article to
appear in its columns. / have read NJ any
fallacious attacks upon mining, but have
never perused one like this. 1t is not only
falsehood from beginning to end, but it
is more. 1t is slanderous. 1t will take
columns of rebuttal to counteract the in
Jury done the mining industry by one little
sketch like that"