Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1897-08-25
Western Advantages.

1t is conceded that the mining sec
tons OF the west have withstood the
depressed business conditions that pre-
vail throughout the country much
better than the more densely populat-
ed east. That this should be so is
remarkable, says the Western Mining
World, in view OF the fact that silver
mining has been SO seriously affected
by the decline in the price Of the white
metal The explanation is usually
found in the statement that the west
escapes the natural results of a con-
gested population and is therefore
better equipped to meet the hard times.
The fact is, however, the closing down
of mine throws men out Of employ
ment in a mining distrsct quite as
effectively as the shutting OF the doors
OF a factory does in a manufacturing
center, the proportion Of idle men to
the total population being as large in
the one case as in the other. The real
reason why the west is not so seriously
affected by the business, that has so
long been yawning for a renewal of
prosperity, is that natural conditions
have come to its rescue. When an
eastern factory closes its doors the
operatives are thrown upon the streets
circulating monuments of distress
visible evidence that prosperity has
been sldetracked. The population in
that community Immediately becomes
congested. II the saying be true that
idleness is the devils workshop his
sulphuric majesty has been painfully
over worked for some time. These
idle factory hands cannot be absorbed
10y the outlying agricultural districts
already overburdened with men who
are working for their board, waiting
Tor the wheel OF fortune to slip a cog
and jost!e them into more suspicious
circumstances. The operative is com
PEELED to advertise himself as part OF
the congestion caused by the closing
down of the mill in which he worked
He is largely denied the stimulating
effects of hope and opportunity, two
essentials that rank next to bread
, Thus hard times" in the east be-
come painful reality, from every
standpoint of observation. In the
mineral belts of the west-ln the
grand old Rockies, whose SUBMITS are
in touch with the throne of the Al
mighty himself-providence has pro-
vided an escape from the effects OF
mistaken ideas in legislation, and men
out oil work do not necessarily go into
the congestion business. In a strictly
literal sense they "take to the hills. "
The closing of silver mines has not
crowded our towns and villages with
idle worklngmen, for they find in the
mountain businesses around them the
opportunity to tide over the times pros
pecting for gold leads. They live
economically in their mountain homes,
paying no rental, no taxes, no iusur-
ance-replenishing their larders with
wild game. as opportunity offers, and
withal buoyed up with the reasonable
hope of sooner or later finding a fort
une in the great ore deposits OF the
inter mountain region. Thus indirect.
ly the closing of silver mines has slim
ulated the search for gold, the silver
miners becoming the instruments
through which new era of prosperity
will be brought to the mineral empire
of the west. The entire west from
Montana to New Mexico is feeling the
effect Of the work that is being done
by this great army OF prospectors who
took to the hills for self preservation
when denied the opportunity to earn
their bread mining for silver. This is
why the west has "stood the hard
times" better than the east. Western
energy utilizes disaster and turns mis-
cry into profit; it embraces opport-
unity as ardently as a cinnamon bear
would embrace tenderfoot, and
wrings from misfortune the best gifts
Of nature. The hard times have not
been in evidence in the mineral belts
of the west, in the sense in which the
the east has suffered. In many min
ing sections, Of which Butte is a con
spicuous example, the hard times as
such have never been introduced, the
output OF copper and gold protecting
to the fullest extent the business in
terests of the community. That the
inter-mouptain region is ON the thresh-
old OF an era OF extensive mineral de-
velopments, and that it will be first in
line in the march to Prosperity, is
evident to any intelligent man who
reads Alright the infallible signs of the
times.