Arizona silver belt., 1897-08-19
PURELY A BUSINESS PROPO. SETON,

One of our California exchanges de- plores the waste of effort and mista ken enterprise of the metropolitan newp- papers of the coast in booming the Klondyke district of the British North west Territory, and asserts that one- fifth of the free advertising and money spent in the last few weeks would be of incalculable benefit to the mining industry of California.
 While there is some merit in this view of the matter, yet it is not nearly so great as might at first glance be supposed. Gold is talisman of su- preme influence, and auriferous dis coveries of consequence become there- fore of worldwide importance and in terest, and their location of secondary moment. True tue value of the Klon- dyke placers is in measure conjec- tural, but the concensus of opinion is that the gold fields of the Yukon will during the next decade add more than an hundred million to the world s stock of gold, and what uncertainty there is in regard to the subject seems to be as to how much the output will exceed that figure.
 It is too narrow & view to assert that the newspapers are simply booming foreign territory and beneftting rival nation. The country in which gold has been found is of wide area, cover ing large section of Eastern Alaska as we'll as the western portion of the Northwest Territory, and when the country has been Inore extensively ex- plored, as 1t is bound to be within a year or two, no doubt new districts will be discovered equal to the Klondyke Tn the extent and value of their aurif- erous beds. The bulk of the northern travel and traffic will be from Amer ican Pacific coast porte, and the re. sources of Alaska other than mineral will be wonderfully developed and it's commerce stimulated.
 Rooms are inevitably followed by disastrous consequences of more or less severity, and where the news papers have erred in this instance was in magnifying the opportunities and advantages which tue Klondyke district offers to the venturesome prospector, inspiring mad rush to the hyperbo- rean region at season when the vicis' situdes of the journey and the rigors of an arctic winter are appalling, and must result in extreme suffering and the wreeking of ambitious lives. To atone in measure for their reprehen- sible course the newspapers are now picturing the route over the Chilcoot pass in the most repellant colors, but the warning comes too late for the un- | fortunates who have already started on the hazardous journey to the inhos- pitable region of the Yukon.
 The Klondyke excitement illustrates very forcibly the mistaken impression on the public mind in regard to the mission of the press, namely, that a newspaper is perforce not only ex- pected, but obligated, to work inces. sanity to promote the interests and further the welfare of the community or state in which it is published. To n certain degree that supposition un- doubtedly holds good, but only so far as the interests of the community and newspaper are mutual. Nevertheless it is fact that the unreasonable expec- tations of the public have created q sentiment which demands of the pub fisher service which is not requited, and which he performs without hope of recompense. The cost to the San Francisco daily newspapers of giving to the public the news of the Klondyke excitement and of sending correspond ents to the Yukon will aggregate probably s100,000. With them it is 2 simple business proposition and their reward for shrewdness and journalistic enterprise is we'll deserved. Had the mine owners and other interested citi- zens of California paid out that amount of money to advertise the mineral wealth of the state and the opportuni- ties offered for the investment of cap. ital there can be no doubt but that the result would have been great impetus given to mining and dependent indus tries in California. But no, the public will never learn to appreciate the serv- ices rendered by the press-at least so long as the press submits to every |