The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1897-08-14
WESTERN ADVANTAGES.

1 sections of the west have withstoot
the depressed business conditions
that prevail throughout the countr,
much better than the more densely
populated east. That this shoule
be so is remarkable, says the West
ern Mining World, in view of tn,
fact that silver mining has been sc
seriously affected by the decline ir
the price of the white metal. The
explanation is Usually found in tht
statement that the west escapes ths
natural results of a congested popu
lation and is therefore better equip
ped to meet the hard times. The
fact is, however, the closing down
of a mine throws men out of en-
ployment in mining district quite
as effectively as the shutting of the
doors of a factory does in manu-
featuring center, the proportion Of
idle men to the total population be.
ing as large in the one case as in the
other. The real reason why the west
is not so seriously affected by the
business abyss, that has so long
been yawning for a renewal of pros.
perity, 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 pros
perity has been sidetracked. The
population in that community i'm
mediately becomes congested. If
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
by the outlying agricultural districts
already overburdened with men who
are working for their board, waiting
for the wheel of fortune to slip cog
and jostle them into more auspi-
cious circumstances. The operative
is compelled 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 essen
tials that rank next to bread.
Thus "hard times" in the east
become painful reality, from every
standpoint Of observation. In the
belts of the west-in the
grand old Rockies, whose SUBMITS
are in touch with the throne of the
neutrality-suspicious. has
provided an escape from the effects
Of mistaken ideas in legislation, and
men out of work do not necessarily
60 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 workingmen,
for they find in the mountain fast
nesses around them the opportunity
10 tide over the times prospecting
or gold leads. They live econom-
cslly in their mountain homes,
paying no rental, no taxes, no in
'urance-replenishing their larders
With wild game, as opportunity Of
ers, and withal buoyed up with the
reasonable hope of sooner or later
hiding a fortune in the great ore
deposits of the inter-mountain re-
zion. Thus indirectly the closing
If silver mines has stimulated the
'earch for gold, the silver miners
becoming tho instruments through
which new era of prosperity will
,e brought to the mineral empire
# the west. The entire west from
Montana to New Mexico is feeling
he effect Of the work that is being
lone by this great army of pros
,ectors who took to the hills for
elf preservation when denied the
opportunity to earn their bread
mining for silver. This is why the
vest has "stood the hard times
letter than the east. Western energy
ltilizes disaster and turns misery
nto profit; it embraces opportunity
s ardently as a cinnamon bear
7ould embrace tenderfoot, and
,rings from misfortune the best
fits of nature. The hard times
ave not been in evidence in the
mineral belts of the west, in the
ense in which the east has suffered.
n many mining sections, of which
Suite is a conspicuous example,
be hard times as such have never
cen introduced, the output of cop
er and gold protecting to the full
st extent the business interests OF
be community. That the inter
aountain region is on the threshold
f an era of extensive mineral de-
and that it will be first
4 line in the march to Prosperity,
evident to any intelligent man
tho reads Alright the infallible signs
{ the times.
IL Lie Worth Living?
If there is an individual on earth who is
for thus interrOgating himself, it