Phoenix weekly herald. [volume] (Phoenix, Maricopa County, Ariz. Territory) 1896-1899, 1898-01-27
OF PROMINENT MINING MEN.
Permanent Organization Secured
Addresses by Well
Known Men.

2 O'Clock this afternoon as per adver-
| tisement and considerable number
| of miners We're present.
| Governor McCord called the conven-
| ton to order and made the following
| address.
Gentlemen: The hour having arriv-
ed at which this gathering was called
to meet it becomes my duty and pleas
ure to ask you to come to order. This
is the first regular meeting of the
| representative men of the mining in
dustry of this Territory and it is an
occasion that calls for your best
| thought and most careful and serious
consideration In no department of
industry do we find more marked evil
denceS of progress than that which
| deals with nature at first hand, with
| the view of deriving the utmost adyan-
tage from the raw material.
The art of mining has made great
advances, not only through the more
general application of geological
science, but also and -eminently
through the application of recognized
principles of physical science and also
by means of marked improvement in
engineering and machinery. Discov-
cries of new deposits of both useful and
precious ores are constantly being
made and even mines long worked
| have been rendered more valuable by
| improvements in the art of mining.
Man is nolongerlimitedt to superficial oh
erations. but safely and with the aSSur-
ance of rich returns pierceS the solid
! crust of the earth to great depths
boldly demanding the place and COM
handing possession of her hidden
treasures. Scarcely anything now baf-
fieS him. Do immense strata of fiinty
| rock lie between him and the sources
of wealth and power. with tools yet
harder, backed by his own irresistible
| will, he drives his way through them.
Are deep and seemingly ineXhaustible
supplies of water encountered he mar
shals his mighty engines in numbers
| and capacity sufficiently to conquer
| the floods. Is the coveted mineral at
| last found in the midst of noXious
gases that no human lungs may inhale
he brings to bear his command of the
| material forces. and at once supplies
| the mine with the pure atmosphere of
heaven, SO that the opened mine be-
comes the chosen habitatiOn of thouS
ands who work them. And so. at last
| by the aid of steam and engineering
and machinery, he brings to light vast
| stores of the best material gifts of
God.
| Thirty years ago Sir William Arm
strong, a noted mining expert of Eng
land. said that mining could never be
| carried on at a depth exceeding 1000
1 feet under ground. But with the facts
| now before us no man can safely cal
| culate the limit, unless it be made CO.
| extensive with the deposit. Economy
everywhere and in every way charac-
| teriZeS the works of the Creator and
| no deposit of mineral designed for the
use of man is beyond his reach In
metallurgy the progress is most re-
markable. 1t was but a few years ago
that steel was manufactured only in
limited quantities and was so eXpen-
sive that it was only used at Sheffield,
England. in the manufacture of cut
lery of the kind thatrequired the hard
est and best material. 1t was worth
$4,000 per ton in England and more
in the United States. TWAS made from
pig iron by what was known as the
concentration process which was very
slow and very expensive Then came
the pudding process which while some
less expensive and more rapid was not
such as to make its manufacture cheap
enough to bring it into general use ev-
en- in the manufacture of all kinds of
Sutlery. Something else was demand
ed and finally John Bessemer, an
Englishman, came to the rescue with
the process which bears his name and
by means of which a later invention
known as the ''Sieman's Furnace"
steel is now sold at a very moderate
price both in Europe and America.
The Bessemer process consists in
OXidiZing out of the cast iron, from
which the steel in manufac tured, its
excess of carbon by forcing through
the mOulten mass currents of atmOS
pheric air by means of powerful bel
lows. The. work is rapidly done and
the product is. better than the finest
and hardest steel made by the old |
methods. 1t is now selling manufac |
tured into steel rails for about $1,000 |
per ton. When steel rails first began to |
be made they were so expensive that |
only the richer railroad corporations I
could afford to use them and those on |
ly in and about cities where the wear |
was constant and great Now there is |
hardly well equipped railroad in any |
part of the United States that has not |
lined its track with continuous steel |
rails of the heaviest make and best |
material
With the process of mining for the |
precious metals and copper, which are |
the chief productions of this Territory.
L am not so familiar. But l suppose
the successful miner for these miner !
ais must bring to the business the
same intelligent and scientific methods
and the same careful and energetic
that characteriZes the
successful iron and coal miners of the
world. But whatever kind of business
men may engage in, it has been found
by experience that frequent inter |
change of ideas, opinions and the re-
lating of Experiences and experiments
and their results are of great benefit.
The lesson is, that one to be success
full in any avOcation in this day and
age of progress must keep up with the
times.
1t is not for me to tell those who
have grown gray in the business of
mining what they should do for the adj
of their own interests. Nor {
need L tell them that in union there
5 strength and in organization sue
.ess. This they know, yet it often
happens that in the close and unremit- 5
ing attention to business, perhaps in
,agerneSS to be successful no one has
he time to take the initiative. Each |
waits for tn other. and things they '
would like to see done are not done. | {
t was with this in view and for these 1
easons and at the suggestions of GER
ain newspapers foremost among l
which it is not improper TO mention J