The San Francisco call., 1898-12-04

California Miners Association will be considered and outlined at a meeting Of the executive committee which will be convened some time this week by Presi- dent Neff, who returned to the city on Friday and took up the affairs of the association along with other burdens which he shoulders as Lieutenant Cover nor-elect. The real work of the assocla- tion is done by it's executive and sub committees, and this first meeting Of the executive committee will be an impor- tant one. At this meeting the steps to be taken concerning the many important matters of legislation which the associa- tion has in hand will be considered: Among other matters will be the one of the new ferry building kindly offered free by State Mineralogist A. S. Cooper. The. association will probably make its headquarters with the State Mining Blu reau when that institution moves to the new ferry building early in the year. Meantime the headQuarterS Wlll De at the office of Secretary E. H. Benjamin, o3l Pine street.
 When the Legislature meets one of it's appropriation problems will be presented by the great mining industry of the State This year the problem will be a dual one It will have the State Mining Bureau and the Paris Exposition on its hands. plg properly displayed and well managed ex- hibit of the vast and varied mining re- sources of California with the proper ac- compartments of advertising nteratureI printed in various languages, maps, ana pictures which would present the striking salient facts and draw attention to them and alert and intelligent men 10 20 Idae us rest would do more at Paris in A. D. l9O0 to draw hither the mine-hungry capitai of the world than anything which Is With in the province of the State to do do at thls period The Paris Exposition will be the States opportunity to advertise ltSell. and there is no feature of the. States re- sources which needs adverus1ng more than its mines. The State Board or Trade not long ago made an eXnlpit or California's fruits at the little Hamburg exposition. There has been no complla- display, but ever since then the papers have contained stray notices Of shlpmenIs of California fruit to Europe and letters of inquiry about California fruit, ana there is already an early mass Of cyl dence that the horticultural exhibit at the Hamburg Exposition was decloeolS profitable investment for the state.
 The purpose of advertising California fruit in this manner is to create markets for produce shipped The purpose Ill a ao. vertising the mineral resources ol tne State is not to create a market Tor ores, but to induce capital to come thS way and pour millions into developing mlnlng properties. An individual gold mine is never advertised unless some promoter IS trying to sell shares in a company 10 the public and this form of gold mining IS stranger to California. But when mn ing. region IS well dQNeTllS6u luOiCy iio Wo into it. Money and men poured into the Klondike region wholly because or the eX- tent to which it was advertised. London capital has flowed into South Africa, west Australia and British Columbia because these regions have been much talked about in financial and popular Journals: Colorado has enjoyed large Inflow or Eastern and foreign capital because the wonderful production of Cripple Creek has advertised the State of Colorado as gold country. Colorados gold product is miles of the Cripple Creek district, but mining property in Gunnison or some other Colorado county is easier to market in New York. Boston or London because
 And yet the little Cripple Creek district is as flea on an elephant compared with the wonderful and undeveloped mother lode of California. But ten per cent Of Caiifornia's great gold product-S1 300 ,000,- 000-has come from quartz mines and it is a generally recognized truth among mining men that in California the surface has hardly been scratched. Quartz min- ing has but fairly begun in this State and even in placer mining there remain the ancient channels of the drift mines, esti- auriferous deposits yet to be worked by the hydraulic process and the many which appear to await the gold dredges, form of the gold mining industry which has just reached it's infancy in this State.
 There is thus plenty of room for ad-
 
 State with the purpose of turing this way capital to develop latent resources, em- ploy labor, build up towns and regions, etc. Gold is simply the chief among many mineral products which California has to advertise. No other State in the Union has so long a list of economic minerals. An exhibit at an exhibition should take them all in and represent every county in the State. There is copper, silver, oil, bitumen, antimony, fuller's earth, mar ble, sulphur. platinum, osmium, diamonds mineral industry in this State is now about S27 100000 year. Our mines need advertising as much as our fruit, and the benefit would be even more sure and di- rect. Paris exhibit should represent the whole State and all it's mineral re- sources while giving gold the chief place, and 1t should from first to last be kept out of politics and kept in the hands of men who are not only mining men, but who know how to handle such a thing amid the competitive affairs of the world
 '"The Legislature should provide liberally for California's mining exhibit at the Paris Exposition, and should allow the usual $25000 a year for the State Mining Bureau said State Mineralogist A. S. Cooper yesterday when asked his opin- ion as to what the Legislature should do for the industry Mr. Cooper is mem- Der of the committee of the California Miners Association on the Paris Expo sition exhibit.
 ''The Legislature should provide liber- ally for a general California exhibit at Paris, and no feature of that exhibit should have more liberal treatment than that representing the mineral industry Every county in the State is interested in one way or another. When 1t comes to making up an exhibit, if the funds are provided to the extent of $25 900 or more the Mining Bureau is ready to be drawn upon, and contributions can be had from all over the State if there is provided any guarantee that valuable specimens will be returned. The Mining Bureau needs at least its current appropriation of $50,000 for two years. If this Is given about one-half of what is available be- yond the current office and museum ex- penses would probably go to complete the register of mines ana county mining maps of the State, which I consider to be the greatest present practical need of the in- dustry in the State The rest would he devoted to special field work and to a se- ries of practical bulletins on chlorination, the cyanide process, and so on.
 One of the most striking new develon- mentS of the week in the mining line was the story of a great and strong gas well struck in the Summerland oil field of Santa Barbara County, by the ocean shore. State Mneralogist Cooper, whose speciality as a mining engineer and geolo- gist is in this line, says that he does not attach much importance to the discovery This is because he expects this or any other natural gas well in the Coast Range to soon peter out" The reason is good peolopica1 ona When pot.,roI