Arizona republican., 1898-07-23
INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS.

The second session of the interna- tional mining congress has passed into history, and by dint of good luck the country will not seriously suffer from its having met About the only good accomplished by the convention, aside from recommending the creation Of a national bureau of mining, was the re- jection of the report of the provision al committee, together with the sub stitutes and amendments offered there to. The most ridiculous document that ever came under observation, purpOrt- ing to emanate from the brains of in telligent men. was the committees report recommending changes in the federal mining laws. se
 The committee was appointed at the congress held in Denver last year and was chiefly made up of dude profes- sors who know as much about practi- cal mining as an astronomer knows about the religious convictions of the man in the moon. What the commit tee lacked in knowledge and intellectu- ality it made up in intensity of desire to serve the interests of capitalists and mining syndicates at the expense Of the prospector.
 Its report was ready some months ago, but it was kept under guard, only the favored few being permitted ts gaze upon it's holy outlines. It was feared that a wholesome discussion of its features would enlighten the dele gates to the congress in advance and prevent it's adoption. A plan of se- crecy was therefore adopted and the report sprung in the nature of a sur prise.
 TD- pondrous paragraphs mislead but few and it was rejected after debate that brought out many of it's most con- spicuous demerits The surveyors and lawyers and other professional men who hoped to profit by the suggested changes in the federal laws will have to abide their time, and like the Irish man in the Gondola story-let nature take its course
 Federal mining laws in line with the report, or it's substitute, would drive prOspectors from the field and entirely revOlutionize the primary stages of the mining industry. They would place prospecting entirely in the hands of moneyed men, and even rob prospect Ors of claims now held by them unless they applied for patents or subscribed to the hardships of retaking their claims under the new regulations It IS useless, however, to point out the glaring defects of a rejected report that was conceived in iniquity and born in sin. We are thankful the necessity did not arise for mining mon to combine and combat it's provisions before the federal congress, which would have been the case had they met the ap- proval of the mining convention
 But the international fraud, called a mining congress by polite courtesy, points a moral that should be carefully weighed by the true friends of the mineral industry. It adjourned to meet at Milwaukee next year, instead of dying and being given a respectable burial, as it ought to have done East ern interests tried to dominate the con- gross in Salt Lake and teach western heathens something about mining, fail ing in which they will try the more satisfactory environments of Milwau- kee. With influence enough to elimi- nate from discussion any reference to silver mining, the general effect of Mill waukee beer may enable them to se- cure such recommendations as to changes in the federal laws as will most effectively cripple the industry of mining. It behooves western mining men to repudiate this so-called mining congress, and exchange views through the medium of some body that has to do with the interests of mining. ern Mining World