The Elk Mountain pilot., 1900-01-16
Our Policy Towards Capital.

tude that tends to attract men of
capital to the town. The fact that
in the early days this community,
as well as many others in this
state, greatly injured its prospects
of growth by hasty and unwise
actions and public sentiments is
one of the very best of reasons
why Crested Butte should take adj
vantage of it's mistakes. No town
in the country today has such good
prospects as Crested Butte, but
our prospects are not alone the
growth of our material advantages; !;
they result very largely from the
wise and proper action of our min
ing and business men under cir
cumstances of peculiar strain and
temptation during the past seven
years. Crested Butte has not been
swept off its feet by the wave of
hard times, followed by period
of unreason and passion, as other
towns have been, and the result is
that the return of prosperity finds
US not only better able to take adj
vantage of it, but with reputation
and character established that are
worth thousands of dollars to us,
to consider it only upon business
basis. At the present time men of
wealth, particularly prominent min
ing men of Aspen, accustomed to
large undertakings and able to
bring to this city large measure
of good, are looking towards Cres-
ted Butte, and making arrange
ments to invest money in Crested
Butte enterprises, because they
feel assured that from our people
they may expect reasonable de-
gree of consideration and the same
amount of protection under the
law as is accorded to them in the
most enlightened sections Of older
communities. With it it is diff
cult to set the limit to growth and
prosperity. Without it all our
material advantages and resources
will not be sufficient to lift us
above the category in which this
section appeared twenty years ago
and in which we have no desire to
appear again. The PILoT has as
sincere concern for popular rights
and popular privileges as anyone,
and we believe that the life of this
town and district ought to be based
upon the welfare of the whole and
not of any part, but the best con-
sideration for all the people is that
which recognizes the rights~and
the benefits of all and which neith-
er singles out the poor for oppres-
sion nor the rich for plunder. If
we should allow ourselves to be put
into position where the investing
capitalist is considered merely as
one who has fallen into our net,
wayfarer who may be properly
plundered and stripped for the
benefit of few mining sharks, we
might expect that Crested Butte
would have no greater consideration
at the hands of possible investors
than other towns and districts that
have adopted this policy and are
now suffering from its effects.
There is no need whatever to sac
rifice the true interests of the pub
lie for the benefit of the capitalists.
That district affords the best field
for investment which is prosperous
in every part. Enlightened capi-
talists recognize that the corpora
ton gets most from the people that
gives most to the people and it is
to be expected that public rights
will be carefully guarded But
while doing this we should never
lose sight of the fact, true beyond
all question, that communities can
not evolve their own progress ex-
cept at rate of progression that
is intolerable to modern ideas and
that NEST frequently leaves the
community adopting that plan far