The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1900-04-30

An editorial. Intended to discourage
people from going to Cape Nome. ard
designed primarily to contrast the SUI
psrior advantages offered by Colorado
for mining, appeared In the Colorado
springs Mining Record of recent date.
The particularly amusing thing about
this In the contrast which II attempts
to offer between the returns for in
vestments made In Cripple Creek. and
the prospective returns for like invest
mcnts made or to be made In the Cape
Nome district The argument az the
Mining Record runs this way There
viii be so.ooe men 20 to Nome. the aver
age sum spent by these In outfitting will
be about $50, which win amount to an
original outlay Of sso.0oo.Ooo. According
20 the Mining Record II Ia extremely
douhtful whether the Cape Nome dis
trict win ever produce this amount or
wealth. Contrasting this with Cripple
Creek. the payer says that the total
amount OF investment In the Cripple
Creek district during the past ten years
has bean less than ga. 0oo. CO., and that
this has been made 10 yield $7a.OOo. 900
IN that time. Hence the argument that
the showing made by Cripple Greek "
far superior 10 anything offered by Cape
Nome. and that consequently the former
place and not the latter should attract
tho attention Of the seekers after gold.
There In cheerful lack OF logic and
an equally cheerful Juggling with
ngures here which IL worthy of some
little attention. In the first place 1t viii
be seen from the exhaustive article
puesished IN the Fost~lntsliigencer that
no such sum as SO. .ooo will be spen,
by people going to Cape Nome It Is not
likely that more than one-aiarter to
on.-tirrd as many people as J, cs;i-
mates viii make the trip. Probably
sio.voeeco Will more than cover ali ina.-
yldual outlay. II Is doubtful whether
freight rates to Cape Nome win be any
higher, after the first rush. than they
are to the Colorado town. For many
reasons they should be cheaper Thus
u VII be seen that the actual expendi.
tur~ on the Cape Nome rush this year
viii he probably less than one-thlra OF
the amount estimated as the basis Of
comparison
The fallaes of the comparison goes
deeper, however In referring 10 Cripple
crvek, tho Colorado paper counts AS ex-
pendi,uncs nothing save the money ac-
tnaIly pu, out in development work In
the mines, while in estimating OK.
penditures for going to Cape Nome. It
counts on the subsistence for a year OF
zach Individual who goes Into that coun-
try. VA the basis OF ssee a head II the
rame Acquiring should apply 20 Cripple
Greek, Il could readily be shown that
millions more have been sunk In tina,
camp than ever came aat 81 a. ON the
Aiming Records own showing the
figures are not particularly encouraging.
Another point which is entirely over
hooked : this The men wha are going
a. Caps Nome srs not capitalists. Col
seetisely they command large amount
or money Individually they have little.
Admitting Cor the sake OF argument.
shst Hkass 80 Invested - capital by one
man w Sd, ei % men. could probably
command isrHcr return In Cripple
Greek than a would In Cape Nome,
what possible opportunity exists in
Cripplc Greek Tor the man who has moth
las bat his labor and surplus Of a
hundred dollars or 50 10 acquire wealth
by mining "a Is proSable that the
Garages iron aud steel plant has made
g bixxeF return fcr the original invest
meni and is today earning a larger tn
tsrcst on that investment than the
average returas from the SANG amount