The Courier. (Genoa, Nev.) 1899-1904, 1901-05-03
Carson Letter.

0nng nave Doen the curse or Nevada
But it is never too late to mend. w
have positive, determined resources o
our own to develop, and about tn,
only obstacle to their development
that can conceive, is that there is nj
distance to lend them enchantment
But the development of our own min
srSf wealth, right at our own doors
would develop a market for all the
products that can be raised on The
land, keep the money at home, and in
crease land values, and bring in popu-
iation and all the comforts and pleas
ures incident to modern civilization,
such as libraries, churches, theaters
and improved schools and universities.
Just stop to figure: Over 500, 900, 900
IN gold and silver have been taken out
of the. Comstock mines, $125, 900, 900
from Austin; $4,000, 600 from Eureka;
s75, 100000 from Phoebe; $40 GOO, 600
from Candelaria; $50, 900, 900 from Tus-
caasora, and other lots would add up a
grand total of over 81, 200, 900, 900 ex-
tracted from Nevada, and dumped into
the lap of the world, out of a popula-
ton which has never exceeded IS, 900
souls, including indians not taxed"
Where is this money and where are
the men who handled it? There is not
adollar of 1t left i'm Nevada, and there
is not man who handled any part of
it left who pays any taxes in the State.
Great freight car loads of additional
money earned in Nevada in stock rails
ing, farming and mercantile business
were dumped in the stream of golden
wealth which steadily flowed out Of the
State through stock speculation, never
toreturn. Worse, Nevada farms were
mortgaged to pay stock gambling
debts when hay was worth $40 per ton,
and the debts paid when hay was
worth but s. per ton, thus paying four
times the contract value of the original
debt Worse, again, the debts were
contracted when silver was worth $1.29
per ounce, and paid with silver worth
only so cents an ounce. What other
section of our common country could
stand under it?
The money taken from the mines of
Colorado and Montana remained in the
State where taken and was invested in
building up the country. If the money
taken from Nevada had remained here,
and invested, barring few desert val
leys which are not worse than other
deserts in other States, Nevada, as
whole, would outrank in population
and wealth every other inter-mountain
State in the Union.
Bot why did the money take wings
and fly away? Why does chicken
thief run after getting hold of the
chicken? All human nature acts from
similar impulses. A man will sit on a
PIN and he will suddenly arise again,
and 80 will every other man who tries
it. Every man tries to get away from
the scene of his depredations, and the
men who handled the millions that
have been extracted from the noun
tains of Nevada only followed this
common human impulse. SO, stock
gambling and stock jobbing, and lying,
cheating and robbing, all incidental to
stock manipulation, are the reasons
why the Nevada-made millionaires
and their money are gone, and Nevada
is left stranded and quivering from the
onslaught.
But we have plenty left, and COM
mon honesty and common intelligence
and enterprise will bring it out, and it
will be invested in the development
and upbuilding of the country. Our
first duty is to stamp ont all would-be
imitators of our ancient robbers, and
proceed to work our mines on legiti-
mate business lines. 1t will REQUIRE a
little confidence in ourselves and in
the mines. Gradual development
work will inspire confidence.
Take, for example, young Major
Gardeners mine near Carson. He be-
gan work practically alone, and with
out funds, and he had to scratch, bor-
row and run a little in debt. He built
little mill, and dam in the Carson
river, and he has managed to pull out
of debt, and to prospect his mine, and
all accomplished on very low grade
ore. Nothing can better illustrate
what can be done. He has very ex-
tensive body of ore in sight, and if il
can be made to pay at all on the ex-
ceedingly limited scale upon which he
has been forced to operate, with wind.
lass, dull picks, black powder, broken
shoveis, patched whee!barrows and
bacon and beans for muscle renova
ton, what cannot be accomplished
with electric power to drive drills, run
cars and hoist ore from mountain
full? But mining in California, Nevada
Montana and Alaska started In the