The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-07-27
RESPONSIBILITIES OF RtCtNtRSnIPS

AS general rule it is safe to assume
that no man can run another mans
business as we'll as he can himself. The
man who builds up an establishment of
any sort knows every department in de-
tail and the capacity and requirements
of the whole better than any stranger
possibly can know them. He can con-
duct such concern with more safety and
success than any other man. This is
other enterprises
In mining, receiverships it occasionally
happens that a competent man is Sc
lected to take charge of property pend
ing the settlement of litigation, but in
nine cases out Of ten the most disastrous
consequences ensue. Not only is mining
property frequently ruined by the mis-
management of receivers, but the dam
ger to the lives and limbs of employees
is so increased by incompetence that
about the worst thing that can happen
to NINE both as to it's owners and it's
employees. is the attempted operation o:
it under the receivership of some man
who of necessity must be totally I'M
familiar with it's workings.
Most of the great mines of Butte are
in charge of men who have been TO.
years identified with their development.
and who therefore, have the entire con-
fdence Of the wage earners under them.
The miners every time they step on a
cage practically give their lives to tbs
keeping of the management acting under
the advice of it's executive officers, such
as superintendent, civil engineers, fore
men and shift bosses. These officers, by
training and experience, are fitted t.
assume such responsibility, and so long
as they are in charge and the employees
obey the rules. accidents are reduced to
the minimum. Let strangers be selected,
however. and arbitrarily put in charge
of great properties under receivership
proceedings, let men lacking familiarity
with such mines undertake to work
them, who then becomes responsible for
the safety of the employees? Who then
enjoys the confidence of the men as they
step on the cages and disappear for eight
hours into the very bowels of the earth,
where constant danger surrounds them
despite even the wisest and best pre-
cautions? Do not those employees feel
much safer while working in mil, !,
managed by it's owners or by men iden-
tilted with it's future interests and re-
sponsible in the courts for loss of life
or limb when the company is to blame
do they not feel safer in such employ
ment than under irresponsible and in
competent receiverships? Do they not
feel safer in mines being legitimately
worked with an eye to the future where
the timbering is sound and the workings
filled up with waste for security, than
under receiverships characterized chiefly
by desire to pull out the most ore in tn i,
shortest time for some favored interest
regardless of life limb. and in def
ance of every principle of sound mining
in the years that are to come? Let the
employees themselves answer.
Receiverships, except in extreme cases.
are never beneficial to capital or labor.
They are particularly injurious to labo:
because they add to the uncertainty OF
employment and increase the danger to
human life in almost every case.
AS to the probability of the receiver
discharging all the men in the mine he
is appointed to take charge of and sub
stitute others for any political or other
reason of his own, that is a phase OF
the question which need not be discussed
The important point is that receiver.
ships as rule destroy property values
endanger human life, create unrest and
apprehension in labor and business cir.
cles and reflect anything but credit o:
the general reputation of the state, in.
dcating. as they do, delays in the awards
Of justice, instead Of a certainty of its
speedy and equal administration.