Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-01-01
IN MONTANA MINES

The report of the state mine inspector
of Montana has an interest as a statis-
teal document that is by no means con-
fined to that state says the Portland
Oregonian. Rich in minerals of various
types and grades. as are all the Rocky
Mountain and Pacific coast states. as
we'll as the great, racticaly uneXplored
territory of Alaska, Montana, as shown
by this report, produces % 1-3 per cent
of the copper output of the world. and 81
per cent of the output of this country.
This is the more wonderful in view of
the fact that the development of the
copper industry in that state is scarcely
more than quarter of century old.
While twenty-five years ago silver, gold.
lead and copper had been discovered in
various sections of the state or the then
territory of Montana, work in minerals
was confined chiefly to placer gold min
ing. Much was hoped for in those days.
says the inspector of mines, but the
most sangune never dreamed of such
accomplishments as the period since that
time has witnessedd.''
Marvellous as has been the develop
ment of the mineral resources of Mon
tana in this interval. that which has been
accomplished serves to show that this
mineral industry is yet in it's infancy.
Included in the possibilities of this de-
Velopment, which every year reduces to
certainty. are the constantly improved
methods in mining. Ores that a few
years ago We're deemed worthless are
now worked with profit. and the vast
bulk that is constantly being discovered
and unearthed justifes the confident
statement of mining experts that the
mineral wealth of the state is PRACTICAL
ly ineXhauStibe
a notable feature of the prosperity
that attends the development Of mining
properties is the influx of a large labor
popllation This, together with the fact
that good wages are the rule in Montana
mining camps, should lead to content
ment and constant acceleration of num-
bers in the ranks of labor. Experience,
however demonstrates that contentment
is not always an accompaniment of good
wages, and this has proved true in the
mining districts of the middle northwest.
Still, mine owners of Montana have been
more fortunate than those of Idaho in
=. confininS discomfort among their en-
ployes to demonstrations of the more
harmless sort, and result there
have been no great strikes or property
wrecks in the copper camps of Montana
like those that have disgraced the Occur
d'Alene regions of Idaho and retarded
progress in its silver industry.
While, above shown, Montana's
mineral resources are varied. copper Is
king. not only in the industrial. but-as
shown in the political annals of the
state during the past few years-in the
political life of the state. a more even
that is to say, a more general-develop-
ment of the vast and practically I'M
touched areas of this great state--but
now a wonderland among the waste
places of the continent-wil regulate
matters of this kind in due time by de-
stroyinG the abnormal balance in the
scale of wealth and political influence
that has resulted from what may be
termed a sided development of re-
sources In the meantime, while Great
ing individual wealth in enormous sums
through mining industries. the state has
earned sufficient repute in agriculture. in
stock raising, in horticulture, in dairy
ing in whatever. indeed. has been I'M
dertaken by her citizens. to entitle her to
be called Mighty Montana" and to at
tract thither as the years go on an enor-
nous population that will look to the
Pacific coast states for market and
furnish a market in fair exchange for
the surplus products, in various lines of
this section.