Durango semi-weekly herald., 1901-08-15
SOUNDING
THE T0CSlN


seriously Sleeping overtime will mo-
do any longer Do you know whaj
all this talk about the relations OF
Silverton and Durango has meant
The secret of the whole proposition
is simply this: Silverton thinks and
says that Durango enjoys position
In the San Juan country which none
can fail to recognize-a position which
only Durango herself seems to dis
regard. In San Juan county every.
thing is at high tension. 1t all is a
plunge. There is no piking. Sill
verton does not say that Durango is
a piker. but says "Why don't they
make one bet of it and get better wa
ter, put in sewage and pave from the
depot to the river? If we had Du-
range. we would lose no time in max
ing her city second only to Denver.
We are going TO make Silverton all
that she ought to be and we would
like to see Durango grow and pros
per. We may want to go to Du-
range to live, some of us, and, don't
you know there is no logical way for
us to dislike Durango and Durango
people. 1t does seem to us sometimes
that Durango ought to make better of
her opportunities. We will furnish
the ore for Durango's smelters as long
as that section can mine coal,
and we can reach it better than we can
haul ore further
Durango may mine coal yet
for fifty years, but we are laying the
foundation for mining ten centuries
What the progress of the next fifty
years will be. and what new econom-
les will be inaugurated for the treat
ment of ores, none of us can be so ex-
travagant as to conjecture. but we are
all living today, and we will not wait
until tomorrow to build. We need
not fear that we will leave nothing for
our children to do. and it would seem
that there is more than we can do
now if we should do our best. Du-
range and Silverton can join hands
and work together and make better
progress than has been made. we
find no joy in spelling Durango's
water. We had to provide better wa
ter than that in the Animas river
years ago, when we were poorer than
now. If we did not use the Animas
river to keep Silverton clean, the An
imas water would not be fit for our
friends in Durango to use. They are
deserving of something better, but
they ought not to complain about the
tailings of our mills. for it is our ores
and concentrates that fix the basis
for siXty-ive per cent of the splcE-
did volume of Durango's business.
AS Lon Hartigan said of Creole.
there is no night in Silverton. At
an altitude of over nine thousand feet
more than five thousand people are
hurrying on with unceasing effort and
undying hope to better their condi-
tions. 1t will be sad that some OF
the worthy must fail but there is
given line upon which the success of
all can be assured.
Durango may reasonably contem'
plate the time when the Animas canon
at night will be as light as day, when
there will be a glare and flash of elec-
tricity from one city to the other.
Bob Mccartney, plain, unassuminG
sort of man. will be one of the chin'
agents who will lead in the efforts
to harness the water power of the An
imas for lighting the way and FUR
nishing electric strength to move the
machinery of thousand mines and
mills.
No thnt uyi1
sible at some time. maybe while we
still live. electric cars will carry the
ores of the Silverton country to the
La Plata district to be treated with
the iron sulphides of the latter place
when the fuel of the sulphides Will
have to take the place of the exhaust
ed coal mines? This is not wild
or illogical fancy.
Mining, milling and electricity
what wonderful fields of opportunity
what will you direct your boy to do?
Neither field will be playground for
the idler.
Building upon the future of 81
verton and the San Juan country, Du-
range can afford to borrow more mon
ey for public utilities than any other
town in America which does not have
nor contemplate population exceed
ing fifty thousand, and as long as Du
range can mine coal she is sure Ia
smelt all the ores that have to 20
down the Animas river. If Durango
is ever without coal, she will have pc
troleum, and the time will come when
no considerable quantity of either fu'
el will be required for the extraction
of the precious metals.
Your correspondent was up at the
Silver Lake mill the other day, wait
ing for drizzling rain to take
holiday. and at every step and turn
was more deeply impressed with the
usefulness OF Ed G. Stobier's good
life. Were you to devote yourself 10
the subject. it would keep you busy
for days trying to comprehend what
Mr.. Stobier has done. You Will not
have time to undertake to realize
how he led one of the greatest min