Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1901-06-26
A DANGEROUS ELEMENT.

Arizona has class of people which have been termed "knockers" who do very much to retard the development resources of the country. It is said that every mining section possesses this character but he has certainly made himself conspicuous here. The knocker is composed of several spe cies but all cf tbe came class. For instance there is the pessimist, the poor unfortunate individual whose vision of the world is so obscured by nature, apparently, that he can only see the dark sides of affairs. He has no good word for any property or any enterprise. The veriest fake in ex- istence as well as the most promising enterprise all look alike 10 him. He can find more fault with a United Verde or a Congress than an expert can with the most barren piece of un derground work. The pessimist, however, is the least dangerous spe- cies of the knocker class, as he soon convinces any one with whom he talks that he did not make this world and is therefore not responsible for its ex- istence, or its conditions, and that ac- cording to his standard of judgment, nothing is perfect or good unless it bears his imprint or trade mark,
 Then comes the fellow who speaks i'll of everything except that in which he himself is interested or from which he hopes to reap some benefit or per haps is jealous of his neighbor's prop erty. He not oniy has no good word for other property. but by insinuation or direct charge runs down his neigh bor's propererty and does everything he can to prevent a sale of it. Or he finds fault with the methods employed by this man or that, and words of praise are seldom heard to fall from his lips. The professional mining man recognizes this species almost as soon as he opens his mouth, hence his influence with him is very small. It is with the inexperienced man in the mining business, the man who
 
 has just decided to invest; and Is just entering the business that he exerts his most baneful influence.
 The most dangerous as well as the most pernicious of all species of knockers, Is the individual who is looking for an opportunity of getting into litigation; ard as soon as he finds some one making more headway in the development of a property manages in some way to trump up some sort of an excuse to involve it in litigation in the hopes of realiz- ing in some way from profits of the investor. Nothing Is Sd calculated to excite disgust on the part of an indi- vidual who is putting his money into a legitimate mining enterprise as this Not only does he have contempt for the individuals responsible for it bu he forms an unfavorable opinion of the country generally where such things are possible. Of course, the community at large cannot prevent such proceedings ard may have no sympathy with them, still it is made to suffer for the sins of the individual. While it is possible for differences to exist which will end in unfortunate litigation, and which may be of such nature that it cannot be we'll avoided, yet thefe has been in this county some of the most notorious, fimsy, trumped up charges as a basis of mining litigation that can be con ceived of. Where such is apparent on the face of them it, it is the duty of the community to flown upon them and discourage them in every possi- ble, way and to uphold and sustain the legitimate, honest investor.