Bisbee daily review., 1903-05-10
PERMANENcY OF ARIZONA MINES.

PERMANENcY OF
 ARIZONA MINES.
 President Roosevelt told the peo- pie of New Mexico that when they had 2 little more irrigation they would be ready for statehood. Commenting on this statement the Los Angeles Ex- press says:
 This is in line with the oft uttered adage that the permanence of a coun- try's wealth is guaged by it's agricult- ural products. Let New Mexico and Arizona ponder this hint"
 No one questions the fact that the agricultural industry is the most per manent of all and no one who is ac- quainted with the agricultural possi- bilities of Arizona win question that with the storage of water in this ter ritory it will become the most import ant agricultural state in the inter mountain country.
 The inference drawn from the above remark by the Express, however, is that the mining industry in Arizona and New Mexico is uncertain as to its permanency. The inference can not apply to Arizona.
 This was the burden of the song of those who opposed the admission of Arizona to statehood in the senate last winter-that the mining industry would soon come to an end, that it was unstable and uncertain. Mir Beveridge, of the statehood committee, recounted what was being done here at Bisbee. but followed this up by pointing to Tombstone as a deserted mining camp. The copper mines of Arizona have proved themselves to be practically inexhaustable and we can not now recall a single one that ever reached paying basis that is not in operation today and with better pros poets for the future than at any time in the past
 Take the Copper Queen mine in this district which has been one of the heaviest producers of copper in the west for the last fifteen years. The owners of this property, during the last two years have expended an amount of money in providing facili- ties for it's more economical operation equal to what would be required to build the Tonto Basin reservoir which would suply water, according to gov ernment estimation, sufficient to irri- gate 100000 acres of agricultural land. The Cooper Queen has only recently completed the construction of nearly three hundred miles of railroad for the express purpose of hauling coke and copper to and from the Copper Queen mines; at Douglas work has teen pushed for over a year on the erection of a reduction plant that will be the largest and most complete to be found in the west, with a capacity Of 150G tons Of ore daily. This large expenditure is an absolute guarantee of the continuance of copper produc. ton by this company for one or two generations.
 At Clifton the same evidence of stability of the mines is found in great improvements made by the Arizona Copper company and the Detroit Copper company during the last two years. The former company changed it's seventy miles of narrow gauge railroad to a standard gauge and built forty miles of new road, from Lords burg, New Mexico. to Hachita, besides building narrow gauge railroad seven miles up Chase creek to take the place of the former baby gauge road which formerly transported the ores from the mines to the reduction works at Clifton. The Detroit Copper con pany built twenty-two miles of rail road to connect their great copper camp with the railroad running to Clifton.
 Are not these great improvements at the big Arizona copper camps that have already been producers of copper continually for a quarter of 9 century, sufficient to refute any inti- nation that the mining industry oi this territory is uncertain. At Je- rome the same evidences of perlnanen. ey are to be fonud.
 Many of the silver mines of Arizona which were once prosperous are now idle. but it is because of the low price of that metal and not because ore bodies have been exhausted. Al the abandoned Tombstone. to which Senator Beveridge referred in his statehood report. there is returning life to the mining industry which lay