Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-07-23
CAMP BIRDS OWNER
A Chat With Thomas F.
Walsh, the Mining King.
ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN
LIFE HISTORY OF A REMARK
ABLE MAN.
Secrets Of His Success as an EN-
ployer Who Has Never Had
q Strike.
ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN

copyrighted, 1904, by Frank G. Carpenter)
Il have been an employer for many years,
I have no trouble with my labor and l
have never had a strike"
These were the words of one of the rich
est mine owners of the United States-a
man who has made many million dollars
out of gold mines and who has mines out OF
which he is now taking millions more. l
refer to Thomas F. Walsh, the owner of
the Camp Bird and other valuable proper
ties in Colorado, that state where mining
troubles are rampant. When he said this
we were sitting in the parlor of his great
mansion Massachusetts avenue talking
of gold mining as a business and of his
experiences in it.
How do you accomplish that result?" l
asked
I'm the first place." replied the mine
owner, Il treat my men as though they
were human beings 1 realize that their
work is hard and that their conditions
should be made as easy as possible. L
have been doing what many employers in
Europe and the United States are now
doing; that is, trying to better the sani-
tary and living arrangements of my EN-
ployes. The ordinary mining boarding
house is a shack with poor rooms and
are well housed and well fed They have
places to dry their clothes soon as they
come out of the mines. We have baths
with porcelain tubs and other modern con-
veniences The rooms in which they live
are lighted with electricity and heated by
steam and their meals are well cooked
DO you pay higher wages than other
ooerators?"
II think not" said Mr. Walsh, although
we pay the highest current rates. We
were among the first to adopt the eight
hour day, and did so just after 1t was De
cded in the courts that it could not he
enforced
What is the cause of the mining rrou-
bles in Colorado?" l asked.
They come from a variety of sources
was the reply, land they have been large
ly fomented by the leaders of the miners
unions. | think both operators and miners
have been to some extent in the wrong.
The situation is a deplorable one
Closed Shop and Sympathetic Strike.
What is the matter with the unions?'
There is nothing the matter with them
as unions" replied Mr.. Walsh. Il have no
objections to such organizations provided
they are carried on upon proper lines, put
the unions insist upon many things in
which l do not believe. l am against the
closed shop l do not approve OF the
sympathetic strike the boycott, and L
think every man should have the right to
work and be sustained in 1t whether he De
longs to the Hnion or not. L would not
lower wages, and l should like to see the
condition of the working people raised, not
only here, but in Europe as we'll Condi-
tons in Europe are worse than they are
here. Indeed, one of the chief dlincultles OF
raising our labor is the competition when
comes in with the cheap LABOR from
abroad"
"How can such Improvement be made?
By the Civic Federation, l suppose!
YES the Civic Federation can do ana Is
doing good" said Mr.. Walsh. 1t is bringing
the employer and employe together. me
emplove sees that the employer has not
nd and the employer Is learn
ing that the employe at the bottom IS the
same kind of a man that he is, and that
he should be treated as such'
The Genesis of Millionaire.
Tell me something about yourself as
laborer, Mr.. Walsh. l understand you nave
done considerable work with your hands?
eyes. I have replied the mining mil
uoraira "Nv success such 1t is, has
come from hard work, allied to my natural
ability in discovering and testing the prec-
ions metals 1 have been engaged In thls
oncunation for many years and have trav-
eled all over the Rocky mountain region
again and again, exploring miIlis tt I y,
ties. and now and then investing IN a .i,ei
glow did YOU start in minng? asked.
81 have always been more or less inter-
ested in geology, and as look PACK over
nv life it seems to me as thousn my ti.e
was early cast in this direction. MY latheI
was a farmer in Tipperary county, ireland
7 was born there about ifty-three years
ago. and was educated in the common
schools 1t was the custom to send me
teachers to Dublin every year or so LOT
a course of normal training; and once l
remember out teacher brought back a chuhk
of granite The country about US was an
limestone, and this granite was great
curiosity. With that began my nrst s.uu ~,
in stones, and perhaps my first step 1o"aro
mining. .,5
Shortly after that my father apprentices
me to a millwright, and thereby put me up
IL Of a
thought 1 was making a descent in the So
cial scale You see the farmer IN ireland
considers himself above the mechanic, clerk
or tradesman. Had 1 remained on the farm
I might have come to the United states,
but It would have been as farmer, with,
out any mechanical knowledge, and should
be no better off today, perhaps, than thou-
sands of poor Irish farmers IN aiIere llo
narts of the United States. BY making me
a millwright I was forced to learn al ABOUT
building mills and hanging mllistones,
knowledge which became very valuable
when l had to construct WORKS 1or operat-
ing mines l worked with the millWrlght
employer for four years and then crossed
the Atlantic.
shingling Houses in Massachusetts,.
How did you happen to come here?
"The time was just after the close OF the
civil war;" said Mr.. Walsh. ireland had
MANY men in the Union army, and the
whole country was little more than county
of the United States. had brothers in the
army, and we read the newspaper reports
of the battles. got the American fever at
very early age and at nineteen crossed
the Atlantic to Massachusetts. My first
work was as carpenter, and much Of 1t
was shingling houses. This was new 10
me- as we have no shingling in Ireland, US
Ing slate and other materials for roonng:
It was easy to learn, however, and hao
M trouble / stayed there two years work
ing for 50 so or "a day. That seemed a
70 mo
..How did you come to leave Massachu-
setts?' ,.o.,,.. ,,,,,,
| had been in the Union army. He went 10
Colorado at the close of the war, and wrote
me to come out there as builder and con-
| tractor. / did very we'll at that, and built
| more or less after l began to dabble In
mines. One of my most successful build
| ings was a big hotel at Leadville, Col.
| built also In the Black Hills region, where
| I went to prospect for gold
Prospecting for Gold.
| "What kind of prospector are you, Mr..
| Walsh?' ! asked
at have never been prospector in the
ordinary sense of the word" was the reply.
"I mean, 1 have never travelled over the
| mir M