Bisbee daily review., 1904-05-21
The Value of
 PAVING FOR
 Good Advice
THEY EXPECT TO PAY THE DOC. TOR AND LAWYER, BUT MIN ING ENoINEER- A PLEAS
 ANT SMILE.
Successful Business Men May Not Make Good Mining superintendents -One Instance Where an Outlay of $5, 900 Would Have Saved compa- ny s5o,ooo in the First Two Years of Operation.

The professional man. whether law yer, physician or engineer, necessarily considers his knowledge as his capital. He gains it at the expense of years or study in college, and by practical ap- plication and experience later. Every class in the business world expects to pay for professional advice when they appeal to the doctor or lawyer, but the mining engineer is generally looked upon as a generous-hearted in- dividual whose knowledge is at the disposal of all who may desire it with out price and sometimes without thanks. Advice which costs nothing is valued lightly. but that which comes high is treasured as among the good things of this world. There are hundreds of people who do not hesitate a moment to impose on the mining engineer, taking up his valu- able time asking questions, a correct answer to which may save the ques- tioner thousands of dollars. and which it has probably cost the engi- neer years of experience 10 learn, and still the questioner would not only be surprised. but be indignant if bill were presented for professional ad- vice Notwithstanding this. these people would not think of visiting a lawyer and asking for professional ad- vice without expecting to pay for it. any more than they would expect a physician to prescribe for them with out charge. There is a class who are willing to pay, but their idea of pay is on the basis of time at a wage such as miners receive. Five dollars is considered a reasonable fee for half an hours conversation" and a hundred dollars is extortionate. while anything more than that is criminal. There is another class who expect toI pay and do pay to engineers fees com mensurate with the value Of the ad- vice received. They have learned that it pays. IL is not a rare instance for mining companies to place a sue cessful business man, but one without O&HtAAtANt HI -Al-AAtss III 1AcA et OA their affairs, and are surprised to learn later that had they employed a competent engineer to simply advise at the beginning they might have been saved many thousand of dollars. An instance may be citeG where a company bought a mine and built a stamp mill. The mill was located in the middle Of a flat while there were hills about within short distance, on any of which the mill might have been placed 10 advantage. The result was that in a few weeks after starting up the mill the tailings were running in on the mill floor, and soon thereafter an expensive bulkhead was construct ed and an elevator installed to lift the tailings high enough to run away from the mill. All ore treated in the mill had to be pulled up an incline tramwsy to the breakers, where the ere might have run in on cars from the mine by gravity These were on- ly few of the mistakes made by this company.
 The employment of competent en- gineer at the cost Of possibly s5000 would have saved this company over s50,000 in the first two years of its operation. This is only a single in- stance. Such mistakes are being made constantly by companies who undervalue the services of mining en- gineers of experience.-Mining and Scientific Press.