Bisbee daily review., 1905-10-07
POST-MORTEM
 MINE EXAMINATIONS.

A mining engineer, who, for sev- eral years past. has spent most of his time in examining and investigating mining propositions which have not come up to the expectations of their owners, recently remarked that tasks of that sort were becoming decidedly mOnotonous and that he would much prefer to become identified with some thing that was alive and that offered some hope of continued life and ac- uvify. That pOst-mOrtem eXamina- tions in the mining industry have be- come altogether too frequent is one of the unfortunate commentaries on the business acumen of those who embark in mining enterprises. There are several contributing causes to this state of affairs, and they may be dirided into two large classes based un the integrity of the venture; for. it win be al once apparent that a bona iide company will not be subject to i the same possibilities of failure thatI will overtake the organization which | is nut conducting it's operations in good faith.
 EH the former class the most prob l able cause of failure will be ignorance l ignorance of the conditions peculiar !. 70 mining as 9 business. This gives rise 10 all sorts of unfortunate pro 1 ceedings, most of which are expensive ! and ulrimai ely fatal. The officers and directors Of such companies are as a ! rule honest and capable in their own lines of business. but in the last anal ysis it is frequently found that their integrity constitutes the main basis for their venture in mining and for 1he Investment of their friends money Having been cautioned against dishonest officials, they seek to protect themselves on this score by placing the locaf clergyman in charge of operations as general man ager. apparently obnvIous of his lack of professional knowledge and gen. eraI unfitness for the position. This procedure naturally and almost invar- jably hrings ruin, but the mistake is usually discovered only on post-mor- tem examination.
 For two reasons such instances of folly Ein never cease to be a source of wonder to men experienced in min ing One, that despite the publicity given to such failures, they continue to occur; and the other, that men who engage in such unwise practices in mining could not be induced to coun- tenance similar actions in relation to other business. Imagine, for example, the futility of endeavoring to per suade a board of trustees that such and such a competent and upright mine manager would be just the man to i'll vacancy in the pulpit Pic ture to yourself the reception that would be accorded proposition to in stall a careful and painstaking me tallurgist in the chair of ethics and philosophy in a fiourishing college. And yet mining enterprises struggle along for some time under a similar handicap before yielding to the inev- Itabae failure One of the most woe fui spectacles that ever came~ under our notice was that of mine man ager, a former clergyman, spending his eompany's money for a smelter, fuel and fuxes. when, as the post mortem examination revealed, there was not sufficient ore within a radius of fifty miles to fill the smelter once. Surely, the shoemaker should stick to his last
 As for the other class of failures in whic hfraud and deception play a prominent part. the operating causes are somewhat different, but the re- suits precisely the same. In this case fhe investor is usually a more gullible individual than in the other, and his cash is secured, not on a representa- ton of strict integrity, but on a prom ise of large and quick returns. The company sometimes gradually sinks into a decline and remains comatose