Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1909-09-30
Attacked by a Delegate TO
American Mining Congress
PARALYSIS OF DISTRICTS.
Says Engineer Kirby is
Brought About BY Hold.
ing of Claims for Extrav-
agant Prices Disease to
Be Removed


lean mining congress which opened at
Goldfield Monday adjourned from
Goldfield to Tonopah today and after
a day spent in visiting the mills and
mines in the oldest camp in the south
ern Nevada field as guests of the city,
held a session here late this afternoon,
followed by another in the evening.
When the congress convened this
afternoon. papers on various subjects
relating to mining were read The
principal speakers were Edmund B.
Kirby a mining engineer, of s.. Louis
and DR.. J. A. Holmes. chief of the
Technnologic branch of the United
States geological survey.
Kirby spoke on the paralysis of min
ing districts in various sections of the
country and his suggestions as to how
this might be avoided, met with the
strong disapproval of a number of del
objections on the floor of the con-
vention
Kirby said in part:
rs it not clear as day that by the
pressure Of increasing taxation, every
claim may be forced into use or re-
lease? when from Mexico tc Alaska
every claim is either working. or open
to prospectors. does it take a prophet TO
see the result? Does not every pros
pestor know of areas he would like
to explore? Does not every miner, every
operator. know of places where he
would like to dig? After the real min
ing industry begins, cannot everyone
forsee in its general, steady and per-
manent prosperity, better living and
more chances for a fortune than are
possible under the present paralysis?
Men of the mining world, the new
era awaits your call You have but
TO say the magic words, Dig OF get
off the claim!
"AnaIyze all the varied plans and
motives Of these idle claim owners. and
we find that most of them are await
ing either in the hope of profiting in
some way by the work of other men.
or, with the exception that in the dis
tant future, investors will pay prices
which they now decline. The dead
lock thus produced, is the deadly par
alysis which curses the mining indus
try today There is nothing to break
it; nothing to force action. There are
no expenses. The assessment work of
one hundred dollars annually for un-
patented claims. is usually faxed, and
the taxes are nothing. or so trifling as
TO be merely nominal.
Owners can walt forever. and they
do so, generation after generation, hop
ing that some time in some way, the
worn title deeds or faded stock certifi-
Gates, will enable them to extract a
fortune from other men. And so. a
great industry languishes while par
alysis. partial or complete. blights
every district from the Mexican line
to the frontiers OF Alaska And pros
pectors have no where to go, and min
ers lack work, while investors and the
representatives of mining capital are
searching this and other countries for
opportunities to mine.
For centuries mining laws have
been saying that no man has the right
to hold mineral land idle; that he must
dig, or allow others to dig. The appli-
cation of this priciple was effective
in small frontier camps where the min
ers who made the law stood on the
ground to enforce it, but as it passed
into general law covering vast areas
and became dependent upon the cumb-
ersome machinery of government for
enforcement, it was found impossible
to compel the continuous operation de-
sired. Some codes were more effec-
I've than others but even the old Mex
lean law, the finest product of accumu-
lated experience, was only partially
successful in this matter.
But the question may be raised. how
can it help an industry to tax It? The
answers that the industry, the dig
ging out of mineral, is not taxed. Every
man is made to pay for occupancy. for
holding a reservation Of mineral ground