The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1910-10-13
AN INCIDENT IN
CAREER OF ODDI[

An old timer in Tonopah the other
day told an incident which occurred in
the early days of the camp, showing
the caliber of T. L. Oddie, Republican
candidate for Governor.
As one of the original owners of the
Tonopah Mining company's property,
he was its first manager. When the
Philadelphia parties purchased the
property, by reason of his ability,
they continued him in the manage
ment, which he held for about five
years.
Jim Butler and Oddie granted
one hundred and thirty leases on the
ground in 1901. These leases were all
oral and one of the oral clauses was
that the ore should be forfeited if on
the ground more than forty-fve days
after the expiration Of the leases.
Shortly before their expiration a
committee of the leasers went to Oddie
and Butler and asked for more time
to remove their ore, as to keep within
the agreement would entail great hard
ship and expense to them as the vast
ore dumps aggregated many thousands
of tons and were valued at hundreds
of thousands of dollars. Oddie and
Butler told the committee that they
could leave the ore on the ground un-
til the company needed it and they
would be given sufficient notification
before the company would ask for the
ground which they were then using
for dump room. The leasers then bent
all their energies on extracting the
greatest amount of ore possible before
their leases expired.
Before the forty-five days. limit had
expired which Oddie and Butler had
waived orally, the then president of
the company in Philadelphia notified
Oddie not to. allow any more ore to be
removed after the original forty-fve
days. limit had been rached, as the
company would not aecognize the
oral agreements made by Butler and
Oddie. Oddie knew that this would
mean untold loss to the leasers, many
of whom were poor men and his wrath
and fighting spirit were aroused. He
wrote a letter to the president of the
company in Philadelphia something
like this:
Gas manager of your company,
made a verbal agreement with all the
leasers, waving the original forty-ive
days. clause in the leases. You refused
to ratify my action in this matter be-
cause it was not in writing. The
leases have all been oral, as the word
of Jim Butler and myself has always
ben considered sufficient out here.
CHOW, as one of the leasers, I will
take my own ore away first and will
permit every other leaser to do the
same, and as district attorney Of this
county, I will not permit any inter-
ference by the county officials. These
men have kept faith with your COM
pany, and am going to see that they
receive square deal; they have work.
ed honestly and faithfully and I
win not permit them to be cheated
out of one dollars worth of ore to
which they are entitled"
The result of this letter was that
the company backed down completely
and never made another attempt to
trample on the rights of the leasers.
They took the ore from the ground
when they could secure transportation
to the smelters and many poor man
secured a comfortable fortune by rea-
son of Oddie's attitude in this matter.
This is but another example Of how
Oddie has always stood for "Square
Deal" for the man who works.