The Idaho Springs siftings-news., 1910-03-26
Coming Into Our Own

The following communication from
Ar. ]. c. Craig. Secretary Of the
Colorado State Commercial Association
needs no prefaced explanation. 1t is in
reply to an emphatic editorial that ap-
psared in the Siftings News concern
ing = report that went out and that
did en- injustice to the mining and
other interests of this county, as it
appeared in the Post. The editorial,
through the courtesy Of the secretary
nof that organization has been the
means Of correcting the error to the
extent of having it subject to a IA
vorable change in the literature that
will be sent out by that Association.
Idaho Springs Siftings News.
Idaho Springs, Colo.
Dear Sir
Your marked copy of March IL
issue of the Siftings- News has just been
received, and have read over the ed
\itorial contained therein regarding the
, statistics on number of producing
mines in Clear Creek county.
desire to thank you Tor publish
ing the editorial. ! his is just what
the Association wants whenever the
editors of Colorado newspapers find
fragrant errors in the statistics or
statements made by the Association
in any of its literature. Those people
who know that such mistakes are made
end then talk about them without en-
deavoring to call the attention Of the
guilty ones to the fact, do more
harm than good. Therefore we desire
to reaffirm that your editorial will do
Clear Creek county and US lot of
good.
To begin with, let US explain to you
how this S atistical record was obtained.
The Association sent out to all com
mercial organizations - Idaho Springs
Chamber of Commerce was one of
them-to all county assessors, and to
good many newspapers in the state,
blank for them to fill out and return to
the Associate We enclose herewith
a copy of the blank which was mailed
ITO those people in Clear Creek county
Just mentioned. You will see that we
went after those figures in good faith.
We addressed those blanks to the Off
cials whom we believed could give us
reliable data regarding the mines in
Clear Creek county. Mr.. McGrath,
county assessor, returned US blank
with the following questions answered
as shown: ''How many producing
metal mines have you in your county,
This question was not answered!"What
kind of mineral was mined by those
mines? "Gold. silver. lead and zinc. y
about what was the value of the out
put for 1902 81, 100, 600. Does
your county produce oil?" No. "What
about the marble, granite and other
stone Industry" Only one small
quarry at Silver Pinme
No doubt Mr.. McGrath answered as
well as he could and we do not blame
him for not taking more pains about
the matter of replying, as he was not
paid for so doing. But should not he
know how many mines are producing
in Clear Creek county?
The "stock" questions were not an
swered-none other than those given
above.
Mr. McGrath did more, however,
than the commercial organizations IN
Clear Creek county. None returned
the blank with single line filled out
HPlease consider this before you ask
your commercial association to meet
Ind "protesr against such published
misrepresentations.' If they had re-
turned the blank, properly filled out,
we would have been delighted to pub
lish their returns. As a result OF their
overs ght, we were forced to take the
report made by Mr.. MeGrath. And we
made. He may have been at fault in
not reporting the number mines IN
Clear Creek county, or in not giving
the other information asked, but he de-
serves credit as being the only one IN
Clear Creek who did something.
Personally, do not see how the
number of mines were given as two,
because the county assessor gave no
report on this, and in such cases OF
mo report" we gave the mineral pro-
duction's value only, letting that
tell the tale of the scope of the In
dustry in each county.
We had very nice letter from Mr-
N. H Brown, of the Idaho Springs
Commercial Association last January;
we enclose copy Of the Association
Bulletin in which it was published.
You will see that we gave Idaho Sprung
more space for its report OF the year