The Alaska citizen., 1911-01-16
QUARTZ TALK.

At the meeting 10 be held on Thursday evening the board of di- rectors of the Fairbanks Quartz De velopment company is to be elected and the bylaws adopted. The com pany will then, 1t is hoped and ex- pected, have sufficient money on hand to go ahead with the accom- plishment of its object - the demon stration of whether there is in the district a quartz lead of sufficient depth and continuity to warrant our expectations of a quartz camp.
 While the recent bank failure has made the collection of subscriptions a very much more difficult matter than it otherwise would have been. 1t is realized by most people that the need for such action as is con templated is much greater now than the placer outlook is not nearly SC promising as it has been in the recent past, and the majority looks to quartz to redeem the camp. Not all, however, realize the immediate benefits 10 be derived from quartz operations here, even in the earlier stage of the making" of mines, many inClining to the belief that il must be four or five years before the
  material effect on the business of the camp.
 This is a long way from being the case, however, as will be realized if the difference between placer and quartz operations is taken into con sideration.
 At first glance it might be consid- cred that a statement to the effect that the employment of 300 men in benefit to the town than the employ ment of 1000 in the placer workings was considerably eXaggerated; but if the conditions which have prevailed here right along are taken into account this statement will appear perfectly reasonable.
 In many cases the period of work offered to the bulk of the placer miners has been no longer than five throughout the year, the same mum Der of men being employed right along, except that the force is in creased as the mine is extended.
 Pay days in the placer mines have been irregular, much of the winter work being paid for in the spring, some of it never. In the quartz opera tions the pay days will come at least once a month, sometimes oftener. In this connection it is to be remem- bered that man who has a steady job, with regular paydays, is not all the time devouring eagerly the news of the latest stampedes, figuring where next he Is going to jump to-. Also is to be considered the fact that for the past several seasons a large number of the foreigners who have worked during the summer in the placer mines have gotten their wages in a lump and lost no time in getting Outside with them The lump sum of s75O or s1,OOO has ap- peared to be lot of money to these men, and they have thought of what they could do with it in their own country. This line of thought has led to fitting over the trail early the use of the money just as surely as if it were in the hands of Bar nette or Parsons.
 In quartz operations a much lar ger plant" is needed than in the or dinary placer workings, and, in ad- dition to the men who work below the surface there have to be employ ed teamsters and millmen. Much hauling has also to be done on the railroad, necessitating full force to attend to the added business.
 About placer mining there is al ways the temporary" feature, and the ordinary worker in the mines sees little inducement to settle" in a camp which he expects will be played out in a few years. The quartz miner, on the other hand, realizes the stability of his employ ment and is encouraged to bring his family from the Outside because he knows that there is work ahead for many years.
 How many underground workers are there in the Panama today, working for somebody else, who have their families with them? Candor would force the admission that there are mighty few, but yet those men, if they are married, as very many of them are, undoubtedly think as much of their families as does the