Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1911-09-30
AMERICAN MINING CONGRESS
Will Hold Fourteenth Annual Session
at Chicago, in October.

A record of achievement, the actua
putting into effect of the measures ant
reforms it has advocated, best deter
mines the character of the American
Mining Congress, which holds it's l4tt
annual session in Chicago, October "a
25, 20. 27 and 2S.
Gratifying recognition of the import
ance of the work being accomplished by
the Congress will be made by the Fed
eral Government at the coming session
1t will be represented by President Taft
and Secretary of the Interior Walter L.
Fisher. The chief executive will deliver
an address on October 2S.
Definite acceptances to attend have
been received from DR.. J. A. Holmes,
director of the Bureau of Mines, John
Hayes Hammond, and number of Gov.
ernors.
Unlike many similar organizations,
the Mining Congress has not confined its
efforts to the mere passage of resolutions
at the annual meeting, with an occa-
sional memorial or petition to vary the
dull monotony of its existence. On the
contrary, punch" injected in the var
ious campaigns it has waged has been
fruitful of large results.
Organized primarily for the purpose
of securing Federal cooperation with
the mining industry, the scope of its
work has gradually widened, until now
it may be classified under five general
heads:
Safety and efficiency in mining oper-
atoms.
Conservation of mineral resources.
The prevention of illegitimate and
dishonest mine promotions and the
stimulation of such mining enterprises
as give fair profit to the investor, and
the increase of mineral production and
better development of mineral re-
sources.
Uniformity in State laws governing
mine operations carried on under like
conditions.
And lastly, such Federal cooperation
through research and investigation as
will furnish the basis for more intelli.
gent State legislation and will solve
those problems of economical produc-
tion. treatment, transportation and util-
ization which are necessary to an
increase in economical mineral produc-
ton.
Conforming with the purposes of its
organization, Federal cooperation was
first sought. Safety and efficiency in
mining operations" was made the slogan
Of campaign to secure Government
appropriations and cut down the ever
increasing number of fatalities in mines.
The whole force of the organization
was concentrated in an effort to secure
the initial appropriation, relying upon
the good results sure to follow, as a basis
for continued appropriations.
The plan proved successful. In 1908
Congress appropriated $l50OOO to the
technologic branch of the geological
survey to be used in an investigation of
the cause of mine accidents. So success
ful did this work prove that similar
appropriation was made the following
year. The results were tangible assets
in human lives.
Until the gravity of the situation was
made the basis of its campaign by the
American Mining Congress, little atten-
ton had been paid to the ever-increas-
ing death toll in mines throughout the
United States. The number of fatali-
ties had been increasing at the rate Of
$50 per year. Following the first appro-
priation and the work it made possible,
noticeable decrease in the number of
accidents was apparent.
Spurred to greater activity by such
gratifying results, the entire personnel
of the Mining Congress was thrown into
fight in 1910 for the establishment of
Bureau of Mines in the Interior De-
partment. Confronted with the statist-
les showing the good accomplished by
the previous appropriations, the Ma
ttonal Congress on May l6, 1910, passed
the bill creating the Bureau of Mines.
Summed up briefly, its purpose may be
expressed in these words, lessening the
loss of life and the waste of resources" !"
The work of the Bureau along the
latter phase has not as yet been organ
lied, the first appropriations allowed for
its maintenance being specifically for the
conservation of human life.
The next campaign of the American
Mining Congress will be to secure appro-
priations to carry on investigations look
ing to efficiency in the work of conserv-
ing the country's mineral resources.