The Parker post., 1912-12-14
A TRIBUTE TO MINING.

A TRIBUTE TO MINING.
Unfortunately facts are not always
more convincing than comments. 1t
they were, much less attention would
be given to adverse comments on the
mining industry, frequently published
in eastern newspapers and maga-
zines more or less closely identified
with the gambling interests of Wall
street. Naturally money which is in
vested in mining stock is tempor-
arily withdrawn from the sum avail
able for betting that a certain rail
road or industrial stock will move a
certain number of points up or down
within a certain limit of time. 1t is
true that a considerable amount OF
money made in mining enterprises
has subsequently been lost in Wall
street, but in spite of that fact, Wall
street and eastern financial agents
identified with it, do not take kindly
to mining.
The Mining Investor says it would
be absurd to charge that conservative
bankers, financial advisers, magazine
writer's and others who delight in at
tacking the mining industry, are all
in conscious league with Wall street
interests, but a majority of them GER
tainly are prejudiced by their envi-
ronment and by the specious argu-
ments which they have heard from
childhood.
1t is not often that an eastern mag
azine will say a good word of any
sort in behalf of the great mining
industry In a recent issue, how
ever, the Saturday Evening Post, un-
questionably ''the biggest magazine OF
it's size" had an editorial which is
well worth reprinting. 1t is as fol
lows.
would you like to own gold
mine-one of the richest gold mines
in the world, say?
''Well if you did, and if you ran it
as you run your present business,
the chances are about seven out OF
ten that you would go broke The
TranSvaal, of course, is far and away
the greatest of all goldfields. In nine
months of the current year it pro
duced nearly seven million fine
ounces, breaking it's own and all
other records; and in five years it
has produced more than twO-thirds
as much as the mines of the world
yielded during the whole eighteenth
century.
"a great deal of this Transvaal
gold, however, is extracted from
mines that yield only half an ounce
to the ton-that is, only about one
seventy-five thousandth of the ma
terial handled is gold And the ore
in some mines that are worked at a
profit yields only two dollars and 6
half in gold to the ton-one part in
three hundred thousand. Obviously
this means the finest economy
Imagine a farmer or grocer who
got his profit from one part out OF
three hundred thousand! AS farms
and groceries are generally con
Quoted, there would be a deficit OF
about a hundred thousand.
''It is tolerably we'll known that
Transvaal mines are scattered al
over this country-only our slack
economy lets the gold go to waste
"Preventable fires, for example de
stroy more than twice as much as
Cur gold mines produce. If there
our business that there appears to be
in gold mining we could soon buy the
earth. How many profit units out
IF three hundred thousand total units
are your affairs yielding?"
1t will be noted that even in this
tribute to the methods which pre-
vail in mining it was evidently con
sidered safer by the eastern editorial
writer to go to South Africa for an
illustration, rather than to use one
or more of the great American mines
the HOmestake of South Dakota, fol
instance, or the Alaska -Treadwell, OF
one of the great copper properties
Nevertheless, it is refreshing to read
the statement: "If there were the
same nice economy in all our bust
nesses that there appears to be il
gold mining We could soon buy the
earth"