The Parker post., 1913-03-08
MINING NOT APPRECIATED.

That the great mining industry of
the United States, employing a mil
lion miners and two million men di-
rectly connected with it's work, with
an annual production of two billion
dollars is not understood and APP
preciated by the Congress of the
United States and the people of the
country is the claim made by James
F. Callbreath, secretary of the Min
ing congress, who has established
headquarters in Washington to look
after the various legislative needs
of the industry.
He makes the statement that ag
riculture, which has been fost cred
for years by the federal government,
has been making tremendous gains
as a result of this aid and that west
ern mining industry, with it's complex
lOw-grade ore problems unsolved, is
waning industry with a constantly
decreasing number of men employed.
He declares that mining i'm the west
ern states is practically at a stand
still and that there is no hope for
reviving it until congress has a fair
er idea of the great Importance of
mining to the prosperity of the
people.
''The two foundation industries of
the United States are agriculture and
mining" said Mr. Callbreath. "Ag-
riculture is perhaps twice or three
times as important as mining in the
number of men engaged and in the
value of its product
retrospective of their relative inn
portance one thing stands out pre-
2minently and that is there can be
no great agricultural prosperity with
cut the prosperity of the mines. The
population that depends upon the
.:.1nes and the manufactured pro
ducts Of the mines supports agricul-
ture
Just the other day the senate com
pleted a piece of legislation which
viii give to the various state agricul-
tnral colleges the sum of $3,000,000
yearly for the extension of their
work among farmers The bill was
passed through both houses with com
parative ease, as everyone seems to
have a thorough knowledge of the
needs of agriculture. A report which
accompanied this bill shows that the
national government has spent on
the asr cultural experiment colleges
and experiment stations in round
figures s70,000,00O; that it now
spends So, $40, 900 in cash annually up
on them; that congress has ap->
propriated each year SIS, 900 900 for
carrying on the exclusively agricul-
ulral work of the Department of Ag-
r.culture
with the additional So 900, 900 each
year just granted the total federal
aid given agriculture annually will be
t least $22,00O,OOO. The result of
this generous expenditure of money
by the federal government for agri-
culture IS seen in the phenomenal in
crease in production from year to
year and the final bumper harvest of
last fall.
These great appropriations for
agriculture have been continued for
years. until today the officers of
this department declare that a vast
amount Of valuable information is
now IN existance waiting some eff
fective means of getting it into op-
GRAFTON by the farming people of the
United States. The plea for the ad-
ditional $3,00O,000 was to take this
information direct to the farmers.
Il am heartily in favor of the in
creased appropriation for agriculture,
but mining also has similar rights
and greater needs.
There is no industry which adds
so much per capita wealth to the
country as the mining industry There
is no industry that. man for man.
produces so much value to the coun-
try as the mining industry. It is
an industry that must go hand in
hand with agriculture. The pros
perity of the country depends upon
the success of both. Agriculture can
not succeed without mining.
Il am at a loss to understand why
mining is so little appreciated i'm the
United States, when it attains such
high commanding places i'm every
other nation of the world