The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1913-01-18
FINANCIAL EYES
TURNED TO WEST

In financial and commercial centers.
throughout the eastern states. all ewes
are turned to the west. great many
there are who are particularly inter
ested in commercial pursuits, in agri-
culture, and in stock raising; but the
greatest interest, by all odds, is being
taken In our wonderful mining indus
try.
In reviewing the history of the
west, in noting its almost marvellous
growth, the close observer cannot but
be impressed by the significant fact
that it was mining that led to the re-
claiming of the deserts,the valleys and
the table lands, aud that had it not
been for the adventurous spirit of the
pioneer miner the Pacific slope and
tins intermountain region would, to-
day, be what it was fifty or sixty
years ago-an unknown conutry, a
practically barren waste, and a region
beyond the confines of civilization.
To the mining industry the west
owes debt that can never be full re-
pc q, and the reclamation of this vast
region is unquestionably due to the
constant stream of imperishable
wealth that has come from our mines,
IN almost constant stream, from the
day that gold was first discovered in
California. AS a matter of fact, Gail
fornia, with its genial cline, it's or
chards and is groves, owes its very
life to the boom that was started
when it was discovered that in the
hills, back from the coast, there ex-
listed great and almost inexhaustible
deposits of the precious metals; and
the same can be said of the interior
states west of the Rocky mountains.
Gold was the lodestone that first
led to the settlement of California by
the American people; and, the spirit
OF unrest, of enterprise and progress
siveness, so common in a newly settled
country, caused the early pioneers to
branch out and seek bonanzas in un-
known fields, the result being that
there is hardly a western state, TODAY.
but that boasts of its mining camps,
its business centers and wide area
that is settled by the farmer, the
rancher and the fruit and ! cattle
grower.
When the disgruntled but unreason-
ing individual claims that mining is
not legitimate, he should pause before
expressing himself too radically while
the net results, the benefits of mining.
are being enumerated. Nothing that
was ever great was founded upon a
falsehood or a lie. Upon an insecure
or rotten foundation; and vet the
splendid empire of the west was built
upon nothing less than the mining in
dustry; and, were this to fail, it would
not be long before the material inter
ests of this region would become so de-
moralized that in course of time the
whole country would be on the retro
grade and gradually seek a level
whose maintenance would depend, en-
tirely, on an income dependent upon
the product of the ranch and farm.
Money, to certain extent, is civil
lization. Take money and real values
away from country or a nation and
in time it will return to its former
primitive state; and, as real values
are based upon the precious metals,
the industry that produces gold and
silver cannot be otherwise than legiti-
mate, and the regions producing these
metals must, of necessity, open the
way to growth in population, to i'm
provement and advancemnt on every
hand.
Without its mining industry there
would be no west today; the east
would be much peerer, and opportuni-
ties for safe and profitable invest
meats would not be knocking at the
door of almost every American citi-
Zen-Mininp Review