The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1914-07-23
The Crime of Great Success.
Engineering and Mining Journal.

that the company subsequently earncc
were due to the Wetherill invention
applied to the mine. Subtract that in
vention and it would scarcely be
known how to treat the ore of the
mine, certainly not at the great pro-
fit that has been realized from the in
vention Then came Mr.. Catlin. who
revised the methods of mining and
effected enormous economies in III,
extraction of the ore. which would no.
have been possible unless the or,
body could be worked as whole.
With the abolition of the costly Mt
CATION. and with the exercise Of gooC
management in other respects. the
New Jersey Zinc company became tn
Garner Of the very large dividends
which have startled the senators
These dividends were not sucked on
of the public. In subsequent year
the company invested in zinc mines
and smelteries in the west, naturally
extending its interests along the lines
that it knew by experience but witt
all of its acquisitions the New JERSEY
Zinc company in the production OF
spelter is only one among nine or ten
important interests. There Is no
branch of the metal business which
has been less consolidated than the
spelter business. In the production OF
zinc oxide the New Jersey Zinc COM
pany occupies more influential po-
sition, but the Wetherill patents for
the manufacture of zinc oxide expired
nearly half century ago, and any
BODY NAV engage in that business who
sees fiji nor does the consumer nave
to grovel at the feet Of the New Jer-
soy Zinc company since, if he finds the
prce of zinc white to be too high, he
may use white lead or barytes or some
other substitute. In fact, the New
Jersey Zinc company conducted an eX-
tensive propaganda to increase the
consumption of zinc white at the eN-
pense of the consumption of white
lead.
The men, who, like John Price
Wetherill, August Heckscher, >. >
Palmer and Thomas d. Jones, create
value by effecting economies, are the
real conservationists. Why should
they not reap the big dividends that
their brains have earned, not by eX-
acting toll from the public, but by
saving what mediocre intellects nave
been wasting? Would the country be
any better off today If the Franklin
mine were operated as in the early
30? But to return to our theme, it is
absurd and reckless to refuse man
like Mr.. Jones participation In the
affairs of our government, in capac'
ity for which he is eminently suited
just because he has been prominently
and constructively engaged in a grea
industry.
We have not written this about thu
New Jersey Zinc company because W.
hold any brief for that company W.
do not hold brief for any individual
interest, but we do hold a brief fo
the mining industry, and we SCI
jeopardy for that industry If the ldei
becomes prevalent that the winning o
enormous profits be a crime aSains
society. The possibility of being al
Aladdin is the great inspiration o
mining and the counting of risk
wherein thousands are cheerfully los
in the hope that the lucky numbe
NAV turn up. The optimism of Col
onel Sellers, there's millions In it,
is the handspring in the development
of prospects out of which some times
come mines and it is the tradition o
Mackay, Fair Haggin, Hearst, Dal!
Stratton and the other mining mil
lonaires of the past that inspired
those who have become the MINING
magnates of today There are mer
who are drawing so per cent dividends
land more upon their investments il
the porphyry copper mines, but Il
wears ago those mines laid neglected
Who VIII begruuSe lne buSseHhc'li'
and Mr. Burrage whatever fortune
they may Gull from abandoned Gnu
lquicamata? These opportunities lalc
long before a world which did no
know enough to recognize them. Are
the men who perceived them and seiz'
ed them and became very rich TO be
disqualified as citizens and from serv
1T