The Arizona copper camp., 1915-12-17
IS IT NEARsIeHTEDNEss2

We have been informed by recent
arrivals from Phoenix that in spite
of the prosperity that pervades other
sections of the state, the merchants
of the capital city and the Salt River
valley are still complaining of hard
times Money, they declare, is tight.
The Christmas trade, always taken as
a barometer of business conditions,
has been light this year. Conditions,
they are heard to lament, are not
what they had expected, nor what
they had a right to expect.
If this is true, if our friends in the
Salt River valley have been correct
ly quoted, then there must be some
explanation. That an agricultural
district capable of producing great
variety of foodstuffs and located in
the midst of a mining state where
thousands of men are being employed
should not share in the general pros
perity seems hard to understand. One
wonders whether the merchants and
business men of Phoenix are really
alive to their opportunities, or
whether they do not need to wipe
their spectacles and look around.
Certainly if Phoenix business men
have cause to complain, the reasons
do not exist outside of the Salt River
valley. In every direction one may
look, the development of Arizona's
mineral resources is going forward.
Business could hardly be better in
any of the larger camps, while hun
dreds of small properties, which
have long lain idle, are being de-
veloped. Machinery is being in
stalled, and hundreds of men and
teams are constantly employed in
hauling ore and transporting sup
plies. Bank deposits show a record
breaking increase of ten million dol
lars in one year. Every camp in the
state is alive with activity.
Is it possible that Phoenix bust
ness men do not realize that Ari-
zona is a mining state, and the pros
perity of her business men depends
almost entirely upon conditions in
the mining industry? The day may
come when the thousands and thou
sands of acres of Arizona's desert
rose, and when agriculture will be
one of the states most important in
terests. That is devoutly to be hoped
for, but it will not come today or
tomorrow. For many years to CONS,
as in the past, mining will be the
main industry of the state.
It would be well for some of our
agricultural friends in the Salt River
valley to realize this fact. 1t would
be well for them to realize that the
interests of the mining camps of the
state are their interests, and very
much their interests. They have
never seemed to be very much con-
cerned in the development of the
mineral resources of the state, yet
with every new mine, yes, with every
ton of ore taken from the ground
there has been created market for
their foodstuffs. They could do
nothing better for themselves than
to aid and lend encouragement in
every way to the men who are en-
gagged in developing the resources of
this great state.
1t was due entirely to the great
amount of activity in the mining In
dustry that the price of hay in the
Salt River valley nearly doubled re-
Gently. 1t is because the farmers of
the Salt River valley have at their
doors one of the greatest markets
in the world that they have no really
good reason to complain Of hard
times. If hard times really do exist
in the Salt River valley, if business
is dull, the explanation is to be found
right there in the Salt River valley,
not in other sections of the state.
Let the producers of that rich dis
trict prepare intelligently to meet the
demands of the great mining camps
around them, not in a spasmodic
fashion, but with a view to building
up a permanent business, let them,
if necessary, employ experts to study
marketing conditions. and the best
methods of shipping, let them make
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