The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1915-02-26
MANS INHUMANITY

long editorial upon the recent failure
OF the Western Union Mines company
at that camp. The following extract
is the opening paragraph; the article
winding up with the Interrogation,
what are we to do about it,:
THE recent spectacle of nearly 200
employees of a couple of local mine
operating concerns gathered on the
street corners discussing the problem
OF how to collect for some 80 days
labor performed in the mines and mill
operated by these companies confronts
US with a sad and lamentable condi-
ton, not a theory. 1t is lamentable
because upwards of 20 per cent of the
men defrauded of their earnings have
families, depending on these returns
Of labor to sustain them with the nee
essities of life, and many of whom.
through being denied further credit
by the local merchants, are placed in
position of absolute want, with win
ter but half over"
The question What are we going
IT, do about it," is easily answered.
Simply nothing. Moreover, if the same
operator should start up in that camp
again his FEASIBILITY would win over
the business men and miners, and
again he would spread over more
ground than he could handle and leave
the same sad wreckage in his wake.
This is not the first time that the man
who works with his hands has been
left to rue the day he put faith in the
promises of the operator responsible
for the present suffering at Republic
The man never Intentionally defraud
ed any one out of a dollar If he had
the money he would pay his debts and
| pay them cheerfully. He never de-
liberately set out to perpetrate fraud
upon the public. Men who commit
fraud have an object in view, and that
object is to reap financial gain at the
expense of the defrauded. The Re-
public operator has never been ac-
cused of profiting at the expense of
others. In every case where he has
failed in mining ventures he has come
out of the mess as flat broke as the
workmen who put trust in him for
wage. The man is not willfully GRIM
inal, but seems criminally incapable
| of conducting minins on a rational
scale. He seems to De no manager,
does not know the value of dollar
when the dollar spent is some one
else's dollar, and has an Unsuitable
ambition when once started mining in
a district to obsorb everything in the
way of claims within that district. 1t
is the faulty of the egotist wishing
III his operations to surpass and over
shadow any and all previous efforts
along the same lines. In any of the
three ventures he has attempted in the
past few years had this operator con-
fined himself earnestly to the single
mining property he started in to de-
velop, and confined his pay roll to d
number just sufficient to do the nee
essary work right, he would have sue
ceeded, and today there would no
doubt be producing and paying mines
at Republic, making that live and
prosperous camp, and instead of being
held up to derision and execration he
would be looked upon as a public ben
efactor, while enjoying life himself in
bodies queer inconsistencies. He
would not go out and deliberately take
the value of a nickel from any one,
and yet he will launch enterprises that
III the very nature of their extent, anil
lack of common sense management
are destined from the start to fail, and
in failing create woe and distress
among innocent people.
However, it was not for the purpose
OF dwelling upon this man who has
brought misery upon these miners that
the extract from the Journal is pub.
lished, but to call attention to a To-
cal case of suffering, and how al
worthy worker was stung in the first
mining fiasco that this Republic oper-
ator was connected with. 1t is an ex-
porience containing subject matter for
a sermon. This resident of Oroville
worked for that operator for months,
and was stood off with plausible
promises. Merchants in Republic |
agreed to take orders on the mining
company for merchandise. The miner
threatened to bring suit for his sal |
airy. Such action would bring suspic- |
ion upon great public enterprise. |
Business men threw up their hands in |
horror and plead pathetically that |
such step be not taken. The miner |
refrained from drastic action. At last |
despairing of securing his pay, and
having a family to provide for, the |
miner applied for work in Oroville. |
He was successful. We have known
that miner for years. He is an ex-
perienced mill man and a skillful ma
chinist. He is an honest man, and |
when he works he gives the best that I
IS in him to his employers. He earns
every cent of his wage. Hardly had