The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1916-05-27

ESS
tions, while the more lucrative. IL
also more exacting occupations af-
ford employment to others.
In seeking for a remedy for this
situation as applied to the mining
industry, we must take into con-
sideration the character and traits
of the average American boy who
might be made available for mine
work Such a boy will probably
be found more ambitious, though
less Industrious and more indie
pendent. and yet, under proper
influences, more tractable than the
foreign laborer now employed. He
will be more frank in his resent
ment of unjust treatment and less
suspicious; and therefore will re-
spond more readily to the influence
of proper treatment.
He will have the groundwork Of
a common school education. based
upon greater natural intelligence.
IN physique, he may o equal
the imported laborer, though this
is a debatable question, but even
if weaker physically, the difference
should be made up in a short time
by greater skill. But the chief
consideration is. as stated ABOVE,
that because of his greater ambi-
ticn, the American boy will not be-
gin work as a common laborer un-
less he sees the promise of some
thing better in the future, and 1t
is to put before him this promise
that the following plan is proposed.
suggest hat in each important
or companies set aside or construct
a suitable room or building to
be used as a mining school for the
instruction of employees in the the
Dry and practice of mining. The
instructor should be a recent grad
uate of some good mining insti-
tuition. and in selecting him, care
should be exercised to obtain one
who has had the maximum of prac-
teal experience. The school hours
SI)Culu Hot bc 81 lOhS do " NC
burdensome, but should be so ar
ranged as to afford instruction to
men from both the day and night
shifts. The instruction should be
entirely free to all employees of
the interested companies between
specified limits of age. and above
a specified standard of prelimi-
nary education.
Just how high this standard
should be, need not be discussed
here, but no doubt with the aid Of
the faculty of the state university
a two years course could be de-
vised that would give a man a good
insight into the theory of mining,
even though at the start he had
nothing better than a grammar
school education. The object would
be not to give a man a training
as a mining engineer, but to fit
him in both theory and practice to
become a first class miner, timber
man, shift boss or foreman.
Having provided the plant and
instructor for the school, the next
step suggested is for the interested
companies to send out an agent,
whose duty it would be to select
from among applicants in the min
ing district itself, and from the
country adjacent, a few boys rang
ing in age from IS to 81 years,
who were qualified by physique, in
telligence, ambition and prelim-
mary education to undertake The
work of mine laborers coupled with
instruction such as the school
could give. They should be Civ
en- distinctly to understand TINT
their pay would be the same as for
other laborers in the same class
of employment and that their jobs
could only be held by both doing
their work properly in the mine and
regular attendance at the school.
1t is my belief that hundreds OF
such boys can be found in Calf
fornia, and their proper training
will in a few years, materially
raise the standard of the miners
somDlOyed in the state.
The schools would serve the
double purpose Of supplying in
struction and of filling the time Of
the young lei so occupied as to
prevent their falling victims to the
d~emoralizing influences that have
in the past ruined many American
boys in the western mining camps.
Naturally, the majority of those
boys taking this training would
never advance beyond the grade of
expert miner and timbermen, but
even this would be a distinct gain
both to themselves and to the in
dustry, which would be still fur
ther benefited by the better train
ing of the few who might become