The copper era and Morenci leader., 1916-06-23
EDITORIAL OPINION
ARIZONA MINERS AND
 Mp. BUGABOO BETS

Afflicted with the assumption that the ''nine laborers" of Arizona, as he calls them, are below the average in intelligence, an office-seeker named A. A. Betts has addressed a letter to them purporting tc reveal a threaten ed assault on wages in the mines of this state. Betts doesn't say 50 in as many words, but he would really like to be known as watchdog over the welfare of the mentally-deficient miner.
 If the mine laborers" of Arizona were of the calibre under which Betts classes them, his vote-getting crusade might have landed him some follow CTS But as it happens, Betts' bid for ballots will fail utterly mainly because the miners of Arizona are, as class, surpassed in intelligence and sagacity by no aggregation of workers in the world. MT. Betts made the serious mistake of refusing to believe that a man who dons digging clothes" could possess an abundance of brains.
 It may well be asked: Who is A. A. Belts? whose senseless palaver would be an insult to the miners of Arizona if the miners were less good-natured. A. A. Betts is a clerk in the office of the Arizona Corporation Commission. All others failing to recognize him as a clerk of unusual ability, he sought solAce by taking unto himself the title of Rate Expert"
 Someone there's the "cutie" in the cards-put him up to strive this fall for a corporation commissioner ship. So Betts got busy. About four fho hn mo hT~O1 h. out the state began to receive news items bristling with the name of Betts. It scenes as if Betts was concerned in everything which the Corporation Commission undertook. You, news paper reader, may have perused some of these Betts breezy babblings. We editors could cut them to any size without missing much and use them as ''fillers" Betts doubtless would have passed into unmourned obscurity had he not made himself the laughingstock of the miners in Arizona. He se- cured the names and addresses of scores of them all over the state. Thus equipped, he requisitioned some official writing paper and envelopes from the Corporation Commission stationary for which the taxpayers foot the bill, by the way-and sent the following screed addressing his would be dupes as My Dear MT. So-and- So."
 ''The Fl Paso 6 Southwestern Sys- tenn and the Arizona & New Mexico Railroad Company have published tariff to become effective on July 18th advancing rates on ore, copper bullion and copper matte and copper blister from Douglas, Morenci and Clifton to Atlantic Seaboard points approximate ly twenty per cent.
 For example, the present rate on ore from Douglas to Branford. Conn, {, is $9 7S per ton; the new rate will be $1165 On bullion, matte and blis ter the present rate is $9. IS, the new $1215. From Clifton to Hartford, the present rate on ore is $11. 75; the pro- posed, $13.6O. On bullion, matte and blister the present rate is $11.73; the proposed $13.75.
 In consideration of this case, l have in mind that the mine laborers at the points of origin involved are paid on a sliding scale based on the price of copper and that an advance of ap- proximately $2 co per ton in freight rates, which would necessarily result in a reduction of the net returns to the mine owners in the same amount, would be immediately reflected in diminished wage to the laborers.
 If this should be the case, the la borers are parties in interest and en- titled to the same consideration as other interested parties.
 I shall be glad if you will review the situation and give me the benefit of your opinion at the earliest possible moment.
 If deemed advisable 1 shall be pleased to place the matter before the Interstate Commerce Commission with a request that the advanced rates be suspended pending an investiga- tion.
 Yours truly,
 A A. Betts, Rate Expert. '"
 Now again, as it happens, the miner knows that the price of copper on which the sliding scale is based, is not fixed in Arizona. Records of uni versal sales of copper are kept by the Engineering and Mining World, the official organ of the copper industry, and the price of the red metal is thus acertained. Arizona, or any other state, is powerless to juggle with this copper price, Everything that Belts claims as relating to increased tariffs on Arizona ore might be true without efecting the universal quotation for