Mohave County miner., 1916-09-02
DIFFICULTIES OF JOB
 OF MINE EXECUTIVE VARIED AND NUMEROUS

others it is superintendent, but, any
 way, the executive officer of a mine
 or prospect has difficulties to meet from within, which are invisible tu
 the pubic, as well as others from
 without, which are visible. A,EiHg
 companies, like flesh, are weak and it
 so happens at times that anagers,
 SUI crinte1dents and engineers are ex-
 pected to do more than take care of
 the mere physical work of handling
 their properties to the satisfaction of
 the last whim of their employers, but
 they are expected also to ease the
 news out to the public of what the
 mine is (not) doing and what ore it
 has (not) struck. On the other hand they are required at times to not only give out no information, but to look honest and swear there is none and ] if there was it would be nobody's
 business.
 To illustrate the point mining com panies may be divided into two gen ieral classes. One is the close cor poration which has no shares to sell to the public, nothing to promote and, which regards the public as a fifth wheel to it's auto and, therefore, not exactly necessary. Into this class the ones that have developed plenty of ore, have mines and not prospects land think they have no favors to ask. The second is the promotion, which wants the public to know all there is to know and sometimes a lot more, and in this class fall the ones that have down to a nicety the practice of the art of pyramiding the public con fidence and incidentally their own shares far away and above their in- trinsic value, which in other words, takes the form of so-called manipula- tion.
 The young mining engineer grad uates from college and goes out and works for a couple of years as a miner. He then is ready to accept something better in either of the three designated employments- manager, superintendent or engineer. Or he may be a man in middle life or old age, out of employment and needing | it so badly that he cannot afford to turn down anything-at any rate for Ca little while" Soon he discovers what he already knew, that he is re- quired not only to do certain work and | to get more work out of other men, but that he must make the facts ap- pear just as his company requires | them to be interpreted. Many a man in middle life, who knows nothing but | mining and who has a family depen- dent upon him, feels excused in de- | veloping, or making use of, if already | developed, a mining conscience, and he feels at any rate that his family | comes first. A young engineer with out a reputation has his career before him and he prizes it more than if it | were behind him. Getting employ | ment and holding it are his besetting l difficulties and there are times when he is placed in a position of having | to make slight choice between courses of action that lead to altogether diff erent destinations.
 Both of these are thrown into con tact with both classes of mining com panies, more generally the latter of the two with something to sell or promote. Most of them are honest, | as men go, and the young man fortu- nate enough to not be asked to em- ploy unseemly methods counts himself fortunate indeed. But whether it be to bull or bear the stock. to helD out the immediate purposes of either the promotion or the close corporation that wishes to get better terms from the seller or Dul Oul lLo hCABAADOA OA AACC1C OAN other stockholders, the mine executive is the man upon whom the ruling forces thrust the responsibility of substantiating the facts or alleged facts in regard to the mine. It goes so far at times as to take the form of signatures to writings and these are part of the job of the man who
 accepts the position and expects to hold it with all sorts of employers
 and all sorts of vicissitudes of the
 mining game.
 Some mine executives acquire re-
 putations while yet in their younger
 careers and the majority of them
 take their success with equanimity.
 Others get "swelled up" and remain
 so until they lose a job or two, finally
 getting over it, as a rule, and learn
 ing the bitter fact that they are on | the same level as ordinary mortals.