Bisbee daily review., 1918-08-29
CONFIsCATIoN-AND THEN WHAT?
fFrom the El Paso Heraldl

If the workers were to take possession ot the industries-let us say of the mines ot the southwest-and exploit them for the common benefit of all, who would replace these mines when they are exhausted? Who would find prospects and develop these prospects into paying properties
 The thought comes up in connection with the reports that the numerous agents of the Industrial Workers of the World are again carrying on a recruiting campaign m the mining camps, signing up miners into membership through use of the persuasive argument of short hours, inordinately high wages and eventual confiscation of the mines.
 The enrolling agents of the l. w. w. make their argument more convincing by drawing comparison between the wages the miners receive and the profits accruing to the operating companies. For purposes ot discussion they do not mind exaggerating the latter figures if the true figures are not deemed sufficiently alluring
 We are all prone to look at the profits made in mining and forget what 1t has cost in time, money and nerve to make such profits, or any profits, possible.
 Consider the case of the Denn-Arizona, which Is now beginning to take its place among the big producers of the southwest. It ought to go on a dividend paying basis in the future and therefore is property which the l. w. w. and the socialists would like to confiscate for the common good.
 But how about the earlier history of this property2 More than $2,000,000 was sunk into the prospect without one dollar of return. The sum, in fact, was nearly double, when one considers the interest on 1t and the fact that 1t was invested about ten years without any revenue whatever in return. The money was wisely invested by competent engineers but the fact remains that for years it represented profitless ex- penditure and total loss to the men who risked it.
 The history of the Denn-Arizona Is pre- ciseIy thet of the United Verde and the United Verde Extension, except for differ ence in time. There were the same big ex- penditures, the same losses by stockholders, delays and disappointments before the tide turned and the flood of money going out began coming in.
 Moreover, there was no assurance that 1t would ever come in. Many prospects swallow fortunes and never disgorge a cent. Would the socialists and the l. w. w. chance the investment of millions in pros pect which might prove flat failure pro vided they had the millions in the first place? Would they have the government ea+ se;1a fe-., v,,;ll;0,, for +b. ;-,,,oe+;r,- ton of every prospect encountered?
 Or would they have private capital take all the risks of developing doubtful pros poets into paying properties only to have them confiscated for the common good" as soon as they began to pay Such a prop osition Is so ridiculous as not to require comment But not more ridiculous than the whole program of the l. w. w. It Is plain enough that no one would take the trouble to find a prospect or invest dollar in it afterwards if assured it would be taken away from him when on paying basis.
 Most people realize the absur6ity of the | W. w. plan and it would not require this discussion except for the renewed activity of the traitOrous organization, many of whose leaders have just been convicted on charges of conspiracy to interfere with and obstruct the war program of the United States. Not a worker ought to be misled by the spacious appeals of these charlatans, but some of them are being misled The I. w. " in Arizona and elsewhere is now trying to make workers believe that its pro gram is not traitorous, but that it is waging Q campaign to change industrial conditions merely. Let every laboring man look be- meath the surface of the confiscation plan,