The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1919-10-23
Federal Taxation of
Mines. A Notable
Discussion.
Continued from Page 81

cd the upper hand. Every mine face
one or another of such catastrophe,
In some respects, the greater the min,
the greater the menace. Clearl
enough the abnormally high risk Il
mining must be offset by abnormall
high returns. Clearly enough, tn
greater the hazard, the greater tn
portion of gross profit required t.
balance 1t.
1t has also long been recognized b,
economists that mining is an industr!
Of wasting assets and that the appar
ent income for a given years opera
tions Is not true profit but part pro
fit and part. return of capital. Tht
miner who sells his metal or his Goa
Is selling not only his product, he il
selling at the same time part Of his
mine. The price he receives Del
pound or per ton must cover both. II
Is to be hoped that the general atten
ton to this subject which the present
heavy tax burdens are going to force
Will greatly clarity the general un-
derstanding of the subject. In EN-
phasizing the idea of wasting assets,
Finlay has stated that mine is ex-
actly like an account in a bank whose
business is to be wound UP by a re-
ceiver. Hoover and others have i'm
piled. likewise that the business Of q
mining company Is to work out its
mine as rapidly as 1t reasonably can.
Even more fundamental, however,
Than the conceptions which un1erlic
these statements and in sense con-
Trajectory to them, Is principle that
Is becoming more obvious and import
ant each year, namely, that the bust
ness OF a mining company should be
the mining business, in Just the same
sense that the business Of n railroad
company Is the railroad business
What / mean is this: the companies
which are producing the largest par.
Of the countr9's output Of most OF the
metals have made enormous outlaws
In time, effort. intelligence and money
to build TIP organizations of great
size and remarkable efficiency which
cover all steps from the ore In the
ground to the finished metal In large
measure, 1t is because of the perfec-
ton and the efficiency OF organiza-
tons like these, some Of them great,
others on the way to become great.
that the world is buying its metal
supplies at prices not greater than
those which now prevail Probably in
even larger measure is the country's
dominance In mineral production due
as mach to these highly perfected |
organizations as 1t Is to the natural |
mineral wealth of the nation. To as
sumo or to require that each of these
great organizations must be torn |
down md thrown away when the par
t'cnlar 'ot Of raw material, namely. |
the mine on which that particular !
company Is operating happens to be
used up, would not only be rank folly, |
but would constitute an economic
waste as direct and as the deeply an
furious to the public welfare as waste /
in the mining of coal, In the efficient /
utilization of water power or any Of
the other national extravagances or
deficiencies which we are striving to I
overcome and eradicate. Evidences
are constantly multiplying that large
mining corporations realize that they
must regard themselves as continuing
organizations. They are providing or
attempting to provide themselves with
new supplies Of raw material, that is, II
new mines. as soon as or before their 1
. policy is sound and in accordance |
With public good, 1t must be both per- 7
nitted and encouraged In short, the 6
mining company really ought to set =
~ a fund for replacement rather than It
/ fund merely for return of original I
apital. and this replacement fund n
'ught to include an insurance factor d
o cover the extra risk involved in II
ssuring to the company its new sup e
,ly OF raw material q
II Is unnecessary to emphasize the O
Importance of the place held by the v
mining industry Of this country. In q
9l7. the latest year for which data b
re available, the value OF the mineral d
reduction of the United States as @;
by the geological survey, G,
to 35.011, 100000. This rep N
esents probably a larger portion of n
ne estimated gross national income IT
$6S.000, 100000 for that year than w
as contributed by any other single al
ldustry save the railroads. Indeed nj
le only reason why the income OF the III
lilroads somewhat exceeded that of at
lc mineral industry is because, as the in
rector Of the U. S. geological survey
Is recently pointed out, the mines At
I'd smelters, oil wells and refineries, VII
larries and cement mills furnish to FIR,
Q railroads more than 100000 tons th
freight per day or nearly twice as 80
UGH as all other freight combined. to
The 1917 mineral output is divided
round numbers as follows: mr.
Per ste
cent CO,
incipal metals ...$2.059 O0O, 900 All ha
al m .,,,........ 523 900 900 304 Il,