The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1920-10-08

they would sink shafts down to the
pay streak and then drift sideways
and get the pay streak, ranging any,
where from an inch in thickness to
several inches, in some places several
feet in thickness. In these cases the
/ pay dirt had to be hoisted by means
of buckets and windlass to the sur
face, taken to the sluice and poured
into the water and washed by the
usual sluicing system. Or, If they
did not have the ditch to furnish
water, they could wash it by the old
rocker method or the older panning
method.
These men, speaking various
languages knew of the conditions
they were working under when they
attempted to build bitches. The man
who builds ditch two feet wide and
two feet deep on the first of July
can come back on the morning of the
second and find it three feet wide
and twenty inches deep. On the
morning of the fourth of July, 1t will
be four feet wide and ten or twelve
inches deep. Every hour of thawing
changes the conditions. A ditch
may be completed today and carrying
a stream of water and they may be
doing successful mining operations
and in one hours thawing somewhere
1T may turn the whole stream out
into the tundra. In some places it
never gets done breaking and in such
events they get canvas or other ma
terial to carry. the water across SO
it cannot all get away.
These men worked on and on con-
structing canal systems. In the sum-
mer they would work on the canals
and in the winter they would work
on those holes in the ground, getting
their pay dirt together. They lived
on beans and bacon and hope. Some
Of them died of the scurvy and
others took their places. Some of
them got discouraged and left for
other parts of the world and others
came in.
In the course of years that work.
ing force was developed into more
harmonious working power Every
year it worked to better effect, be-
cause it was better body of men,
better tuned and working in better
harmony. In the course of time they
constructed hundreds of miles of
! bitches and operated successfully
those underground mines and took
out millions of dollars Of the yellow
metal. Where no man could make
anything working by himself and
workil by the simple methods that
rne mer must resort to, whom he
works without much preparation,
where it was an impossibility to sue
coed single-handed, these men bound
themselves together and worked for
years and made a tremendous sue
cess.
The Benefits of Monopoly
+ I want to tell you about
monopoly that men roundly and
soundly condemned and were sure
they were right and we afterwards
learned that we We're wrong. On a
strip of beach on the northern bord-
ers of Behring sea were 10000 men
camped along the waters edge. Their
tents were so close together a per
son could hardly get thru between
them. Every man considered that
that was free country and that lie
was privileged to do as he pleased
regardless of what anybody else
thought. There was no particular
law out there and every man con-
sidered that he was a law unto him
self. He came there on his own
power, be brought his own goods
along with linn, slept in his own
bed and who ID there that had any
right to boss hiIa That was the
spirit they all a. m.
There were thu .eA.4g transporta-
ton companies and tine -nited States
army also operating out here. Each
transportation coz ANY had it's
colors Ike the cla' colors in our
schools at gradua !, tine. Every
transportation COY pany Lad its PEN
nants and its flab,. On several oc-
casions officers wearing pennant
to correspond with the color Of the
trading and transportation company
for whom they worked, would 60 out
and stake out a strip OF land by the
sea, set the corner posts and COM
mand everybody within that space
to get off Of it. If everybody was not
off within the time indicated, a squad
of soldiers would come along with
bayonets and see that he got of and
they confiscated his property IL he
was not obedient. A man might
move his tent today under such con-
ditions and get settled again in the
course Of the night, and tomorrow be
ordered to move again under similar
conditions. In such conditions we
simply "hollered our heads or.
against the army and the trading and
transportation company. They would
unload their ships on that ground
and stack their goods up as high as
barn and put men on top with Win
chester rifles to guard the goods. We
little fellows with wheelbarrow