The Holbrook news., 1922-11-24
MINES AND RAILS
 LEAD DEVELOPMENT
Cooperation of s. P. With Mines Increases
 Business and Population


 portation facilities. The long, peri lous voyage around Cape Horn in "windjammers" mitigated against any considerable interchange of commerce.
 Fortunately there were captains of industry and finance possessed of broad vision, courage and sufficient faith in the future of the West to con- ceive and bring to completion great systems of transcontinental railways. Among these the Southern Pacific were the first lines
 For many years there were nothing the mining territory and the ores and rich minerals were transported to the railways by mules, donkeys and horses from mines far back in the mountains The placer mining camps of the early days were about the only ones located adjacent to the railroad.
 In the last twenty-five years the greater mining development on the Southern Pacific has been in Nevada and in Arizona and New Mexico. Op- erations in these districts have re- suited in very heavy movements of mining supplies such as concentrating, smelling and other treating machinery, explosives, timbers and fuel.
 There also has developed a very heavy outbound tonnage of bullion and other finished or contemplated mineral products from the mines.
 s. p. co-operates
 The policy of the Southern Pacific always has been to cooperate in the development of these properties. In doing so it has followed the plan of publishing reasonable freight rates on the materials and supplies used in the mines and in the treatment of the products of the mines, with low rates on the ores or on the manufactured products out of the smelters.
 In the adjustment of rates on the products of the mines it has been the upon the values of the product. The principle has been recognized that producer of ore worth $100 ton can afford to pay higher charge than can the producer of ore valued at $20.
 This has been done in recognition of the fact that the great bulk of the ores transported would be of lesser value and with the view of encourag- ing the greatest possible production of low grade ores, so that in the aggre- gate would be transported sufficient volume of tonnage to afford reason able return on the investment.
 The company also has encouraged to the fullest extent the treatment of minerals at the point of produc- tion.
 These policies have resulted in the maintenance of the closest possible feeling of cooperation between mine owners and the railroad, bringing about constantly increasing popula- tion in the mountain and desert re- gions, with development in the thriv- ing industrial cities, where only few years ago there was nothing but struggling mining camps.
 Twenty-Five years ago both mining and railroad development in Arizona were in their infancy. Then the as- sessed value of all railroads operating within the state was less than $3,000,- 900, while the assessed value of min ing property of all description was less than $2,OO0.OOO.
 Assessed Valuations
 The assessed valuations in 1921 forcefully show how the railroads and the mines constantly have progressed in the pioneering work of develop ment.
 The assessed valuation of the rail roads of Arizona for this later year amounted to more than $101 ,000, ,000, while that of the mining properties vas more than $407 1000, ,000.
 This enormous increase in the min :ng development in Arizona, from a comparatively insignificant copper pro- ducer twenty-five years ago to the greatest copper producing section of the United States today, has been iue to a marked degree to the rail road development.
 It Is considered highly significant that some of the greatest copper pro- iucing sections of the state actually have been developed only after the railroads were built into those terri tories.
 One example of this was in the con struotion of what now Is the Arizona Eastern Railroad. line 124 miles long, into Globe, for one large mine. As result, the extensive low grade properties in the vicinity of Miami were developed. The mines at Ray were developed in similar manner, following construction of branch line railroad to Winkelman.
 Mining experts declare 1t is a great question as to whether the loy grade bodies in the vicinity of Miami and Ray ever would have been developed had it not been for the fact that branch railroad lines previously had been constructed to serve other terri tories.
 The story of development work in New Mexico, Nevada and in other sections is similar one.