Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1930-11-20

dog tackling mountain lion--I want
to bite him, yet don't know just where
to grab on-and am backing and filling
around looking for good opening.
What | wish to talk to you about is
the idea | have that we must do some
thing with our mining industry if this
community and the people who live
here are to be benefited during the
present generation. The timber is being
cut off at rapid rate and our tax
able property is thus being eliminated
just as fast. When the timber is gone
we must face condition similar to
what is being faced by Warland Eu-
reka and Troy at the present time.
Mill buildings moved out, houses
boarded up and people forced to move
on to find a place where they can get
steady work. 1t is not pleasant to think
about, is it? Yet that is what must
happen unless some means are de-
vised to offset the loss of one resource
by the introduction of another
The Libby district is ahead Of lots
of others in this respect, in that it
has another resource to take the place
of the one we are eventually to lose.
That resource is our mines. Our hills
are full of valuable minerals Person
ally know of dozens Of properties
capable of giving employment to from
six to a hundred men. But here the
rub comes that places the stumbling
block in the path of the mine owner
or prospector He has not the money
to hire and pay this labor until the
property can makeG return sufficient
to pay its own bills That is the one
and only problem confronting us to
my way of thinking, but isn't it a mighty
one? You bet it is big But ! believe
we can overcome it, and my object in
writing this letter is to see if | can get
someone to agree with me on this sub
iect We all must admit that locally
we can not finance our mining industry
from location to production. Therefore
there is only one answer to our prob
lem. We must have outside money to
do what we cannot do ourselves or
leave the claims lie idle as they have
in large part done for the past rs
years.
If you agree with me that | have
stated the case correctly and have the
answer to the problem, then the next
move is what are we going to do about
it? +
There is only two things to do. First,
we can forget about it and let nature
take its course, as it has been taking
it for generations past We can think
back over the years and remember
the old prospectors who worked and
hoped and finally died with hopes I'M
fulfilled Men who had but few chances
to dispose of their claims and practi-
cally no chance to get the ear of the
outside world in any effort to get out
side help for development. Some Of
them, it is true, would not give out
side capital chance when it was Of
fered and we can look back now and
realize how much or little the pros
pector who demanded the whole hog
before his property was proven re
ceived in the material things of life.
Some of them are already departed
this earth-some who had chances at
times to take advantage of outside help
and turned it down because they could
not Immediately have fifty thousand
or some other sum of dollars in hand
before the helpers moved onto the
ground 1t is not for me to say whether
they profited by this action or not, but
| can certainly say that the commu-
nifty as whole, did not profit
Next or second, there is but one