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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (July 24, 1904)
Thomas Walsh ' on Gold Mining as a Business (Copyrighted. 1904. by Frank O. Carpenter.) ' jASHIHOTON, D. C, July n.(Sp clal Correspondence of The Bee.) many years. I have no trouble with my labor and I hare never bad a strike." . These were the word of one of the rich est mine ownera of the United State & tnan who has made many million dollar out of gold mines and who has mines out of which he is now taking; millions more. 1 refer to Thomas P. Walsh, the owner of the Camp Bird and other valuable proper ties In Colorado, that atate where mining; troubles are rampant. When he said this we were sitting in the parlor of his great mansion on Massachusetts avenue talking of gold mining as a business and of his experiences in it. "How do you accomplish that result?" X asked. . ... "In the first place," replied the mine owner, "I treat my men as though they were human beings. I realize that their work is hard and that their condition should be made as easy as possible. X have been doing what many employers la Europe and the United States are now" doing; that Is, trying to better the sani tary and living arrangements of my em ployee. The ordinary mining boarding bouse is a shack with poor rooms and poor cooking. I have, seen that my men are well housed and well fed. They have places to dry their clothes as soon as they come out of the mines. We have baths with porcelain tubs and other modern con veniences. The rooms In which they live are lighted with electricity and heated br team, and their meals are well cooked." To you pay higher wages than other operators?" "I think not," said Mr. Walsh, "although We pay the highest current rates. We Were among the first to adopt the eight hour day. and did so Just after It was de-j elded In the courts that It could not be en- forced." mt i. (i. ... . . ' M .. ..... u,UH m me mining trou- in woioraaoT" I asked, 3 r , ' I I " j ; ' ( ! V -' y ' . . ' ii ' ir .- I ' ' ' ' - :: . 1 -' . i '' j . . ' i "They come from a vartatv nt nil was the reply, "and they have been largely fomented by the loaders of the miners' anions. I think both operators and miners V been to some extent In the wrong. The situation Is a deplorable one." "What Is the matter with" the unlonsT" "There Is nothing the matter with them unions." replied Mr. Walsh. "I have no Objections to such organlzationa provided they are carried on upon proper lines, but the unions Insist upon many things which I do not believe. I am against the closed shop,' I do not approve of the sympathetic strike nor the boycott and t think every man should have the right to work and be sustained In It whether he be longs to the union or not. 1 would not lower wages, and I would like to see the condition of the working people raised, not only here, but In Europe as well. Condi tions In Europe are worse than they are fcore. Indeed, one of the chief difficulties of raising our labor la the competition which eomes In with the cheap labor from abroad." i "How can suoh Improvement be made?' By the Clvlo Federation, I suppose T" "Tea, the Clvlo Federation can do and Is doing good," said Mr. Walsh. "It is bring ing the employer and employe togther. The employe sees that the employer has not horns and hoofs and the employer Is learn ing that the employe at the bottom Is the same kind of a man that he is, and that he should be treated as such." "Toil me something about yourself as a laborer. Mr. Walsh. I understand you have done considerable work with your hands T' "Tea, I have," replied the mining mil lionaire. "My success, such as It Is, has come from hard work, allied to my natural ability In discovering and testing the pre cious metals. I have been engaged In this occupation for many years and have trav eled all over the Rocky mountain region again and again, exploring mining proper ties, and now and then Investing In them." "Hew did you start mining r I asked. "I have always been more or less Inter ested In geology, and as I look back over my life It seems to me as though my fate Was ear!y ceat In this direction. My father was a farmer In Tlpperary county, Ireland. I was born there about fifty-three years ago, and was educated In the oom mon schools. It was the cutom to send tho teachers to Dublin every year or so for a course of normal training; and onoe I remember our teacher brought back a chunk of granite. The country about a was all limestone, and this granite waa a great curiosity. . With, that began my first tody In etoi.es, and perhaps my first step toward mining. "Shortly after that my father appren ticed me to a millwright, and thereby put me up another step, although at the time It waa thought I was making a draoent In the sooial scale. Ton see, the farmer la Ireland considers himself above the me chaiilo, dork or tradesman. Had I re mained on the farm I might have come to the United States, but It would have bei as a farmer, without any mechanical knowledge, and I should be no better off today, perhaps, than thousands of poof . THOMAS . WALSH. Cbyp right by Q. V. Buck, 1904. Irish farmers In different parts of the United States. By making me a millwright I waa forced to learn all about building - mills and hanging millstones, knowledge which became very valuable when I had to construct works for operating mines. I worked with the millwright employer for four years and then crossed the Atlantic" t "How did you happen to come here?" "The time was Just after the close of the civil war," said Mr. Walsh. "Ireland hd many men In the union army, and the whole country was little more than a county of the United States. I had broth ers In the army, and we read the newspa per reports of the battles. I got the A Tier, lean fever at a very early age and ut 19 crossed the Atlantic to Massachusetts. My first work was as a carpenter, and much of It was shingling houses. This was new to me, as we have no shingling In Ireland, using slate and other material for roofling. . It was easy to learn, however, and I had no trouble. I stayed there two years working for $3.6 or $4 a day. That seemed ""a lot of money to me then." "How did you come to leave Massachu setts r "It was through one of my brothers who had been in the union army. He went to Colorado at the close of the war, and wrote me to come out there as a builder and con tractor. I did very well at that, and built more or less after I began to dabble in mines. One of my most successful build ings was a big hotel at Leadvlllo, Co o. I built also in the Black Hills region, where I went to prospect for gold." "What kind of a prospector are you, Mr. Walsh T" I asked. "I have never been a prospector In the ordinary sense of the word," was the re ply. "I mean I have never traveled over the country with a pick on my back dig ging about here and there to find gold. I have examined many mining properties and have Investigated much new mining , country, but it has always been on horse back and by train. I have done but. little of the dirty work of mining. Shortly after I went to Colorado I began to study geology, mineralogy and metallurgy, from a praotioal standpoint. I aeon found that I had a natural ability an intuitive per ception, you might eall it as to the values of ore In the rock. The Lord gave me this, and I take no credit for It. It en ables me, however, to tell a goo4 thing When I see It; and my mining experi ences are made up of the hunt for good things and Investing In them. In my pros, peeling I have never asked to whom the mines belonged. I have gene In and tested them, and if I thought they were good Investments I have bought them and de veloped them. As a result I have been Very auoouaaful." "Then your fortune was not made In a minute, Mr. Walsh T" "No, I have met with success and fail ure, but as a rule have gone on steadily doing better and better. I had made enough eighteen years ago to retire and In fact had left the west and come east to live. I had then an Income of about $1B,000 a year, which at that time seemed to me enough for any man. Then the panic came on and my fortune was lost. As a result I "went back to mining. I have succeeded very wjll since then. X consider mining my business, and expect to keep at It for years to come." As Mr. Walnh thus modestly spoke my mind went over the stories which are current as to his vast mining properties, his lavl.ih expenditures here and In Paris and his enormous Income. The house in which we were sitting Is said to have cost $1,000,000. It has been reported that he once refused $35,000,000 for the Camp Bird mine, which Is only one of hla prop erties, and I have heard his incomu esti mated at from $100,000 to $1,000,000 per month. These matters are too personal for me to touch upon in my . conversation with him. Mr. Walsh Is one of the most un ostentatious men I have ever met, and he Is, I venture, as simple and plain In his manners now as he was when he shingled houses near Boston at $4 per day. He is a man of fine mind and good education; although the same has been acquired In the collge of experience and private study rather than in a classical university. He talks slowly, but very Interestingly, and In mining matters as scientifically as a mining engineer. He Is a mining engineer, being a member of the American Association of Engineers and also president of the Irrigation Asso ciation of America. Tou might talk to him for houra, and if you did not know him you would not learn from him that he had made millions In mines, that he is one of the richest men of the country, that he has hobnobbed with kings In Eu - rope and that he has by all odds the finest mansion at the capital of the United States. "What kind of a business la mining, Mr. . Walsh T" said L continuing the converse " tlon. "It Is one of the best of businesses," said this man who has made millions out of It. "It Is an honetit business and a clean business. In It you do not have to ' cut your neighbor's throat, nor fight with him, making. It Is possible, your success ' out of his ruin. The successful miner Is ( always adding to the wealth of the coun try. He takes the treasures out of the ground and distributes them for the good of mankind. I am glad to have It as nay business." "How about the chances of success f I asked. "I think they are greater than In almost any other business," said Mr, Walsh. 'X mean for the earcul, conservative and In telligent operator. I mean the man who engages In mining as he would In say other business, who studies the subject, who carefully Investigates before he la Tests, and who at the same time has a moderate amount of business Judgment, There Is a reason why such sv man bowk Dot succeed." . "Bat thousand fafl." snid X. "That la true," said Mr. Walsh, There, are saany failures In every business. It is aid that 96 per cent of our merchants fait at some time In their lives. X doubt If the percentage of failures Is greater among; diners. One trouble is that those who Invest in mines are not careful enough la tnaklng their Investigations. If you test mine properly, going down alongside of the vein and taking out samples at dif ferent levels you can estimate Its value just as closely as you can that of any other Investment There Is always a spec ulative value beyond, and as a rule yoa Should pay for only that which Is In sight. "Then would you advise young men to take up mining as a profession?" "I don't see why I should not," said Mr. Walsh. "Their success will depend largely upon themselves, but I see no reason why they should not make as great a success Id mining as In other trades and profes sions. There Is a "vast amount of gold and Silver left In the world. I doubt. Indeed. If It will ever be exhausted. The mala trend of the Rockies has been scratched over and parts of it have been pretty well prospected, but . there . are innumerable ' spurs and cross ranges, the contents of Which are unknown. - There Is many a little valley -or side hill in the Rockies not yet dug Into which may contain gold, and no one knows how much. Some of the best of my properties do not cover as much land at the surface as two Washington city blocks. There may be little unknown Talleys In the Rockies out of which will be taken hundreds of millions of dollars worth of gold ore." "What do you think about Alaska?" "I feel sure there Is a great amount of Undiscovered gold in Alaska. That which comes from the sand of the seashore Is the washing of quartz deposits somewhere In ths interior. They are sure to be dis covered sooner or later." "Tell me how you discovered the Camp Bird mine, Mr. Walsh." '1 bought that property as a silver and lead proposition," was the reply. "It had been unsuccessfully mined for silver and lead, and millions of dollars had been spent In tunneling the region and In tak ing out ore. I thought by consolidating the mines we could perhaps make a profit able Investment out of them, although they had not been profitable before. In going; over the mines, however, I found gold In a corm which the operators had not no ticed. Tou can see what I mean by this piece of rock." Here Mr. Walsh crossed the room to a cabinet set into the wall, It was filled with nujrgets, lumps of rock, some in the rough and some highly polished, little gold bricks and other mineral specimens. He picked up a piece of stone which looked like a chunk of broken quarts with a black, rusty stain upon It. "That stain," continued he as he pointed to It, "Is gold, and very rich it la. There la also gold in smaller quantities scattered through the quartz, as you may see from this polished piece of rock." He here wet the surface and I could see the little gold specks shine out. "The most gold Is In the rusty stain. The first miners did not notice that. They did not think they had any gold worth mining, and in their search for silver and lead they threw away as waste thousands of dollars worth of stuff which we have since ground up and sent to the smelters. In going over this region, seeing this rock I told my as sistant that I was sure it contained gold. Shortly after that I had to go east on ac count of my health, and I left Instructions to have the region prospected and assays made. When I returned the samples were ready for me, but I would not look at them ' until I had gone out and made further in vestigations for myself. " I found that my first Idea was correct that there was gold and lots of It. I developed the property and we have taken some millions of dollars out of it Altogether more than $10,000,000 have been taken out of that immediate re gion since I discovered the gold was there." "Are . there many discoveries of that kind, Mr. Walsh?" I -asked "Not many," was tne reply; "but every now and then gold Is found In a form or in a region not supposed to contain it The Cripple Creek country waa tramped over for years before It sprang forth Into a great mining camp, and the saaae may be said of some of the Utah gold regions and others. It was a long time after the dis coveries In eastern Australia that the great gold resources of western Australia were ascertained; and the mines of South Africa are of comparatively recent data Indeed, we suppose that we now know where the chief gold of the world is. but we cannot be sure." "Will the time ever come wnen the gold mines of the world will be controlled by Some mighty trust, or when a gold syndi cate may control the mines of the United States?" 7 think not" said Mr. Walsh. "There is no reason for such a combination. Gold mining, to a large extent is aa Individual proposition, Ths smelting la usually done (Continued ma rage BUtraaJ