'Jiih U.MAtt.X Ml. Ml. I.; vt.wioi ... . i. i .
Fortunes Made in Andean Tin
leal kin nones?
5
(Copyright, 1914, by Prank O. Carpenter.)
ORVRO. Bollvla.-Tln Is now king
In Bolivia. This country onc
produced one-third of all thu
silver mined In the world. It
la now turnlnc out more than
nne-fourth of all the tin. and It has
such vast deposits of that mineral that
It will some day drive the mines of
Malaysia and Cornwall out of existence.
Tin Is found almost everywhere In the
western chain of the Andes. It Is mined
on the high slopes about Lake Tltlcaca.
and there are great tin deposits In the
msln ranees of the Cordillera Real and
Its numerous spurs. Right here In the
heart of the Bolivian plateau, eight hours'
ride by train from I,a Pai, Is a tin mine,
out of wlilch they have been taking ore
for generations. The mine has a tunnel
that starts Into It out of the very heart
of the city, and one has to walk through
this leas than half a mile before he comes
to the workings. These have been ex
tended to a depth of 700 feet with solid
tin all the way. No one knows how far
down the ore goes. The mine waa worked
by the Spaniards for silver, but later on
changed from silver to tin and the bulk
of the product is now In that metal.
The tin ore Ilea in veins between layers
of rock. It la the meat of a mighty stone
sandwich that has to be blasted out and
tarried to the surface. There the great
chunks of tin and rock are broken to
pieces and sorted over by Indian women,
who pick out all the ore that will pay to
be sent away for reduction.
During my stay here I visited this mine,
liack of the buildings containing the ma
chinery of Its main works are mounds of
broken stone and piles of valuable ore.
The mounds look like gravel. They are
tho waste of the mine, having only about
1 per cent of the metal. The good ore
looks like that of silver or lead. It Is
so dull in color that no one would Imagine
that It could produce the shine one finds
on a new dishpan or wash boiler.
Ore Comes la Chanka.
I spent some time watching the Indian
women at work. The ore comes out In
chunks, some of which are ten times
as big ss your head. The women break
the chunks Into piece with heavy steel
hammers and pick out the bits that con
tain tin and silver. They have faces the
color of copper, and as they alt on the
ground pounding away their black bare
feet and rosy bare calves can be seen
showing out from under their very full
skirts. They are dirty and frowsy and
their hair and bodiea form the homes of
unmentionable Insects. They are muscu
lar. Their continual pounding gives them
large arms and they are noted for the
size of their biceps. They keep at the Job
from daylight to dark, and their earnings
are about 50 cents of our money. They
re paid by the amount that they do,
and It was with difficulty that I got
them to stop work and pose for my pic
ture. Nearly all of these girls were chewing
coca and their cheeks were swelled out
by the fat quids inside them. While I
waited some of the miners came out and
I Photographed them. I asked as to wages
and they told me they were paid about 60
cents for ten or eleven hours' work un
derground. Tho men are brought up In
the mines and are skilled In the handling
of ore.
The mining company that owns this
mountain of minerals has three different
properties, all of Which are producing sil
ver and tin. It has hundreds of miners
and keeps 250 women at work. The Oruro
mines have always paid well, and today
they are producing good dividends. I vis
ited them when I was here some years
ago, and before the railroad to La Pax
had yet been constructed. The fuel then
used was the llama manure, brought In I
by caravans from all over the country.
It took four tons of thst stuff to run
the forty-horsepower engine twenty-four
hours, and I remember going with one of
the managers of the mine into the pit
where the fuel was stored. It then con
tained 150.000 pounds of llama droppings.
The stuff looked like gray bullets or
gravel, and it was aa dry as a bone and
gave forth no smell.
23
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Coal Fifty Dollars Per Toa.
Todsy the company Is using cosl st a
cost of about $50 a ton It has installed
the most modern machinery, and i( Is
saving money by employing anthracite
every twelve hours.) The t'neia mines are
the property of Simon I. Patino, who
might be called the tin king of the world.
He is worth many millions, and It all
cornea from tin.
Front Poverty to Riches.
It Is only a few years ago that Patino
waa a poor clerk, working for a few dol
lais a month. He had' Indian blood in
his veins, and no one supposed he would
ever be more than a hireling. Then he
found this prospect and tried to get his
employers to work it. They had no faith
In him or his property, and so he de
nounced the claim for hlmnelf. In some
way he managed to get a amall capital.
At first he practically lived In the mine,
laboring there with the few Indians he
could hire at low wages. He finally struck
a rich vein and since then the mine has
paid as high as $5,000,000 a year. It some
times yields as much as $200,000 a month.
Patino has suddenly jumped from pov
erty to extravagant riches and he has
hard work to Invest the surplus. He is
Interested In banks and he has bought
houses and haciendas and mines of va
rious kinds. He has built a railroad from
the Antofagasta line to Uncla to get his
ore out -to the steamers; and is Installing
the best machinery. Of late years he has
been living in Paris and his properties
are now managed by agents. I have al
ready referred to the great blocks of tin
from the Patino mines that will be shown
at the world's fair at San Francisco.
Another Tin Romance.
I hesr other romances of tin fortunes
msde on these Bolivian highlands. One
relates to a German mechanic named
Kemp, who opened a mine when tin waa
selling for $1,100 a ton. He had no trouble
In disposing of the property to a Chilean
syndicate, which paid him $100,000 in cash
and an equal amount in the shares of tho
mines, which were then estimated at par.
Kemp had no knowledge of the Value
of money, and he supposed that his $100,
000 would last him forever. He took it
and went off to Europe. He spent right
and left and within less than two years
nis xonune was gone, lie then came
back to Chile, expecting to get another
$100,000 by the sale of his stock. In the
(meantime the price of tin had fallen, and
the shares that Kemp took at par were
each worth 1 centa instesd of $5. He
thought he had been tricked and threat
ened the company with a lawsuit. The
officials replied that there was now no
?;aa engines thst give a 75 per cent fuel j money in mlnlrg and that he could have
iin ient, using one pound and a hair of me property hark as a gift. He took It
anthracite per hcuraepower per hour. This j nd for a time almost starved. He could
saves a great deal In a region where the J not get enough food for his Indian labor-
coal frciehts from the sea coast are from
$ to $'!0 per ton
I have already written of the mines of
T'otom that were opened up by the Bnan
iirds. Since their beginning they have
produced three or four billion doliara'
worth of silver, and It is now thought
millions or dollars more were thrown
nway In the tin which waa mixed with
the silver. The people did not understand
Ihe value of the baser metal. They could
rot realize that It might some day be
worth $1,100 a ton. which has been Its sell
ing price within tho last year, although
it is now very much less. So they took
out the sliver and left the tin on the
dumps, whence it haa been washed a may
by the streams. All this is changed and
the great profit la now In the tin. the
Totcsl owners having originated a syndi
cate to operate the property on a silver
basis. They wilt work the mines almost
solely for tin and will capitalise them
largely en their fame In the psst aa sil
ver producers
Thene are other tin mines of enormous
vslue In the Potosl district. I.a Kalva
dora has produced is much as 1,'ftO.ino
Pounds of pure tin In a month and the
Vncla mines are now yielding more than
a half million pounds of that mineral
era. Then the price of tin rose and he
was able to recapitalise the mine. He
organized a new company and the shares
sre now above par. Those which Kemp
has, at their face value, are worth at
least $125,000.
I have already written of the Bolivian
Exploitation and Development company,
the president of which Is Mr. Horace, G.
Knomles, our former minister to Bolivia.
Mr. Knowlcs tells me that his prospectors
have recently discovered a wonderful de
posit of stream tin In one of the Bolivian
rivers. The most of the tin now mined
here is In quarts, but thla stream tin Is
In nuggets and lumps from the aize of an
egg to that of your two flata or larger.
It la said to be very rich, containing 63
Ir cent of oxide of tin. The deposit runs
through the bed of a river for a distance
of twenty-six mllea
Deposits Sea reel r Toarbed.
Mr. Knowlea thinks that the tin of Bo
livla has scarcely been touched; he says
that his engineers are sending In reports
of many finds that promise to pay big
dividends upon their develoDment. Il
believes that when our canal Is completed
the tin ores of Bolivia will go to the
United Etates rather than to Europe. -We
are now using 0 or 50 per cent of all the
tin mined, and the tin we get from Bo
livia Is taken down to the seacoast In the
ore and shipped off to England, whero It
Is smelted and then carried across the
Atlantlo to be used In our factories. Mr.
Knowles thinks that the enormous can
ning industry of California should estab
lish Its own tin plate mills, and that tha
tin ore should go north along the Pacific
coast from the mines to the mills.
At present It costs about $ii0 to ret tin
from theae mines to Liverpool, and, of
this. $15 covers the freight to the sea
coast. The other $45 Is taken up In vari
ous charges. Including $1.1 for carrying the
ore from Antofagasta to Liverpool. The
distance to S.tn Francisco, Is Angeles
cr Puget sound Is very much less, and
the great saving In the charges of the
go-betweens mho handle the tin between
Kngland and the I'nlted States would
make a fine profit for the American fae
tories. We are now using almost $50.000..
000 worth of tin bars and Hocks every
year. The export of Bolivia is worth
much loss than this, and the T'nlted
States could take all of Its product and
sflll not have enough to satisfy Its de
mands.
In the meantime tin prospecting Is go
ing on In many parts of this country, and
the new railroads, now building, will open
up highly mineralized territories that will
probably increase the tin product. The,
eld mines are being re-equipped with
modern machinery, and many think that
the future output will be such that It will
drive the more expensive Mslaysisn tin
out of tha market. At present they are
using 1,500-pound stamps to crush the
hand-sorted ore. which Is then run
through screens of from six to sixteen
meshes rer Inch. After thst the tin Is
concentrated and shipped off to England,
In the past the ore haa been taken out
of tho earth In the most wasteful ways
Much of It was carried out of the mines
In buckets of rawhide, up ladders on tho
backs of Indians. Thousands of tons of
the richest ore were crushed between
stones and then washed out In streams of
rater by the Indian women. Much of
this ore so treated carried from 40 to 50
per cent of metallic tin; the lower grades
were rejected because they would not pay
for the labor.
Titles Are Xot erare.
Before leaving the subject of Bolivian
mining I would say that the future of the
country depends largely upon the passage
of the laws advocated by the president
and congress. Just now tho protection of
mining Investments In Bolivia Is not so
good as In Peru. There Is a regular busi
ness in the contesting of titles by the law
yers, and In fighting for mines that other
men own. I am told that there are many
shyster lawyers and others who make a
practice of laying claim to every mine
supposed to be good and of contesting Its
title as soon as It Is denounced. Said one
of the leading railroad men of Bolivia to
me yesterday: "I might go to the heart
of the backwoods in the eastern part of
this country and lay claim to a mine a
hundred milea from where any white man
ever trod. If I did so I venture that
within two days after that mine was a
matter of record there would bo a half
dozen applications filed, disputing my
title and swearing that the contestant
had record proof that he owned it. Thla
Is especially so of any mine, thought to
be good, and that even long after the
mine has been profitably worked. Not
long ago the engineers of the largest
American copper syndicate came to La
Pax and spent six months looking over
the ground. They found plenty of good
prospects, but refused to Invest under the
present iawa and went over the border
to Chile, where they could be sure of
their titles."
Lawyers Mast Be Watched.
"One has also to watch the papers that
nis own lawyers prepare making hla
claim," this man continued. "I know of
one case In which a big proposition was
almost lost by an error In tha descrip
tion. The lawyer in giving the feet or
meters from a certain point used the
word "northeast" where he should have
used the word "north." When the error
was called to his attention he said it was
a aiip of the pen, but had It been so r
corded it would have resulted in vltlat
Ing the title to a property worth hun
areas or thousands of dollars. I have no
doubt that that error waa intentional and
that with a view to a lawsuit In the fu
ture."
Moreover, any large property taken up
by a (ringo Is sure to have four or five
contests riled against it by people who
ih to embarrass the owner, and mho
expect to be bought off before they will
rrminuiBn ineir sun. 1 Know of a case
In which a Bolivian, who haa been suc
cessfully operating a mining property for
years, w-nt to London and sold his mine
to a British syndicate on the bssls that
the title waa clear. When he returned he
found that five different suits had been
filed, claiming the mine, and It cost him
$.W,000 to settle them."
tiuch things are injurious to tha de
velopment of Bolivia, but I hear of other
cases even worse. I am told, for Instance.
that tha notaries public sometimes issue
papers to themselves for the samo prop
ertlea concerning which they ara paid to
get tltlea for others, and antedate their
own rlaims. If tha mines turn out good,
they can then claim prior titlea. Another
method Is to leave some Important clause
oui so as io lurnisn ground for a suit
as to defect of title, and a third way is
to forge false pspers snd claims. I know
of many mines of value In Bolivia now
In the handa of foreigners that are cost
ing their owners much to defend them,
and It certainly behooves all Americans
coming here to Invest In mineral prop-
Y the wife
of the man
who does no
own his home
To you, a house and lot means far more than
a real estate investment. It means a home a place
where you must spend the greater part of your life an
influence which shapes the lives of your children and lends to your
own comfort and happiness.
How muck more pride you would take
in caring for a house that was your very own!
The furnishings, decorations, etc., would be of
your own choosing, The little improvements that you could make
from year to year to suit your own comfort and taste would add
interest and zest to life,
And then, the inevitable visit of the landlord
around the first of the month, the steady drain on the
family resources with nothing to show but a bundle of
rent receipts, would be things of the past.
Perhaps you don't know that you can
actually buy a home by paying just about the
same amount monthly tnat you would pay for
rent You have got to pay out this money anyway and what a sat
islactlon it "would' be after a few years to possess the title to the
place you live in, rathci-than nothing.
By this plan you would not only have a real
home in every sense of the word, but the yearly increase
in value of the property. Omaha real estate is a splen
did investment and those people with foresight are taking advantage
of the great opportunities now.
Talk this over with your husband to
day. Open the paper to the real estate adver
tisements in the classified section and place
them before him. Suggest to him that he owes it t(f you and to his
children, if you have any to take this step, No doubt he has al
ready given the matter a great deal of thought, but make your In'
teres t a little plainer to him,
THE OMAHA BEE
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(Coutiued on Page Twelve.)