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Show REDCCTIOi" WORKS. It is announced in Eastern papers that Mr. Balbach, of "ewark, New Jersey, is intending to erect reduction works at Omaha. These works arc designed for Utah and Colorado ores. It is deemed wiser to reduce them in Omaha than to pay the freight on the heavy waste material which adheres ad-heres to the metals as they are taken from the mines. If the saving on freight from Omaha to New Jersey will pay for the erection of reduction works at the Missouri river, it would surely pay still better to save the freight on such waste on the thousand and odd miles between here and that point. Why should not Utah ores be reduced in Utah, and have the money retained in the Territory that is now paid for such freight? It is not because be-cause fuel is not as easily got at here, nor that labor is so much higher than at the Missouri. Omaha receives coal in large quantity from Wyoming, having it freighted hundreds of miles on the U. P. R. R. We have coal within seventy miles by rail, in abundance. abund-ance. Labor is plenty and easily got; and the cost for bringing here the necessary material for the erection of reduction works is not so great. These considerations should have weight with all interested in mining matters. Of the ores shipped at least fifty per cent, is dead and useless freight. Suppose twenty car loads, or two hundred hun-dred tons, per week is shipped through this city. At lean two thousand dollars dol-lars weekly is thus paid lor freight, taking that to San Fram isco as a basis. Figure up and see what the amount would be for the six months of each year, during which shipments could be freely made ; and then calculate how much this amount retained in the Territory Ter-ritory would aid and incieaws business i.if every kind. The matter is a most important one."" If it is put off from month to nuntb, cities at a distance will simply obtain by energy and enterprise enter-prise the wealth which might have been retained in Utah. |
