Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1886-11-27
"COrTeBpOuUcuCe OF tue
THE ANACONDA NATTER.
A Statement Of the Situation From
One Who Has Been on the
GrOund.

ANACONDA, Nov. %, 1886.
This morning about 10 o'clock your cor
respondent was admitted to the Anaconda
Company's office where he found General
Manager DAILY.
After the greetings OF the day had been
exchanged, the question wal asked how
was the strike getting along. He replied
that there was no strike at the works.
"How many men have you employed,
Mr.. Daly?"
"Weli, 1 can't say" Turning to the
~bookkeeeper he asked, HAS the time
keeper made his report yeti"
"He has not, but there were 1875 men on
the pay roll yesterday and we have from
As to so additional men. That would
make a total OF 1885," answered the time
keeper.
employed, Mr.. Daly?"
for yourself. You have never been through
the concentrator."
Your correspondent was then shown
through the smelter.
In furnace room, No. /, he found the
fire in nearly all the reverberatory furnaces
while only three OF them were ready to be
charged with ore. The others were being
gradually heated up. In this building
about 25 men were employed, some heating
furnaces, others getting charges ready and
a few repairing the furnaces. Plenty OF
roasted ore was seen in the larger ore bins.
He noted that there was not over 200 tons
of coal in the entire furnace room.
The next visit was made to No. 2 furnace
where all the furnaces were found to
be lit up, with one or two exceptions. Men
were busy preparing charges for two OF
them. Here were found about 600 tons of
coal and about 20 men at work. Mr.. DAILY
gave orders to see that all were fired up,
for, he said, it would take about four to
five days to get them hot enough to smelt
ore.
After being shown through the furnace
rooms q visit was then made to the con-
contractor works where the steam stamp
was viewed. Here two men were busy
feeding it by simply lifting a hopper gate
and letting it u dow q chute into the
large cast iron cylinder at therate of about
200 tons per day. They claim a crushing
capacity Of 800 ions perday.
The ore from the steam stamp was car
ried on tables to be concentrated. while in all
directions could be seen men busy at work,
others at work attending to the tables, and
also a number of carpenters were busy
getting additional tables ready.
Mr.. DAILY said that when the order came
to start the " orks he was taken unawares,
and had only a few tables ready. The
water boxes were out of repair and all
leaking. and it would take from ten to if
teen days to get everything in irst-class
running style. AS a section Of the new
tables are finished the water is turned on
them.
The water troughs leaked very badly and
made it unpleasant to 60 through the
the south end of the concentrator, where
men were busy preparing new tramways
and elevators which were being put in place
with a view OF saving labor. II the new
improvements will work to advantage,
which to all appearance it was doing, the
same style Of machinery will be ordered
for the new concentration, which has no
machinery in yet. Mr.. DAILY estimated
that a saving OF $50 men would be made
in the old concentration.
After being shown through the engine
room, and also where the turbines are at
work, a return was made to the company's
office, where a number OF men were waiting
to see Mr.. DAILY, with notes from some mer-
chants of the town, recommending the
bearer, and asking him to put the bearer
to work, az he wal a man OF family. All
those who made application were told to
hand in their names, and when they were
able to make room Tor them, word would
be communicated to them.
Tit question was asked Mr.. DAILY when
the mines would be started. He said:
Just as soon as | can get the ore bins
empty OF the ore on hand, for [ have made
arrangements to crush the ore at the
mines to a small size, and then the steam
stamp can do twice the work it is doing
now. Do you see those engines ?" pointing
to a doubls-header which was drawing rs
loaded cars up from Stuart. well. sir, in |
twenty days from now l will see the steam
rising from q train coming or going from /
l will lave from 500 to 900
men employed at the works here, and from
400 to 5OO at the mine probably by to-. |
morrow night. I shall send word to start |
up the mines. Ny greatest difficulty now
is coal, which won't arrive before next |
Sunday, and [ don't care to charge the
furnaces before that time. for fear of al
snow blockade in Beaver Canyon. Inside |
of thirty days we will be treating 1000
tons OF ore per day. As for men, i can get
pate any"
What about the reduction of wages at
the mines?"
There will be none. Have you heard
the report that the miners from the mines
say that they would not mine ore to sup
ply the smelter?"
There is nothing in it, I assure YOU.
The miners will go to work whenever the
order is given, which will be in a short
Mr.. Daily intends to remain on the
ground, so that if any difficulty arises he
will be there.