The Great Falls leader. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1888-1900, 1888-12-11
ANACONDA.
Tho Leaders Spec ial Correspondent Visits
the Great Smelter City and Writes up
His Views on the Situation.
Special Correspondence of the LEADER

Special Correspondence of the LEADER
ANACONDA, Mont, Dec. S.-The situa-
ton since the closing down of the great
smelters on Thursday is decidedly
gloomy. A walk through the avenues of
the vast plant betrayed no sign of life.
Everything was cold and dead. The sud
den collapse of the strike Thursday even
ing, and the
RESUMPTION OF THEIR T1iROTTLEs
by the engineers, though it restored ami
nation to the yards, side-tracks, switches,
lines and stations Of the Montana Union.
did not cause q pulsation at the heart or
nerve q tremor of the leviathan that but
a few hours previously had supplied the
vitalizing oxygen and life current to the
two foremost mining and reduction
camps of the world. II is true the engi-
neers came off victorious. They succeed
ed in removing the hated master mecha-
mic. But at what cost!
How truly was it said by one of the
greatest field marshals Of the world?:
A wELI-ORDERED RETREAT
is often better than victory" Far bet
ter had it been for them, even with I'M
perious Ross to brook, to have had full
coaches and loaded cars, with their liberal
perquisltes Of overtime, amounting fire.
quently, with their wages, to $3.50 per
month, than the present prospect Of pull
ing empty cars over trafficless road
which cannot in the most favorable
aspect long employ one-half their num-
Der, if even they should not ere long be
dispensed with and the little, ''feeble,
puny thing at best" become as lifeless
and dead as the great Anaconda smelter
is today. 1t would have been more diplo-
matte on their part had the engineers put
themselves enrapport with the working
men Of Anaconda, upon whose co-opera-
ton they could safely count, and thus as
certaily secured what they sought with
out harming those two thousand en-
ployes, who, without any agency or blame
of their own, are now
MADE INNOCENT SUFFERERS
for the inconsiderate and precipitate
action Of the engineers who well knew
that once brought to stand still it was
no child's play to restart such vast
machinery, and that the company might
find it eXpedient to close the works for
an indefinite period; and the warning
factions Of this We're timely warned.
On Thursday it was telegraphed from
Butte that the trouble was passed and
the engineers would at once resume their
posts. 1t came too late. Both the engi-
neers and the Montana-Union managers
knew that the fuel and ore supplies at
the smelters were dependent upon the
daily deliveries from the cars and that
the railroad
TAXED no IT'S U TN[osr CAPACITY,
was scarcely able keep the works, in its
multifarious divisions, fully employed.
The stoppage was therefore unavoidable;
and it is authoritively given out here that
"a resumption will be delayed until def
mite arrangements have been made for {;
better reilway service than that furnished
in recent months" What this means can
not be misinterp-eted. On Wednesday
night, Marcus Daily, w order to avert the
impending disaster, offered to undertake
the management of the road between
Butte and Anaconda. This was heartily
approved by the business men and citi-
zens Of Butte and Anaconda, and by all
of the engineers who We're advised Of it
This
WOULD HAVE SAVED THE SME!.TkRS,
and been the best possible outcome OF
the disturbance for all parties concerned
Over this, too, there was caviling till i
was too late. What resource, therefore
is left to the great Smelter company
Confessedly no other than to build a roaC
of it's own from Butte to Anaconda, which
it is abundantly able to do. or join witt
, some other road in doing SO. the
III
, And l am authorized in the statement
that 10 event would be hailed with more
heartfelt delight by the citizens OF Ana
conda, than the first shricking OF the
Montana Central locomotives within the
echoing hills that on the north and soutl
, rise in gentle slopes, above one OF the
most beautiful, tlourishing and promisin!
towns Of the Northwest. That one 2
these events will transpire before the Al
aconda Smeltcrs again send up their sll
yer and copper-laden tlames,i is
, BEYOND ALI. p1sf,.\pvENTuRE.
1t NAV he safely assumed tnat q disaste
so far-reaching in its consequences ha
never before befallen Butte or Anaconda
or any other Of the thriving cities Of Mon
: tana. In Anaconda about two thousant
J men are suddenly disemployed; and no
one of the five orsiX thousand inllabltant
| is not more or less affected. In BUTT
about three thousand men are thrown in
to the streets. and all of her twenty thou
sand people .M.
{, FEEI. THE pAR.>LYZING CALAMITY.
That Anaconda will fail Of her prcdes
, tined glory and excellence, ] do not be
lieve The present ordeal NAY prove he
l purifier, and she will emerge there1ron
S fairer, brighter, and more prosperous thai
b before 1t is not too much to say tia
, Marcus DAILY and his entcrprislng asso
= ciates will do nothing that shall per'na
G ncntly iniure or retard the growth o
y their queen city of the mountains: and
may be taken as already verified that cv
o erything they do here will ultimately ad'
to the wealth, importance and metropoll
tan character Of Anaconda. And IT
t confidently predicted that the time IS no
remote when Anaconda and Great Fails
connected by bonds of steel. shall Dccom
the pride of our glorious Montana.
= Power s. Triggs are opened up with
full line of furniture. See their advei