The herald., 1897-07-28
OFFICE OF THE HERALD,
Los Angeles, July 81, 1897.

ing the amount of dividends paid by some
of the leading copper mines of the coun-
try:
The Calumet & Hecla copper mine of
Michigan paid a dividend of $40 per share,
or 81 100000 on the 9TH. This is double the
usual amount, and makes total of S49.-
900 in cash dividends by that famous
mine.
The Osceola copper mine of Michigan will
pay dividend of 500, 900 on the 18th, max
ing $2172, 500 in all.
The Quincy copper mine of Michigan
has declared a dividend of 81 per share, or
100000, payable on August 10TH This is
the third dividend of like amount this year,
the previous two having been declared on
January 22d, one of them being an extra.
That concluded the three years series of
extra dividends. The dividend to be paid
next month will make total OF $9'4o'ooo
given to stockholders.
The Boston and Montana Copper Mining
company of Montana has declared divi-
dend of SO per share, amounting to S4oO,O00,
payable August Goth. This is the third divi-
dend of like sum this year. The total divi-
dends paid by this mine since 1883 have
amounted to $6,2750O0. Prior to August,
1885, the capital was divided into 100000
shares. The number was then increased
to 125, 600 shares, and in June, 1894 to l5O,-
600 shares, which is the present number.
There was $2,075,000 declared prior to the
suspension of dividends at the close of
1891 and "a, 200 900 since their resumption in
June, 1894.
t1,a 1oc Ell ,,oeo pf tho prnI itorS'
mittee appointed to wind up the affairs of
the defunct City bank complimentary reso-
lutions were passed expressing the graft
ficaton of the creditors at the care, skill
and economy shown by the receiver, w.
J. Washburn and his attorneys, John T.
Jones and Messrs. Allen and Flint, in the
management of the liquidation.
The Chino beet sugar factory is now in
full blast. There are about 500 men en-
ployed in and about the works. The prob
abilities are that about So, 900 pounds of
granulated sugar will be produced this
year. The crop of beets is larger than it
has ever been. The output of sugar will
this year exceed the production of last
year by SO per cent. The probabilities are
that the factory will continue to run until
about next December.
+ + +
Various bicycle sundries have been
affected, both in price and quality, as a
result of the recent decline in the value
of high grade wheels. So far tires seem to
be most affected. Competition has become
so keen that some manufacturers are plac-
ing tires of low grade on the market
Lamps, cyclometers and other accessories
to the bicycle have shared to a greater or
less extent in the general reduction.
y
The number of silver dollars coined at the
United States minis during the last fiscal
year was q ,203, FOL, on which the seigniorage
or profits to the government amounted to
81, 1856, 104.
More than 100000 sewing machines are
made in this country annually, which is
80 per cent of the production of the world.
Nearly 100000 persons in one way and an
other make their living in this country out
of sewing machines. In no branch of
manufactures has a greater revolution
been wrought by the sewing machine than
in boots and shoes. In 1861 the first ma
chine for sewing on soles was put into
operation and a royalty of cents on shoes
exacted- By the aid of machines $50, 000,-
900 pairs of shoes had been made up to 1877
in the United States, and proba bly, an equal
or greater amount in Europe.
Suicides in the United States have in
creased in notable degree during the past
seven years. In 1890 the number of suicides
was 2040; in 1891, 1851; in 1892, 1850: in 1885,
4436; in 1894 1872 in 1895, $3.50, and in 1885,
6420. These figures demonstrate an in
crease in seven years of 44S0, or 319 per cent
since 1890. To enter into an analysis of
this increase would be to discuss sociologi-
cal conditions now existing, the enormous
pressure brought to bear on men by in
creased competition in the business world
the creation of labor-saving devices and
various other changes which of late years
have made the struggle to live greater than
1t used to be. A theory is also put forth
that the various forms of incontestable
life insurance policies now issued by in
surance companies has had much to do
with the increase in suicides.-Insurance
Critic.
table recently printed in the Spectator
prepared by Frederick l.. Hoffman, gives
the suicide record of the thirty principal
cities in this country for 1895 and 1896 The
total for the latter year was 1899, against
1926 for 1S95-an increase of 173, or about
9.5 per cent. The population of the cities
named was over 81 per cent of the total
population of the United States.
Nothing more forcibly illustrates the
tendency of the American public to be
influenced by popular clamor, says the
Argus than the readiness with which that
public classes fire insurance associations
with the various ''trusts" in commercial
enterprises. The Standard Oil company
the coal combination, the sugar trust and
a score of other allied enterprises, control
ling single product of universal consump-
ton and making competition impossible,
are quoted as sample trusts among which
insurance Is as reprehensibe as the worst.
In dozen states combinations of any kind
among the fire insurance companies are
treated by the lawmakers as inimical to
the public and prohibited under penalty.
And yet. an unprecedented examination by
men capable of ordinary discrimination
ought to reveal the fact that the various
insurance associations no more resemble
the commercial trusts than a company of
nome guards resembles an army of inva-
sion. The one is simply defensive, to pro-
tect vested interests; the other aggressive
Tor conquest, at the expense of the country.
Competition is not destroyed, scarcely af-
fected, by the tariff and kindred insurance
associations, for the existence of the two
or three hundred insurance companies of
various kinds renders, and always has
rendered, combinations on lines of excess
sive premium charges impossible The sole
object of the combinations which exist is
to prevent ruinous competition by the
reckless or the inexperienced, not to make
a monopoly price. The simple, historic