The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-12-04
WORK ON THE NEW PLANT
1t Will Be in Operation in
January.
. FIRE-PROOF BUILDING
The Mines at Belt Have Been Working
on Half Time-Improved Machinery
for the Washing liant Miners
Union Elects Oficers.

Special Correspondence of the Standard.
Belt, Dec. l.-Work on the new coal
washing plant is being pushed rapidly
toward completion, and IL is expected
that very soon after the beginning Of
the new year, the humming of its ma
chinery and the cheerful blaze from
the coke ovens will herald the return
Of prosperity and happiness to the
greatest O camp i'm Montana. The
steel frame work of the building prop
er was completed several days ago and
the brick walls are mounting up above
the third story. II had been the in
tention of h company to use a steel
frame work and brick walls for the
entire building, thu making it abso-
lutely ~fireproof throughout. Owing to
their inability to have either orders
filled for all of the steel until far
along i'm the new year. they have de-
cided to use a wooden frame work for
the outside storage hoppers. The tim
hers and lumber for these parts of the
building have all been received and
the framing is nearly completed. The
portions of the building which are to
be built of wood will be filled. the
greater part of the time, with dump
GAL from the mine or that has just
passed through the jigs. The timbers
viii be more or less saturated with
water and the building practically fire.
proof from top To bottom. The new
building covers only about two-thiros
of the site where the old washer
stood. However. the greatly improv-
ed machinery and the cOmpac way
i'm which il will be placed in the build
ing will make the capacity OF the new
mill equal to If not greater than the
old Much of the new machinery is
already in the build NJ and more is
arriving daily. At present the mines
are working but half time. IL Is be-
lieved this H. occasioned by the fact
that every hour the mine works row
the company loses enough slack and
coking coal To cover the cost of run
ming the washer for the same period of
time. This loss is not confined to the
company alone. as the miners have to
handle, for nothing, probably one ton
of coal to the man per day for which
they would receive pay were the WASH
er running.
On Tuesday evening the Belt Creek
Miners union held an election of Of
ficers. which resulted as follows: viii
liam F~orsythe. president: Il. Cassidy,
vice president: J.. y. Madigan. record
ing secretary and conductor; william
Bowen. financial secretary: Dan Sar-
ders. treasurer; John GIogan. warden:
John Forsyth, trustee. IL months.
There was quite an animated but
friendly rivalry between William Boz
wen and william Dick for the nanci
secretaryship. OF course, politics are
not allowed to enter into the meetings
of the Miners union. and IL is not our
desire to create a wrong impression
when we mention the fact that Mr.. Bo-
wen. the successful candidate, is a
democrat. while Mr.. Dick, who suffer
ed defeat. is "A populist. AT the recent
election Mr.. Dick was a candidate for
constable on the populist ticket. We
do not think il was Mr.. Dicks fault
i'm either election that he was defeated,
but we do consider IL as good evidence
that there are many good men i'm the
camp whose ability and brains are not
recognized the epople are nat
urally suspicious regarding the sanity
barren pasture of the populists. To
go back to the Miners union, however,
IL Is a matter of much regret that the
union does not seem to be prospecting
as il should. They have a splendid
building here. They were the prime
movers i'm the creation of a free pub
lie library that would be a credit to
towns many times the size of Belt.
Interest in the affairs of the union and
I'm the library. however. seems to have
almost died out. This Is not az 4
should be. 1t is to be hoped that with
the coming of the new year, new in