El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1898-07-09


month the year round-S20. 600 for
every working day-S1 600 an hour
for each of the twenty hours daily
when the mine and mills are running,
for they run both day and night, winter
and summer, stopping only for Sun
days and holidays. The American
mines which could not be bought
outright with a single years profits
of the Calumet and Hecla could almost
be counted on the fingers of one hand
and two of them are neighbors of this
great property. The profits of the
Calumet and Hecla are probably equal
to q quarter of the net profits of all
mines of gold, silver, copper, iron and
lead in the entire United States.
The Calumet and Hecla owns mines,
stamp mills, shelters, railroads, docks,
steamers, water-works, sawmills, farms,
forests, a ship canal and cities built on
it's own land. Standing on it's proper
ty are nearly thirty churches-Catho-
lie, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Congre-
gational, Methodist, Baptist and other
denominations-in which the gospel is
preached in English, French, German,
Italian, Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish,
Slovenian and other languages. Each
of these churches the Calumet and
Hecla has furnished free site for, as
we'll as ground for parsonage, and
has helped to build by q cash donation
which has invariably been the greatest
!! in amount of any received for the pur-
pose.
Twenty thousand persons are depen-
dent directly upon this corporation for
ftheir bread and butter. earned by the
more than four Thousand wOrkmen
whose names are on the payrolls. The
wages are the highest paid in the cop
per district, and the men are never
Overworked. Employees of the Calumet
and Hecla receive higher wages than
are paid for similar work elsewhere in
the world, with the exception of South
Africa, Alaska ard some of the Rocky
Mountain mining camps. Deducting
the actual cost of living, an employe
of the Calumet and Hecla is better
remunerated for his labor than the
workman at any other mine on the
globe. Another 81, 100000 q year in
profits might be squeezed out of the
employees, and still leave their wages
above the average level, but there is no
disposition to do so.
The sums paid for labor and the an
nual dividends are about equal. There
are 2, 462 share holders by the latest
official report, who divide between
them s., DOC, 900 anuually-an average
of 81, 625 for each shareholder. There
are q number of single shareholders
who have millions invested in the
stock OF this one mine. while there are
hundreds who have but q single share
or two. Many of the employees of the
mine have systematically invested
their savings in the shares of the pro
perty for years, and through the steady
appreciation of the stock and the enor-
nous dividends returned, have grown
independent. One man who began
twenty-five years ago as surface Ia
borer at the mine, just over from Ger
many and without a dollar other than
earned with his hands. now owns over
five hundred shares, worth more than
$3.50, 900. Every dollar saved was in
vested, every dividend paid him was
made to buy more stock. There are
scores of old employees worth from &c.
600 to 500, 900 each, made in the same
way.
Calumet, of which the Calumet and
Hecla is the centre and by far the
largest niue has forty thousand people
and is divided for government pur-
poses into two villages-Red Jacket
and Laurium-and two townships
Calumet and Osceola. Calumet is I'M
questionably by far the largest town
in the country without city form of
government, yet the people prosper
without municipal airs.
The stamp mills are four miles from
the mine, on the shores OF Torch Lake,
and the rock from the mine is hauled
to thesmills in cars over q standard
gauge railroad as we'll ballasted, equip
ped and manned as the best trunk line
in America. The stamp mills are two
in number. the Calumet and the
decla, each having eleven steam
stamps. The Alaska-Treadwell mine
has 4S0 stamps, the Simmer and Jack
gold mine, near Johannesburg, South
Africa, has $50 and ia the largest in
the world, yet the twenty-five stamps
of the Calumet and Hecla could east
~ crush all the rock of both the
Tread-well and Simmer and Jack
mines. The gold-beariny quartz is
crushed by gravity stamps, while the
cOnglOmerate carrying the coppers is
pulverized by Ball stamps, where an
eighteen-inch piston is propelled by
steam at high pressure to strike blows
which make the earth CULVER for al
quarter of a mile about the mills.
The process of extracting the copper
from the rock is simple in principle,
but amid the acres of jigs, vanners
and slime tables the beholder is more
apt to acquire headache in striving
to grasp the immensely of the enter
prise than a clear idea of how it is
done. The rock, which has already
passed through crushers at the shafts,
is fed into hoppers which deliver it un-
der the stamp. From the mortar-box,
where it is crushed by the steam