The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-10-31
DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF BUTTE.

The fable of the fly and the wheel should be
rewritten, so as to appear like a true story. The
fy's contention that it made the wheel revolve is
we'll taken. The fly also babe the wheel to cease
moving and the wheel stood without motion. That
fable applies to Butte and the state of Montana.
The decision of a district Judge, the creature of
one of the litigants, outlaws the greatest indus
trial syndicate in the state, forces its managers
to close its mines and smelters, and throws out
of employment twenty thousand worknen. This,
too, on the threshold of a cold, pitiless Montana
winter.
Such condition is the result of litigation be-
tween T. Augustus Heinze the one hand and
the Amagamated Copper company the other.
To clearly comprehend its genesis, one must go
back to the political feud between Senator W. A.
Clark and the late Marcus DAILY That is too long
a story The curse of Montana is its politics, and
its politics is the will of the corporations. Far
better would it be if Montana were not a state,
but remained territory, and its people had
choice in the election of judges. If the citizens
of Silver Bow and Deer Lodge counties were dis
franehised, the Clancys and the Harneys would
not be elected by corrupted suffrage. If those two
counties of the copper belt were separated from
the rest OF the state and in territorial vassal-
age twenty thousand miners would be at work in
stead of walking the streets The complexion of
ownership of production would undergo no change
and there would be less booty in litigation Law
from the federal bench would be better. 1t GER
tainly could be no worse than the law interpreted
by state courts.
Representatives of the Amagamated company
claim that by the decision rendered by Judge VIII
liam Clancy in the Boston & Montana injunction
case, the Amalgamated Copper company is prac-
ticaly wiped out of existence and cannot do bust
ness in Montana. The decision, they say in effect,
brands the Amalgamated as an outlaw Its stock
holders are prevented from receiving dividends,
although 100000 are tied up and awaiting dis
tribution to the stockholders. The Amalgamated
people, finding that they are barred from con-
Quoting their own business, have ordered the sus-
pension of all mining operations in Montana. All
the mines and smeters of the company have been
ordered closed and today practically closed
The suspension also affects the constituent bust
ness interests of the company, in coal mines rail
roads, lumber, etc, in Montana Wyoming and
Idaho, so that all told twenty thousand wage
workers are deprived of employment. How long
the shutdown will continue is a matter of uncer-
tainty. 1t may take months before the dispute
reaches hearing In the supreme court
A few days ago the Miners union came for
ward with proposition to buy the minority shares
of John MacGinniss, vice president of the Heinze
syndicate, in the Boston & Montana and Parrot
to the end that litigation might be dis
solved and work resumed in the mines of the Anal
gamated company. In this proposition the union
was backed by Senator Clark and the bankers Of
Butte, but MacGinniss fed to Salt Lake to avoid
sL.h an arrangement. His sponsor, Heinze, made
a counter proposition which the Amalgamated
company could not accept without the loss of prop
erty valued at millions. Avarice and resentment
can never come together with amicable adjustment,
and so it is that Butte is in helpless and hope
less condition
What tomorrow may bring for Butte is only con-
lecture Without its mines it will become the abid
ing place of the coyote. 1t is likely its miners will
scatter over the country in search of employment,
for week after payday generally finds the Butte
miner pennile8s. No disorder has yet occurred,
and the union is pledged to peace. 1t is the first
time that trouble has happened since the union
was organized. No miners strike ever took place
in Butte. 1t is only couple of weeks ago since
the Amalgamated company joined its employees at
a celebration and barbecue in Columbia gardens.
TIE Mn IPlc9 PEp0PTEP