Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-10-08


limits of the town everybody who seems
to be looking for trouble. Therefore, the
justice of the peace has very little to do.
His office is almost a sinecure
What Is Done for the People.
The population of Calumet is almost ex-
clusively composed of foreigners. 1t is
asserted that thirty-seven different Ian
guages are spoken on the street and that
a considerable number of the inhabitants
cannot speak English. There are thirty
churches in the city, counted twenty
one spires-representing almost every
known form of religious worship. Each
race and each denomination represented
among the mine employees has been given
a site and a liberal donation toward the
erection OF a church. The management
encourages religion as the foundation of
morality harmony, industry and prog
ress. 1t provides free schools of the very
best grade and of great variety for the
same reason. 1t is said that the en-
ployes of the Calumet and Hecla Mining
Company can get any kind of an educa-
ton they may desire on the ground.
There is a manual training school and a
technical school at which the company
trains Its own engineers and mechanics.
A fine new building is now being erected
in the place of an old one which burned
down year ago.
The company furnishes gymnasium
with instructors in physical culture to
promote the muscular development of it's
employees with one of the finest hospitals
in existence for the care of the sick and
injured, with a model equipment and at
tending salaried surgeons from the medi-
cal schools OF Boston. Free bath houses
stand side by side with a free library in
which the employees of the company can
find newspapers, periodicals and books
from every city in Europe in all the lam
guages they speak. Rooms are provided
for social clubs and amateur dramatic
| performances, literary and debating So
| cieties, singing societies, dancing clubs,
and for every other form of intellectual
and social amusement, which are encour
| aged as part of the system because they
! promote contentment among the en-
| ployes.
| The brass band of the Calumet Com
| pany claims to be the third, If not the
! second in excellence in the United States
! 1t yields supremacy only to Sousa's and
! the Marine Band at Washington. 1t took
| the first prize at an international saen-
! gerfest at Milwaukee two years ago, and
/ claims TO have much improved since. The
performers wear the costume of miner
! with little safety lamps in their hats
| They went to Boston not long ago for a
| series of concerts and made d great hit
! The instruments, the music and the uni
! forms are provided by the company, and
! the members of the band receive their
| regular wages While on concert tours or
| at rehearsal.
| There is foot ball club, a base ball
| team, track team and various other
! athletic organizations among the men,
| and military battalion, with an arm
| DRY, drilled by a competent officer. The
! battalion goes into camp once every
| summer and the wages of its members
/ go on just the same.
Declared to Be an Ideal Community.
| The Calumet and Hecla Company
III r., hot
1T has paved every street and alley
in the town and has built model tene-
ments for its employees, with perfect
sanitary arrangements, an abundant
| supply of pure water, and every other
| convenience and comfort that Will pro-
mote the health and happiness of its
! men and their families The rentals
for these houses are merely nominal
81 a month per room-which makes
| the average expenditure for rental only
| SO or 81 month per family. where it
| would be SO or $50 elsewhere Free
| medical attendance and medicine Is
| furnished by the company to the fam
| HES of Its employees in case of accident
! or sickness; it gives pensions to the
! aged and those who are crippled In
1 is service, and provides for the widows
! and the orphans OF the dead
For these reasons Calumet is de-
| clared to be an ideal community, the
| best mining town in the world, where
| the miners are paid the highest wages.
| are better housed and cared for, and
| receive better treatment than in any
| other mining community in any land.
| In return for all this the company
| demands q certain amount of labor and
| absolute observance to its rules. The
| only penalty, however, is dismissal and
Punishment. No man can live in CAL
umet who does not work for the min
ing company, or have its permission
10 stay there. If he gets drunk, or Is
quarrelsome, or wastes his wages. or
III treats his family, or becomes insub-
ordinate, or is guilty Of any other sin
of commission or omission, he Is fired.
And there Is no court of appeal.
Attitude Toward Employees.
There are no unions. Calumet is an
open town. There is no formal prohibit
ton of unions. and, indeed. the men
are encouraged and assisted 20 form
mutual benefit and other benevolent
societies. but such organizations are
not permitted to say anything about
wages or hours of labor or anything of
that sort. And the company deals
with its men individually and not as q
mass. Ingenuity. intelligence, indus
try, and all forms of special service are
literally rewarded. and there are sew
eral remarkable examples Of the pro-