Semi-weekly herald., 1907-10-14

company itself upon a per cent basis.
The company carries half a page in
the Calumet evening paper. where any
house owner who wishes to sell or
any employe who wishes to buy can
publish an advertisement at the com
pany's expense.
The lights, water. paving, street
sprinklng and fire department are
paid for entirely by the company
There is compulsory insurance
system in which every employe is
required to invest certain per cent
of his wages monthly. but for every
collar paid by the employees the com
pany pays another dollar into the
found. This fund. which. according to
the last statement. now amounts to
$4,000. is in charge of a committee
Of employees, who have invested it in
he stock of the Calumet and Hecla
| company. and the dividends have 81.
ways been sufficient to pay all death
| and disability charges.
Thus you will see that the COVER l.
nent of Calumet is eminently pa
ternal, and. althouhg autocratic and
-ometimes arbitrary, it is benevolent
| md just.
The number of employees averages
about 1900. and, as ! have said, mar
all of them are foreigners.
The town is two miles wide ana
line miles long. 1t lies in three town
| hips and two counties. while on either
ide of it are two villages named Lau-
| .ium and Red Jacket. They are or.
| ganized like other villages in Michi-
san and many of the officials and en-
| Dloyes of the mining company !refer
10 live within their limits for various
reasons. the chief of which is that
they can obtain a title to real estate
n the villages, which they cannot do
in Calumet. The company doas not
-equire its employees to live in Its
own. but it will not permit anyone
| Use to live there.
| There is only one store in Calumet
lor a population of $4,000 people, 1t
'oes not belong to the company. ont
| ne proprietor understands its policy
md regulates his prices accordingly.
Most of the trading. however, is done
the villages. where the merchants
ire as Independent as they are in De.
rot or Chicago. and can charge what
| aver they like. Red Jacket has a
number of saloons. which are well
patronized by the employees of the
mines. who cannot get liquor in their
own town. Laurium is purely resi-
lence town, with very few business
| louses
The company does not attempt to
control affairs in either village. al
though its officials naturally exercise
much influence there
James MacNaughton, general man
ager of the company. autocrat, dicta-
tor and benevolent despot. was born
on the ground and entered the EN-
] ployment of the Calumet and Hecla
company when he was 16 years old at
wages of 80 cents a day. His first
| Job was to operate a brake on the
| machinery which hoists the ore from
| the mines Later he drifted away
rom the company, and finally settled
| own in the Iron Mountain mine on
the Menominee range which belongs
/ 70 he. al 81 u,
began there at the bottom also and
went to the top. making an enviable
| reputation. so that when the Calu-
net and Hecla company was compell
| ed to look for new manager it select
| ed its former brakeman. who has JUS
tilted the choice. During the second
year of his management the property
produced more copper and earned
| more money than any copper mine
that was ever worked. He not only
| increased the production. but crossed
500 names off the pay roll and lowered
| the cost of production from IL cents
to cents per pound The pay roll
Of the company is now $4,000 900
year. or 100000 a day, Sundays in
| cluded.
Mr.. MacNaughton is an autocrat.
| as have said. His authority is limit
ed in ony two respects. He cannot
| condemn an employe to death and
he rannot admit any person but an
emplNye to the mines. He has all
| other powers. Nobody can enter a
shaft belonging to the Calumet and
Hecla hining company without writ
ten orcer signed by Alexander Agga-
| siz, president. If Mr.. Aggasiz is in
Europe, Asia or Africa the applicant
will have to wait until he comes back.
Not more than three or four passes
are issued in year, and they are
given almost exclusively to scientific
men. the directors of the company and
large stockholders, who. however.
have no more liberties than any other
persons. The one exception is the