The daily sentinel., 1914-03-25
LOCAL MAN COMES
TO DEFENSE OF THE
COPPER OPERATORS
Editor Sentinel

/ Dor Leaders that the wages of Mon
/ tana copper miners are better than
in Michigan and that they do not
have TO live in company houses nor
trade at company stores. which gives
one the impression that they are so
1 compelled to do in Michigan.
Now, ! am not writing to defend
the mine owners. but to state a few
/ facts and conclusions | came to in
over six weeks right in Calumet &
/ Hecla grounds. The house in which
! | stopped was Groom house. four
/ rooms on the first floor and two
/ above. There was a full basement
with cement floor. with both hot and
cold water and toilet in the basement
and well lighted.
The first floor had hard. maple
floors, the kitchen had large heating
tank and sink and the house furnish
ed with the safety of water free; also
water for large garden. Al for the
sum of SO per month. A house such
as that in this town at that rate
would not pay the water rent and the
I taxes. They probably rent nearly as
I many houses as there is in this town
on scale of 81 per room. have
nephew working for the company
that could not get a company house
and he has TO pay sl2 per month for
> rooms upstairs and as to the COM
pany stores there is none in that
group of mines that know of. But
the employees have large co-opera-
tive store that pays 10 per cent on
the stock and 10 per cent on the
amount of money spent there. The
company maintains a hospital for the
employees, who pay 81 per month and
get free doctoring and medicine and
use of the hospital II needed.
They employ six or eight good doc
tors and the employees have a benefit
club to which they pay s per month
and for every dollar the employees
put in the company puts in one and
that entities one for disability for any
cause OF $50 per month for eight
months. The company also built a
large 4-story library and pays one
half of the maintenance; also have a
large bath house with large pool.
Anyone can go there by just paying
for the laundry of the towels, which
is two cents.
Another good thing of the company
is that anyone working there for 90
years gets a pension after co years
lof age and I observe thar all the lit
tie soft Jobs on the surface is filled
with old men. | talked to n man
that worked under ground. He said
he had always had good treatment
and thought the company were doing
the best they could on the value of
the ore mined. The six months prev
ious run the ore had not went more
than $2.25 per ton and was told that
it was only by the, most Improved ma
lchinery and economy that they paid
dividends. The ore at the depth they
are working now is all of low grade.
In fact some of the tailings of years
gone by is nearly as rich as the ore
they work now. BY the way, they
have assayed and measured up the
tailings OF past years and estimate
there is one hundred and ninety-two
millions of copper in the same for
which they are putting in re-grind
at the cost of half million and ex-
pect to reclaim the copper at a cost
of six cents per pound.
One new device they have just put
in is an immense drums in. which they
put in pebble stones and run the
pummice through that which makes
X finer and get great saving OF the
copper. The pebbles are imported
and are claimed TO be twenty times
harder than any in this country. I
saw one shipment of them which cost
s175, 900. The place was very quiet
while was there. The C. & H. had
100 deputies, so mounted, police. be-
sides detachment Of the state
guards. found out afterward that
| was shadowed for three days and
was ordered run in, but just before
the arrest was to take place | was
with my nephew and he told who |
was. The trouble with the strike.
the percentage of the men on the
strike was too small Too many
were satisfied with the conditions.
am writing soely of the C. & H.,
the only mine that has paid big. l
was told by men that know that the
dividends were only per cent on the
present value of the stock. The COM
pany is an immense concern as they
mine and mill 5000 tons of ore
day and ship itrfiyc miles to the mill
over their own road. Their taxes,
paid while / was there were s406,-
/ 900. 1t was n poor time to go there
to see the sights as one could not
step on their grounds without a per-
nit, guards everywhere. ! was only
in one hosting plant in which there
were four immense drums. One OF
without a splice. l was there when
the fire occurred and saw them ident-
ify the bodies from that terrible dis
aster | was not far from the build
ing when | heard the fire alarm and
went toward it, but could not see
smoke, so did not see the jam.
4 Tho citizens held a meeting next
day and raised 100000, but the uu-
ion leaders would not allow the dis
tressed people to take dollar OF II.
! They got two nurses that had no con-
nection with the Citizens Alliance to
distribute it but the federation had
men follow and If any was taken they
compelled them to give 1t back. One
woman told them she would like to
Il take it as she badly needed II. But
/ that she had only a boy to look to for
support and II she took 1t she did not
know what would become OF the boy.
That alone I think condemns the