The Goldfield news and weekly tribune. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1911-1947, 1914-10-17
Humanitarianisn Is SholUn

Nothing can be gained by a attempt to disguise tile fact that the
copper mining industry of the United States is suffering severely
through the operations of the great war in Europe. The demand for
copper has fallen off and the price has dropped to a point that takes
away the profits OF mining the metal Out of this condition, however,
has developed a humanitarian feature that should have a wonderful APP
peal for the workingmen OF the country. In the Michigan copper
zones the great copper mining companies have cut off dividends to
stockholders in the interest of the men iii their employ, and practically
the same thing has been done in Butte. There the copper companies
instead of closing down until the price of copper shall rise, ae con-
tnung operations in order to give employment to their workingmen
This is the side of the corporaton-the humanitarian sde-from
which praise is usually withheld, especially by the agitators who fatten
off of the discomfort they promote. 1t is, therefore, with real pleasure
that the Tribune quotes from a recent issue Of the Anaconda, Mont.
Standard an editorial that sets forth the conditions now prevailing il
that camp. The Standard says:
Copper is now selling at a tifle under IL cents a pound.
Every one familiar with the copper industry knows well that there
is no profit in mining copper at that price. 1t would be to the
great financial advantage Of the mining companies to keep their
copper ore in the ground until such time as the war is over and
copper can be sold at a fair profit.
Blu. instead of doing that the mining companies of Butte are
keeping up operations and thus giving employment to thousands
OF men who would otherwise be in actual want, with no means of
supporting their families. 1t is the employment of the men in the
mines which is keeping Butte going in these har1 times and pre-
venting a trying situation from becoming IN industrial crisis.
With the mines in operation, the business and industrial life of
the community is maintained. Thousands of people are saved
from great suffering, many are saved from utter ruin, through the
policy of the mining companies in continuing to mine copper when
the price received for their product is scarcely sufficient to pay
wages.
There ae those in Montana who never slight a chance to give
an ilnatured fling at the Amalgamated and other mining COM
panies and to do an unfnendly act toward the mining industry.
Whatever the mining companies do or do not do, these persons
roast them for it. By no chance can they ever find anything i'll
these companies to commend and they seek in every way possible
to misreDresent and embarrass them. Fairness IN the part of these
people toward the mining industry is not to be expected. But the
great citizenship of Montana is eminently fair-mnded and it has
full appreciation of what the mining companies are doing, at great
sacrifice, to keep things going during the hard times. There are
more and more people in Montana who are coming to realize that
corporations are far from being as black as they have been painted,
that they are not heartess and inlrman and that they do lots of
things for which they deserve great credit, although they are likely
to receive but very little credit