The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-08-18
WE CAN'T BELIEVE 1T

Since the unprecedented rise in thC
price of lead, the lead companies Of
this county have been paying theil
employees each pay day bonus indie.
pendent of their regular wages, in
stead of a wage increase. The mer
have gladly accepted this bonus, moi
as a gift but because they believe they
are entitled to a fair share of the
companies prosperity, The policy
has created a good feeling between
employers and employees, and because
of the additional money paid the EN-
ployes, business of all kinds in the
Lead Belt has been helped, for the
miners are free spenders But it APP
pears that for some reason a feeling
of uneasiness is beginning to take
hold of the people in this prosperously
blessed industrial section of our coun-
ty through rumors vague or other
wise that the companies contemplate
cutting out the bonuses.
We don't know that there is any
ground for such rumors, but certainly
there is no ground for the discontin-
uance of the policy unless the COM
panies are thinking of introducing a
better in the way of stated regular
increase in the wages, based upon the
output and the liberal market price
of their finished products. That the
companies are highly prosperous I'M
der present conditions is seen on ev-
cry hand by the new and better mills
being erected, and the more modern
and labor-saving machinery that has
been installed, which naturally re-
duces the number of operators and
cheapens the finished product. Then
too, practical evidence of the lead
industry's forehandedness was given
but short time ago when one of the
companies, that had been struggling
along for years under heavy bonded
Indebtedness of over $4,000, 900, wiped
out that debt. So that with better
mills, labor-saving machinery, less
men to operate the mines and cheap
ening of the finished product, there is
no apparent reason for paying the
men less than their regular wages
with the bonuses that have been given
them for several months.
There was time in the history of
these companies when the cost of pro-
duction must have been greater than
it is today with all the improved and
iabos-savihg machinery, when lead
had to be hauled to shipping points
by wagon and team, and when the
price of lead was only about one-half
or less of what it is today, and yet
the lead industry fiourished and grew
until it represents between $40,-
900, 900 and $5O,O00,OOO in wealth. 1t
is doubtful if there ever was a year
in the, history of the lead industry in
st. Francois county when the mines
did not produce net income, and the
price of the finished product has been
as low as or 2A cents pound. With
better, larger and cheaper facilities of
production, with railroad transporta-
ton right at the very mouths of the /
shafts-one of the companies owning
its own railroad which was construct
ed with the surplus earnings of its
mines-why should they be thinking
now, with the present demand for and
The price of lead, Of reducing the pay
Of their employees by withholding the
bonuses they have been encouraging
them with the last few months? 1t
is incomprehensible; there certainly
cannot be anything in these rumorsl
that we hear,