The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1916-03-09
BIG SMELLING COMPANY WANTS
LEAD ORE.

LEAD OnE'
Information that has leaked out dur
ing the past few weeks indicates tina
the independent attitude assumed BY
the American Smelling & Refining
company in respect to the renewal OF
contracts for Occur d'Alene lead silver
ore was largely bluff, and that the
big smelling concern is more eager fol
the product of the lead mines of this
district than 1t was willing to admit
about a year ago, when several i'm
portant contracts expired, At that
!. time it was not in a eonciliatory mood,
evidently acting upon the assumption
that the companies having contracts
to renew would have to accept its
terms. The proposal of the mining
companies to provide smelters for
their own ore does not appear to have
been taken seriously until 1t was too
late to call them off by more favor
able terms. That concessions have
since been made in order to stop in
dependent shelters and regain the
lead ores about to be lost is now an
open secret. 1t is stated that the A. S.
& r. company offered to renew the
favorable contract held by the Hercu
les to run for a long term, buy the
Northport plant at a figure that would
more than cover the amount spent by
the Days in purchasing and remodel
ing it and retain Harry Day at the
head of the Federal as long as he
wanted the place, or the smelling COM
pany would buy the Hercules and
Tamarack & Custer mines along with
the Northport smelter, and also in
clude Mr., Day as president and man
ager of the Federal indefinitely Either
OF these propositions are said to have
appealed strongly to the late manager
Of the Federal, who was kept on the
payroll until it was found that he was
unable to put either of them through.
1t is also stated that similar pro-
posals have been made by the A. S. &
r. company to the Bunker Hill &
Sullivan in an effort to induce that
company to abandon it's plan to erect
a smelter These overtures have prov
ed equally unsuccessful. The big
smelling company is therefore con-
fronted with losing the ore from the |
two largest lead producers of the dis
trict, in fact the two largest produc-
ers in the world, which reduces its ,
Occur d'Alene business to the output
of the Stewart and its own mines OPP
cialeu ny lue Feuefal company, ana
these, with the exception of the Morn
ing, are declining in Importance as ore
producers.
The A. S. & r. company is popular
ly credited with controlling the lead
market of the United States, and the
prediction has been made that the
mining companies which have defied
it and embarked in the smelling BUSH
ness will have the trust" to fight in
their product. But there
are other considerati that place the
matter in a different light. With the
two biggest lead producing mines
smelling their own ores and placing
the product on the market independ- !
ent of the trust" will there then be
"trust?" 1t would appear that with
this large addition, the independents ,
would prove a formidable rival to the ,
A. s. e. r. company, and the power of
that company, if it now has it, to fix
prices and control the supply and de-
mand would be at an end.
There is, however, one thing that
might operate to the advantage of the I
A. S. & r. company in it's fight to re- ,
tain control of the lead market, and =
that Is the restoration of peace in /
Mexico. 1t owns great lead mines in G
Mexico which are now closed down on t