Graham guardian., 1917-08-03

which is kept waxed and used for
dancing. The mining company
keeps this up. The town and min
ing company have organized an
excellent band and orchestra,
which plays for a dance every
Wednesday and Saturday nights
and which is free to all soldiers.
This mine was worked by the
old Spanish Fathers 200 years
ago. The ore was taken by boat
to Cornelia, Spain, and smelted
there. After machinery was in
troduced and other mines nearer
to the railroad were opened, this
mine was abandoned. When
this company took it up, they
bIilt a railroad 46 miles from
Gila Bend, on the Southern Pac-
itic, and spent Sc, COO, COO getting
the mine and teaching plant in
shape. The town was planned
after the town of Cornelia,
Spain, and when the company
finally finishes, it will be a dupli-
cate of the Spanish town and
will be beautiful place.
The plant uses the teaching
system and is one of only three
in the United States that is able
to turn out practically pure cop
per, which is available for con-
sumption without any further
! process. i4e p!anC d! present is
putting out practically 100, 900
pounds per day and will increase
this amount in short time. This
is very valuable asset of the
Government during this war and
it is a source of satisfaction to
everyone that the recent threat
ened strike did not materialize.
The employees are all seeming
,, ly well satisfied and when the
/. w. w. organizers came here,
the property owners and business
men Immediately organized an
association with a membership of
practically everyone of those
classes in the district. The en-
ployes of the company, union and
non-union, Immediately formed
a loyalty league and gave notice
to the l. w. w. that they were
not wanted and would not be
tolerated. A number of public
meetings were held and the stand
was taken by everyone that, re-
gardless of local conditions, or
real or fancied grievances, pa
triotism should rule this camp
and no strike permitted until af-
ter the war.
The union men took a very
prominent part in this, the presi-
dent and secretary of the local
union presiding over one of the
meetings called by the Loyalty
League.
The district includes two ad-
joining townsites, Gibson and
Charleston. The people are hos
pitable and prosperous and have
been more than kind to our COM
pany. The boys have been en-
tertained, furnished with bats
and balls, mask and boxing gloves
by the citizens. The company,
in addition, has offered to assist
us in any way that we needed it.
From the above it will be un-
derstood why Company B is
ready to vote for Ajo as the best
station on the border. We will
hate to leave and hope that we
will not have to leave until we
are required to go to the front.
The weather is warm here, of
course, but we have not felt it
worse than at Douglas or Naco,
and we have the advantage of
having good breeze all the time
without any dust.
| neglected to state that the
mining company is building a
very large and handsome hospi-
tai, which is practically complet-
ed, which is to take the place of
the present, hospital, which was
built when the camp was first
organized. The town has a bank,
a large furniture store, a modern
drug store, billiard hall, ice cream
parlor, moving picture show, a
large general store, besides other
grocery stores, soft drink stands,
harness shop, tailor shop, bot
tling works, garage and a STAN
dard Oil Company distributing
station.
In fact, when the hotel, now
being built is completed, Ajo will
be an excellent little city, pre-
pared to take care of quite a
large population.
| did not mean to write so
much, but myself and the entire
company have fallen in love with
Ajo and it's people, and we want
the folks at home to know how
pleasantly surprised we were
when we arrived and how COM
Portable the boys are.