The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-12-20
|A.s.&R. Co. VS.. B. Has.
BRADLEY 0N.THE ISSUES
coRREcTs STATEMENTS WHICH
HAVE BEEN GIVEN WIDE
PUBLICITY.

F. w. Bradley, president of the Bun
ker Hill & Sullivan Mining & Concen-
trating company, has written letter
to the Engineering and Mining Jour-
nal under date of November IA to
stakeholder, in which he summarizes
the points at issue. between his COM
pany and me American Smelling
Refining company. as follows:
Dear Sir-I have your letter of 9Th
inst. with clipping from Wall Street
Journal of Sth inst. regarding above
litigation, which l have read and here
with return
The suit referred to in the clipping
was started last August in the effort
to prevent us from smelling our own
ore in our own smelter, which started
up operations July 5th last A petit
ton was made for temporary injunc-
ton pending the outcome of the litiga-
ton, which resulted in a preliminary
hearing before United States Judge
Woolverton in Portland, Ore. on 7th,
Sth and 9th inst. Judge Woolverton
row has the matter under considera-
ton, and will render an opinion at his
convenience. In the meanwhile, our
smelter is in continuous operation.
The plaintiff, in effect, charges that
1t was the real purchaser of our in
terest in the Tacoma smelter; that the
purchase was made with the idea OF
securing all our ore for period of %
years, SO that we would not again go
into. the smelling business for that
length of time; and that the only rea-
son we have gone into it again is be-
cause our cupidity was aroused by the
recent war prices for lead.
On the other hand we contend that
plaintiff was not the real purchaser;
that all our product was not covered
by the 25-year contract; that we in
Cured no obligation not to again go
into the smelling business; that ecu
pidity" had nothing to do with the
building of our smelter, as we began
the work before lead had reached the
recent war prices; and that one of the
smelter was because the American
Smelling & Refining company had so
suppressed competition that we could
find no market whatever for such of
our production as was not covered by
the 25-year contract
Our legal defenses have been very
briefly summarized by Mr.. NJ A. Fol-
som as follows:
Our 25-year smelling contract was
made in 1905 with the Tacoma Smelt-
ing company. Until 1912 this company
received part of our ore at it's plant at
Tacoma and diverted the balance to
the smelters of the A. S. & r. COM
pany. In 1912 the Tacoma Smelling
company abandoned it's lead plant and
since that time all of our ores have
been diverted to the A. S. & r. COM
pany. We have not had a contract
with the A. S. e. r. company; but it
seems that in June Of this year. after
we had completed our smelter, the A.
S. & r. company procured an assign
ment of the Tacoma contract and is
now seeking to enforce it in the name
of the A. S. & r. company. The Ia
coma company with whom the con-
tract was made, has no plant now in
which 1t could handle our ores, and of
course will not be damaged if we smelt
our own ores.
I'VE contend that the contract could
not be assigned without our consent,
because it imposed financial obliga-
lions upon the Tacoma company, and
we had right to say that we would
not look to any other company for the
performance of those obligations. The
supreme court of the United States
seems to have held that a smelling
contract like ours can not be trans
ferred by one smelling company to an
other.
But in any event our contract was
amended in 1907 so that the Tacoma
company agreed to pay us during the
life of the contract for lead in our ore
the price for lead made by the A. S. &
r. company in New York City on the
date of any shipment. In other words
the Tacoma company and our company
agreed to let a third party (the A. S.
& r. company fix the price for the
lead each day and we would settle ac-
cordingly Now the price fixer claims
to have taken an assignment of the
contract and seeks the aid of the court
to compel us to deliver lead ore to him
during the next ~ years at the price
which he shall himself fix"
AS to the other matters mentioned in
the clipping from the Wall Street
Journal of Sth inst, our ores have
never averaged as high as s ounces of
silver and IA per cent lead as stated;
but thew have ayera eed annroyinoatalxl