The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-11-01

the senate gold and silver in
quiry commission. conducted a
hearing in the district court room last
/ Monday. beginning at 10 o'clock. which
was attended by quite a large gather
ing which included operators. eXecu-
tives leasers. mining engineers, min
ers. prospectors and others directly
or indirectly connected with the min
ing industry. The hearing was opened
by c. w Newton, president of the
Idaho Mining association, who briefly
outlined its purpose and introduced
Mr.. Hamilton. In the course of
short address Mr.. Hamilton read the
bill creating the senate commission
of gold and silver inquiry, which is
composed of the following senators:
Senators eddie and Pittman. Of Ne
vada; Gooding. of Idaho; Walsh, of
Montana, and Sterling. of South Da-
kota The bill described the scope of
the inquiry the purpose of which is
to make study of mining conditions
with the view to determining the cause
of the decline in production of gold
tons to remedy the situation. In or
der to save time and get the facts
direct from representatives, of all
branches of the mining industry, Mr.
Hamilton had been selected by the
commission to hold public hearings in
the mining states of the west at which
all who were interested would have
e., he. Ac
of the gold and most of the silver
output of the country is produced in
connection with lead zinc and copper,
the inquiry necessarily included the
mining, smelling and refining of those
metals and their relation to the pro-
duction of silver and gold, which eX-
plains the hearing in this city After
explaining the purpose, Mr. Hamilton
closed by stating to the mining men
that the hearing was in their hands
and that he was here to report what
they had to say.
Easton Takes the Stand.
Stanley A. Easton. general manager
of the Bunker Hill & Sullivan COM
pany. was the first to he heard. Mr.
Easton's statement was the most com
prehensive introduced during the
hearing, and was in fact in great
measure representative of all the other
large operating companies of the dist
riot The information desired related
to costs of mining and mining condi-
lions during the past ten years, and
a comparison of the costs and con-
ditions that prevailed in 1913 witt
those that prevail today. In this con-
nection Mr. Easton submitted a tabu~
lar statement giving the cost of ma
terial used in 1913 with the cost of the
same in 1922. With these figures was
also given the tons of ore mined in
each of the years compared, from
which il was computed tnat the aver
age rost per ton of ore mined in 1913
was $O3S12 and in 1922 it had in
creased to SO.67S5. He also empha
sized the advance in wages in that
time from $3.50 per shift to $3.50 for
miners and all other wages in pro-
portion, and the loss in labor efiicien-
cy.
In the course of his statement Mr..
Easton gave some interesting facts re-
garding operations at the Bunker Hill
& Sullivan. He said that the annual
productiin of the mine was about 75,
600. 900 pounds of lead and 1900 900
ounces of silver, and that the mine
was in position to maintain this pro-
duction for several decades, though
operations would of course become
more difficult and costly. There had
been no decrease in production of sill
yer on account of the low price. but
there had been a marked decrease 1
of production by subsidiary companies
in which silver was the chief product /
Statement by Mccarthy.
James F. Mccarthy general man
ager of the Hecla Mining company,
followed Mr.. Eastin and confirmed
his statements regarding mining costs /
and conditions at this time as COM
pared with those of ten years ago. He
said that Hecla normally produced
annually about 100000 pounds of
lead and 1900, 900 oun. silver, and that
the lead represented about IS per cent |
of the value if the product and silver
25 per cent While profits have suf- /
fered by the low price of silver there /
has been no decrease in the com
panys output on that account. Mr. |
Mccarthy thought federal taxes were
unjustly burdensome TO the mining /
industry and referred to his eXper
fence in adjusting the Hecla taxes. |
Regarding the policy of the forestry |
bureau toward the mining industry, |
he said it was seriously obstructive /
in connection with securing patent for |
mining claims on forest reserves, and !
gave as an example a case in which he /
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