The Wolf Point herald. (Wolf Point, Mont.) 1913-1940, 1931-01-16
REVOLUTION IS
PLAIN ROBBERY
MONTANA BOY IN CONTACT
WITH SOUTH AMERICAN
OUTBREAK


10000 feet above the sea, the To-
cation of the worlds greatest tin
mine, the recent revolutionary
outbursts of South America broke
forth in riots that sent a Mon
tana School of Mines graduate
fleeing for his life into the noun
tains on an early morning a few
weeks ago. Jacob J.. Brunnnef,
research fellow in ore dressing at
the Montana mining college, re-
Gently received a letter from John
J. Mccarthy, a friend of his in the
class of 1929, now an efficiency
engineer for Patino Mines and
Enterprises Consolidated in the
Andes, who tells of his travels and
adventures since graduating as a
mining engineer.
Excerpts from the letter follow:
cat present l am working for a
tin mine up in Bolivia-and |
mean up. We live at an elevation
of 1900, and the mine is all
above this level, extending to 49,
300 feet. 1t is the largest single
tin mine in the world. Right
now in slack times there are over
5000 men in the mine, about 1000
on the surface and another 1000
in the mill. The whole mine is
run by about twenty Americans.
Ordinarily the place is pretty
dull, but when excitement does
come 1t is in entirely too violent
form. You might have read in the
papers about the revolution in
Bolivia. Until recently most Of
the fighting has been confined 10
the bigger cities, but about three
weeks ago an organized outbreak
occurred here.
"The night shift, coming off
shift early one morning and lead
by a few communistic agitators,
decided to attack and ransack the
offices and homes of the foreign
ers. 1t seems they were led to
believe that by getting rid of the
gringos (Americans), either by
running them out or killing them
off, they could then take over the
mine, run it to suit themselves
and share in the profits. They
were a little slow in getting start
ed with their attack, and we man
aged to get wind of what was up
and cleared out. I myself just got
out the back way, with nothing
but a pair of pants over my pa
and a pair Of shoes on. be-
fore the rocks began flying
through the windows.
1.-THE semi-darkness of the early
hours of the morning aided US
considerably. We walked to an
other small town a few miles
away and stayed there for the
lay, and by night time we heard
hat the government had sent n
1 troop of cavalry and. without
much fighting had dispersed the
nobs. Since then there has been
sign Of further trouble. There
ire $50 soldiers stationed here.
According to Mr.. Mccarthy, the
nobs in their fury ransacked and
wrecked the officials homes. And
he huge company store-"well,
he mobs just packed away that
,lace, men. women and children
;arrying off every damned thing.
The loss IS well over S150,00O. In
ess than one hour there vas a
omplete turnover Of all stock on
and. I'll bet there are few stores
which can show such a quick turn
Before l came to South Amer
ca, l had been in Mexico on a
ong-shot prospecting job down IN
he state of Jalisco. There are %
tates in Mexico and I managed to
ee Is of them. When the pros !
fell though, l came back /,
D the States, entering at Ell Paso. ]
Ell Paso l met a fellow who !
ffered to get me In touch with
MS company. / stayed there a I
eek or two and landed this Job,
0 instead of going back to Ari-
ona, l went east TO New Orleans /
the Sunset Limited. The two !
eek voyage was as good a I
NO weeks as l have ever spent. 7
came up to Bolivia about a dis j.
OF 500 miles on a railroad !
cross the Andes. starting at +
ntofagasta, the main shipping
ort for nitrates and copper from
Northern Chile"