Montana labor news., 1939-01-19
OPEN LETTER TO PRES.
ROOSEVELT FROM The
SMELTERMEN'S UNION
ANACONDA
President F. D. Roosevelt,
White House. Washington. d

ANACONDA
President F. D. Roosevelt,
White House, Washington, D. c.
Dear Mr.. President:
Inclosed you will find a clipping
taken from the Montana Standard
of Butte, Montana, December 13,
1888. (The article is reprinted in
this issue.) This paper is owned and
controlled by the Anaconda Copper
Mining Co. Ordinarily this clipping
would be on the financial page of
the paper but this clipping was
taken from the front page and
whether the statement in it is true
or not, we, the Anaconda Mill and
Smeltermen, know from past ex-
perience that when that statement
was taken from the back pages of
their paper and put on the front
page it is a warning to people who
are depending upon this industry
for living to be prepared for cur
tailment from one-half to two-thirds
of those now employed in Anaconda,
Butte, and Great Falls, in all about
ten thousand are now employed. In
other words, six or seven thousand
of us had better get busy and ask
Uncle Sam for bigger and better
WPA.
In the last seven years the U. S.
government has given to the Ana
conda Copper Mining Co. and in
direct subsidiary of ten million dol
lars in relief money to keep their
trained employees in good health
and ready for call whenever the
company needs them and the com
pany charged those same trained
men for water and light while the
government was feeding, clothing,
and paying their rent. They are
taking 81 to $3.50 per week out of
their small weekly wages to pay
their back water and light bill at
the present time. The government
has given the A. c. M. Co. another
ten million or more in direct subsidy
by raising the price of gold and
pegging the price of silver.
Furthermore, the A. c. M. Co. has
asked us, their humble employees,
time and time again to beg you, Mr..
President, to use your influence so
that copper wire would be used on
the Fort Peck dam and rural electri-
fication projects throughout the
United States.
Now with all the benefits and
handouts the Anaconda Copper
Mining Co. has received under your
administration, there is not a more
vicious, unfair, or untruthful group
of newspapers in the United States
against you and your administration,
as the ones owned and controlled by
the A. c. M. Co. and they own or
control SO per cent of the press in
the state of Montana.
Now the majority of the people |
who are involved in the curtailment
in Montana had an income of less
than $500 for the year of 1888. The
company ran at about 20 per cent
capacity for over six months. They |
jumped 80 per cent in October, 1888, |
making about 25 million pounds of
copper per month which will include
January, 1889, and after that-what? |
Now what applies to the A. c. M. |
Co. applies to every major smelling,
refining and mining company in the
United States more or less. Now,
Mr.. President, we propose to submit
to our senators and representatives
in Congress bill requesting them
to introduce it to the present Con-
gress to set up control board of
five members who will have the
power to regulate the production of
all basic metals in the United States,
also that they shall have the power
to control and prohibit any foreign
metals in the United States under
bond as long as there are any
domestic metals on hand. By basic
metals we mean metal in any form:
ore, concentrates, matte cinders,
blistered and refined.
Said board shall have the power
to tell a mining company whether
it can shut down its plants or not.
If said board can prove that the
company can make a reasonable
profit by running. They also shall
have the power to prevent inter
linking companies or trusts from
playing one company against anoth-
er company for the benefits of the
companies owners and the dis
advantage of the employees of a
certain section of the country. Also {
said board shall be empowered to
recommend to Congress from time
to time views on the tariff they
think should be imposed on diff
ferent metals imported into the
United States.
The personnel of such a board
should be one member of the rank {
and file, a member of the l. U. of !
M. M. & S. w, one member from {
the rank and file of the Metal Trade
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