Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-04-22
Japs PeriIing
U. S. Copper
Near Mexico
Hiding Across Border
They Menace Mine
By wEsTBROOK PEGLER

an enormous hell-hole at the
bottom of which, at times. the
temperature hits 100 degrees.
The pit produces hunks Of
gray, dusty rock which is blasted
loose from the sides and then is
shoveled into dump cars and run
up to the surface of the desert
and by methods too complicated
for my powers of explanation,
converted into about z per cent
of the total of our war produce
ton Of copper.
The desert is the ghastliest
waste of volcanic peaks and
spurs and scrubby vegetation
that your imagination could con-
ceive on your most lugubrious
day and its hostile mien instinc-
lively compels a tribute of the
new beholder TO the bravery of
the prospectors who first came
down from the North or up from
Mexico. only 80 miles away, to
find the deposit.
TIiE mine was worked prior to
L the Civil War, for old rec
ords reveal that ore was packed
overland on burros to the Gulf
OF California and shipped around
the Horn to Swansea, Wales.
The laborers then were Next
can poems. some of whom doubt
less, were ancestors of the free
Mexican workers who nowadays
share the jobs with Papago In
dams and American white men,
the latter drawn mostly from
Texas, Oklahoma. Arkansas and
Kentucky.
There is nothing here but the
mine and its works. which in
clude shaft pushed 10 an
underground lake about $50 feet
below whose temperature is 108
degrees and which yields five or
six millions gallons a day for the
job and the people.
At level of $40 feet there Is
a great chamber filled with
pumps which boost the warm
water TO the top and seven miles
across the desert to the plant
and the town.
In the old days water was
packed in barrels 40 miles from
ella Bend.
THE Phelps Dodge Corporation
Il Is the biggest single crea-
ture in the state of Arizona, next
10 Harold Ickes and the interior
department.
The company pays about II
per cent of the states total rev.
enues and holds a rather large
individual portion of the total Of
freehold land which is only II
per cent OF the whole area.
The company runs the town.
which has a population of six
or seven thousand of all races
within limits and clustered close
outside, and owns most of il.
The exceptions are some
small, shabby dwellings 10 which
private individuals still hold
title.
The company houses, however.
are neat, attractive cottages OF
three TO five rooms, many of
them adorned with beautiful
dooryard flower gardens now in
full bloom.
The abodes beyond the limit
are the usual desert and BOOM
town shacks. and how the In
dams, MeXicans' add Nordics. or
Caucasians can raise children
beyond the creeping stage in
such penetrable quarters, what
with the constant presence of
rattlers. scorpions and spiders,
is something I struggle to under
stand.
THE company also runs pre-
Il tentious department store on
the cooperative plan, which is
10 say that the profits are kicked
back TO the workers after the
company has deducted s per
cent. out of which it pays taxes
and some other costs.
cannot comment on the re-
tail prices, but will dare to say
that TO the naked eye this store
is first class and that there is
nothing in the demeanor OF
either staff or customers reni-
niscent of the take-it-or-leave-it
brutality of the company store
of the southern mill and iron
and lumber districts as described
to us in days past.
The Mexican line Is less a
worry than il might be. for our
relations with Mexico appear to
be pleasant these days.
Nevertheless, Japs, Germans
have been present on the other
side for many years and al
though most of them are said
TO have been chased back into
the interior of Mexico the prox-
unity of this mine and the mines
and works at Bisbee and Doug
las, where an absolutely vital
portion of our copper gets made,
naturally calls for watchfulness.
The gas line which comes
overland from FL Paso is vital,
too, and, as the governor OF
Arizona observed in his address \
10 the special session of the
Legislature the other day, this
area is in the logical path of an
invasion TO pinch off the coast,