THE MINES 165 



ihe production of the latter company so far exceeds the aiggregate produc- 

 tion of the other companies that the output of the Anaconda 

 Properties is often referred to as the output of Butte. Amoncr the inde- 

 That Made pendent companies operatingr in Butte are the East Butte, 

 Butte Rich North Butte, the Butte & Ballaklava, the Davis Daily, the 

 and Famous. Tuolumme, the Pilot Butte and several other smaller producers. 



AJso the Butte & Duluth and the Bullwhacker companies, 

 which are operatincT leaching- plants, and which will be taken up later. Also 

 the Butte & Superior and the Elm Orlu companies, which are zinc producers 

 and Which brings us to another subject and one that will be told of else- 

 where in this article. 



That the reader may get a more intimate acquaintance with the copper 

 production industry of Montana, which, as before remarked, is the industry 

 of Butte, we will bring in some facts as gleaned from an official of the 

 Anaconda company, a company that has proved copper mining to be a 

 business in which the element of chance is eilimdnated as far as it can 

 possibly be done. 



Tbis gigantic company produces and distributes $100,000 every day 

 before a dollar comes in for orofit. Those are average figures every day 

 now and of that average v$5o,ooo goes out every day for labor. Sixteen 

 thousand dollars is also paid out each day for freight; $13,000 

 Labor Gets for fuel and power; $8,500 for lumber and timber; $7,400 for 

 a Big Share supplies, and $13,200 for taxes and other expenses. In the 

 of the last five years this one mining company has distributed the 



Reward. huge sum of $208,279,332, of which $189,830,754 was paid for 



labor and material and about $18,500,000 in dividends. 



What the mining industry means to ihe young State of Montana can 

 be guessed when the information is given that an overwhelmiing percentage 

 of the money paid out for labor and supplies by the mining companies, is 

 paid out in Montana, to Montana men and for Montana supplies. Another 

 aittractive feature is the fact that mining employees in this State receive the 

 best wages for like work in the world. 



The figures of the Anaconda comipany are at hand and show that this 

 year the 16,000 employees of this conipan}' were paid $20,000,000, which is 

 an average of something more than $1,200 a year. WJth the mining indus- 

 try of the State on such a sound basis it is easy to account for the fact that 

 labor troubles are practically unknov.'n in the Treasure State and that the 

 most friendly relations exist between the company heads and the employees, 

 and the latter includes the army of wage earning miners. 



NoWhere else in the world can be found a mining district so fraught 

 Vv-ith interest, both to the mining man and the layman, as Butte. 



Forty years ago the Butte hi'll, or the Anaconda hill as it is sonue times 

 called, was a wilderness of scrubby trees and rocks. What occasional sign 



— Montana is the state ivith a future 



