Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume], February 06, 1909, Page 4, Image 4

About Goodwin's weekly : a thinking paper for thinking people. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1902-1919

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II The Market and the Mines
ljB The news that the United States Smelting,
I M Refining & Mining company is about to increase
I M the equipment of its baghouse by 1,280 bags,
I P coupled with the entire absence of complaint
I If from the none too complacent farmers around
n Bingham Junction, is very convincing proof that
I I v tne bags are able to take care of the smelter dust
I I at a nominal cost. When it is remembered that
lI the whole installation has cost the company but
Inn. $100,000, one wonders why the system has not
I ill' been more generally adopted. It may be that the
HIS 10SS 0 bags by the concerns not possessed of
11 the United States company's secret for preserv-
Hi ing them is a deterrent. In deciding the famous
Hjl case of t tss, ranchman, vs. the Amalgamated
Hpl smelter t Anaconda in favor of the smelter,
H Judge Hunt Intimated very strongly that the
H ji smelter would be required to utilize all avail-
H M able means for the suppression of the smoke
H j nuisance and it was clear that he had in mind
H J the success of the Utah experiments. The
H J I Washoe seems to have taken the hint, for it is
H 5 said to be building a baghouse of its own.
H j ( fax 3
H Utah experience is also being turned to ac-
H j count at the property ot the Ray Consolidated
H J Copper company in Arizona. In this instance
H the Utah Copper company Is being used as the
H. model. At their last meeting the directors
H! authorized the construction of a mill like vho
H plant at Garfield with a smelter in connection.
l It is surmised that the mill will have a capacity
M of not less than 3,000 tons of ore a day. Eighteen
M months is the time alloted for the completion
R of the new enterprises. As General Manager D.
SC. Jackllng has learned all the tricks of the
game in bringing the Utah Copper works to
their present state of efficiency many of the
delays which occurred at Garfield will be avoided
'1 at Kelvin.
H v w t
H Something, possibly their experience with
V Iron Blossom, has brought out a streak of con-
H servatlsm in the professional traders that a
H month ago no one suspected them of possessing.
H The desire to be shown has come out, particularly
H in the attitude of the talent toward Uncle Sam
H Con. When first the announcement was made
H that Uncle Sam had recovered in its south drift
H some of the classy ore that has made the deeper
H levels of the Humbug famous there was a dis-
H position to elbow for seats on the band wagon
H and the stock took a powerful jump. But sober
H1 second thought, the only kind that will be per-
H mitted under the Cannon bill, developed doubters
H among the enthusiasts. "Suppose," said one,
H' "that the two feet of ore already opened is all
there is to it! We don't want to get tied up
with any bipedal ore streaks in a camp that is
full of centipedal propositions." Cogitations of
this character frosted the budding boom and the
share early this week lost the large part of its
first gains. If there is any stock on the- lists
that is entitled by reason of its history and man
agement to the benefit of every reasonable doubt
Uncle Sam is It. Its former strikes present a
noble array of unbroken promises and Its man
agement is not given to concealment nor to ex
aggeration. But however good the reasons may
be for casting caution aside, the newborn spirit
of conservatism is better for the investing pub
lic, for the exchange and for the mining indus
try. The Uncle Sam company has set about in
a business-like way the development of its new
shoot, and it will be time enough to throw off
the brakes when the drift now being driven at
the lowest level shows what the shoot looks like
a hundred feet further down.
fcj fcV
Edward Fink seems to have sidestepped the
traditional troubles of the world-helping inventor.
Of course, we do not know what may have been
the tribulations he encountered before he enlist
ed the support of Samuel Newhouse, but since he
took the first stop toward the demonstration of
his new smelting process his path has been a
smooth and pleasant one. There was a remark
able absence of mishaps in the Inauguration of
the experimental plant and the crowning feature
of the innovation is the statement of Mr. New
house that capital is to be had In almost un
limited quantities and without solicitation for the
further development of the invention. This be-
ing the case the mining world need not remain
long upon the anxious seat. Out at Garfield Mr.
Fink's assistants are making preparations for
further experiments with their queer double fur
nace. Tests of the process with crude oil as fuel
and lead-silver ore as the charge will be next
in order. If the results are as satisfying as was
the run with coal on copper ore, the field of use
fulness conceded to the Fink smelter will uc
vastly enlarged. Then should oome the test on
refractory gold ore, and if this, too, is on par
with the copper trial the last doubt will be ex
tinguished and the process welcomed on every
hand as the successor of prevailing methods.
w W w
The vendor of gold bricks need no longer
search out the individual with cowhide boots and
hayseed in his whiskers as a patron. Jody Ela
rflrlirn is fairly yearning to have gold bricks
handed to him so that he can keep things mov-
ing at the government assay office over which
he has been called to preside. He made' hla first
strike on Monday morning when he encountered
a rich lead that led to the safety deposit vault
of the Consolidated Mercur Mining company. In
one day's work he took out more than $4,000
streak is holding out splendidly. The Con. rler
cur is, and promises to be for some time to come,
worth of gold and he declares that the pay
the best patron of the Salt Lake assay office, "
but Idaho and Nevada, as well as other parts of
Utah will soon learn to appreciate the advant
ages of1 Salt Lake as a gold brick market.
tJ fcx W
Companies may come and companies may go,
but the faithful old mines that form the com
panies' assets stay right where they were put
and oontlnue to do business at the old stand.
Companies are human organizations transient,
mutable, ephemeral. The mineral deposits are
nature's handiwork and well nigh eternal. The
most extraordinary thing about them is that they
can be "worked out" again and again, and fre
quently yield more to the last operator than to
the first. (The Bingtoam Consolidated Mining wfc
"company passed on, but the Dalton & Lark, the
Commercial, the Eagle & Blue Bell properties
did not budge an inch and are ready to the hand
of the Bingham Mines company, which has
gathered up the fragments of the Bingham Con.
and is seeking to realize something on its as
sets. There is in the Dalton & Lark workings
quite a bit of lead ore that can be mined easily
and inexpensively. The new company is going
after that first. Then it may take the Eagle &
Blue Bell out of the hands of lessees and operate
it on company account The stockholders of the
Bingham Consolidated were up against a hard
and hopeless game and they are certainly en
titled to success under their new organization.
W w W (
Utah has been more than a lather to the Ne
vada H1J13 mine of Fairview, Nev., and rejoices
in the success of that property as earnestly as if
nature had set It over this side of the state line.
And there are 'developments worth rejoicing over,
too! The deep shaft with which the company
has been trying out its ground has broken into
ore at 354 feet. The shoot at that point is eleven
feet In width and averages $28 worth of gold and
silver to the ton. Inasmuch as the only bearish
argument that has ever made an impression on
Nevada Hills was the argument that "the values
were superficial, the bears will have to dig up a
new criticism or tacitly admit that the properly
i3 one of the richest and most promising extant.
"VAS YOU EFER IN TSCIN-SA-NATTI ?"
H Home of The Daly-West Insurrection For Once Milton D. Joseph Has Nothing to Say.
H When a mining stock any stock, for that
H matter drops from $55 to $10 a share, a grouch
H is more than likely to follow. The object of the
H grouch is equally likely to be the management of
Hl the company.
H The storming of the present insurrection in
HR1' the ranks of the 'Daly-West Mining company is,
apparently, the story of a grouch. The Bamber-
H ger Interests happened to be in control during
H the years when the great decline took place and
H it is human nature to assume that someone else
B might have arrested the downward movement.
Hj Around this central grievance other criticism has
H crystallized until a considerable number of ordl-
HH narlly sensible men have come to consider them-
GH selves cruelly abused.
HB
The mere reading of the resolutions adopted
by the Cincinnati shareholders of the company
sIiqws that no serious derilection on the part of
the present officers is even suspected. TJie fear
lost the Daly-West be merged with other proper
ties and the complaint that the reserve fund has
been earning no Interest are not sufficient to ex
plain the great agitation that has been started.
Both grounds of criticism point back to the source
of the original grouch the fall in the price of the
stock from $55 to $10.
Everyone admits that some degree of decline
was inevitable. The slump In the price of metals
involved that, even if there had been no embargo
on smelter shipments last winter, no financial
flurry, no labor troubles, no cave of the Ontario
(laHWiHSSSBMMBHHHBMiliHH
drain tunnel, and no other unpreventable misfor
tunes. It can only be charged that the manage
ment might have lessened tho degree of shrink
age In stock values. And there is no way of
proving or disproving the charge. The verdict
must rest on mere opinion.
The complaint that the stockholders have been
kept in the dark concerning the financial end of
the company's business is a more tangible one.
Financial statements from the Daly-West have
not been frequent nor luminous. The company
has not kept step in the general march toward
publicity. It is said that within the past month
an attorney for the Insurgents, who is also a
stockholder, made an effort to gain access to the
books, a perfectly valid right, and was unable to
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