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SOLDIERSMAKE FRIENDS: Here's an American soldier shown with some of his monkey pets. According to this U. S. Army Signal Corps photo, the men make friends wherever they go. These monkeys are easily captured and make friends readily. Sec: 562, P. L. & R. U. S. POSTAGl! Paid Butte, Mont. Permit No. 139 THE INFANTRY See statement on page 2 COPPER BOMBER See picture-story on pages 5-6. BACK WHEN See picture-story on pages 8-9 SKY SHARK: Here's the business end of the B-25 Mitchell mediunl bomber, showing the nose of the 75 mm. gun. This shark has a deadly, ating, as Axis nations are finding out. This is a U. S. Army Air Forces photograph. ANOTHER HELPINC, MOM: Home from the wars, this boy wants good food, a good job, and a chance to enjoy the things he has been fighting to protect. The Fifth War Bond Drive opens on Monday. Your Bond purchases wiU speed his return.

Copper Commando – vol. 2, no. 21

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World War II, B-25 Mitchell bomber, infantry, Brigadier General William H. Wilbur, midels, copper bomber, Berlin, Montana mine products, smeltermen, tram, Anaconda smelter, war bond drive

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SOLDIERSMAKE FRIENDS: Here's an American soldier shown with someof his monkey pets. According to this U. S. Army Signal Corps photo, themen make friends wherever they go. These monkeys are easily capturedand make friends readily.

Sec: 562, P. L.& R.U. S. POSTAGl!

PaidButte, Mont.

Permit No. 139

THE INFANTRYSee statement on page 2

COPPER BOMBERSee picture-story on pages 5-6.

BACK WHENSee picture-story on pages 8-9

SKY SHARK: Here's the business end of the B-25 Mitchell mediunlbomber, showing the nose of the 75 mm. gun. This shark has a deadly,ating, as Axis nations are finding out. This is a U. S. Army Air Forcesphotograph.

ANOTHER HELPINC, MOM: Home from the wars, this boy wants goodfood, a good job, and a chance to enjoy the things he has been fightingto protect. The Fifth War Bond Drive opens on Monday. Your Bondpurchases wiU speed his return.

"THE ·Infantry soldier -is living up tothe best traditions of the American~rmy," Brigadier Ceneral William H.Wilbuf, U. S. Army, Assistant Command-er of the 36th Infantry Division. reportedupon his return- from the Cassino sectoron the Italian front recently.

"Much of the time the men are grim,"he said. "They are too tired and worn outto smile. But go to one of the doughboysi. a water-filled foxhole, or a humanpack animal bowed over with a load ofrations on his way to the front and askhim how he is geHing along. Invariably,he'll st;aighten up, look you in the eye·and say, fFine, Sir!' That is the Infantryspirit in Italy."

Ceneral Wilbur, who was awardedtlte Medal of Honor for laying, and carry-illg out plans under which an armisticewas obtained with the French at Casa ..blanca during the North African invasion.. November, 1942, said it is impossible"to picture adequately the life over there,wh~re everything is wet and muddy andacts of heroism are everyday occurences.

"Pure stamina and guts could beWiven no greater test /' he continued. "In.. any of the positions we occupy, everyWt of supply goes two or three thousandket up the mountains on the backs ofCIoughboys. After a 16-hour trip, the hu-• an pack trains snatch a bite to eat, sleep_.. few hours, and start up the m~untains.getin.

"The rifle soldier is the soul of our....ilitary effort," he reported. "Alone,.. any times unseen, he does his job of.etting forward unde"fire to close hand-to-hand with the enemy. That requires"ori! guts, more stamina. more individ-.. I initiative, than is expected of any...,... individual of the armed forces,.he''''r an officer or enlisted man."

Ceneral Wilbur said he had neverMen weather conditions anywhere so se-vere as in Italy. Constant rains turn thelowlands into morasses and make the.. ountains, mud and ice-covered, almost' .. possible to climb. The terrain is so

'Bless theINFANTRY

COPPERCOMMANDO PROUDLYPUBLISHES THIS I NTERVI EWWITH BRICADIER CENERALWILLIAM H. WILBUR •••

rough that a mis-step in the dark can tearthe sole from a rugged G. I. shoe.

In many of the mountain eng.a,ge-I!'ents, men temporarily out of action be-cause of frostbite, 'trench feet' or otherminor illnesses could not be sent to therear for hospitalization, but were hud-dled in the doubtful sh~lter of overhang-iAg rock ledges or fis·sures until they wererested-then they went back into thefighting. "That takes a high order ofcourage," he said.

Relations among American, Britishand French troops are excellent, wneralWilbur commented. "We even receivedrequests from British divisions that werealongside us for permission to send oyerofficers and men to learn our methods ofpatrolling. "

He found that heroism is consideredso commonplace that it is diHicult toget the men to submit recommendationsfor citations for gallantry in adion."They regard such deeds merely as partof their job," he said.

The Infantryman is highly apprecia-tive of the support given him by the A,..tillery and the Air Forces, according toCeneral Wilbur, and also has a high re-gard for the Medical Corpsmen, many

, of whom have a complete disregard fortheir own safety when aid must be gotto wounded doughboys.

. The officer found that the attitudeof the Cermah soldier has undergone atransformation s i nc e Tunisia, whel'ethose taken prisoner were arrogant ..dproud .

"The astonishing thing to us isthat they still believe Cermany is goingto win the war. They no longer thinkthey will win by offensive action aMthe destruction of the armies of theAllied nations, but they will witt be-cause they will never give up,'· CeneralWtlhur went on.

"Cerman equipment is good," hestated. "It is new and in good condi-tion. And the Cerman .oIdier is wellfed, and his medical service N remark-ably good."

Ceneral Wilbur was returned 1'0the United States for convalescence. H•is now at Walter Reed CenNal HGipit'"Washington, D. c,

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*BRIGADIER GENERAL WILLIAM H. WIL-BUR. U. S. Army. was born in Palmer. Massa-chusetts. on September 24. 1888. He enteredthe United States Military Academy from Massa-chusetts in 1908 and was commissioned a secondlieutenant of Infantry in 1912.

He served in France with the A. E. F. in1919. In the same year. ne was detailed to theEcole Special Militaire, St. C9T. France, and wasgraduated in September, 1920. In 1922, he wasassigned to the Military Attache at Paris andstudied at the Ecole Superieure de Guerre, com-pleted his course in I924. He was graduatedfrom the Infantry School, Fort Benning. Georgia.in 1927. the Command and General Staff School.Fort Leavenworth. Kansas, in 1932. and the ArmyWar College. Washington. D. c.. in 1935. '

General Wilbur's service includes assign-ments in continental United States, Panama andHawaii. He became Chief of Staff. Sixth CorpsArea. in February. 1940. and was CommandingOfficer. 60th Infantry. at Fort Bragg. NorthCarolina. from 1941 to 1942.

General Wilbur landed with the first Amer-ican troops at Fedala Bay. Morocco. on N~vember8. 1942. Assigned to deliver letters to Frenchhigh commanders at Casablanca, he made the1,6-mile trip from Fedala to Casablanca throughheavy enemy fire flying from his three-quarter.ton -truck the now famous American flag. thefirst United States flag to reach North Africa. Forhis daring and heroism he was awarded the Medalof Honor. His citation reads:

"For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidityin action above and beyond the call Of duty. Col-onel Wilbur prepared the plan for making con-tact with French commanders in Casablanca andobtained an armistice to prevent unnecessarybloodshed. On November 8. 1942. he landed atFedala with the leading assault waves. whereopposition had developed into a firm and con-tinuous defensive line across his route of ad-vance. Commandeering a vehicle. he wasdriven toward the hostile defenses under inces-sant fire.. finally locating a French officer whoaccorded him passage through the forward Posi-tions. He then proceeded in total darknessthrough sixteen miles of enemy-occupied coun-try intermittently subjected to heavy bursts offit>e and accomplished his mission by deliveringhis letters to appropriate French officials in Casa-blanca. Returning toward his command. ColonelWilbur detected a hostile battery firing effec-tively on our troops. He took charge of a pla-toon of American tanks and personally led themin an attack and captured the battery. From themoment of landing until the cessation of hostileresistance, Colonel Wilbur's conduct was volun-f'.ary and exemplary in its coolness and daring."

He also was awarded a Moroccan decors-tion, the Ouessam Alouite, for the same action.

Genera-! Wilbur wears the Legion of Merit.awarded him for preparation of Fifth Armytroops for combat operations in North Africafrorn May 14 to September 1. 1943. and theSi~ver Star for gallantry in action in Italy, Sep-tember 12-20, 1943, when he personally took~e and accompanied into a forward area ·ele-ments of Infantry. Engineers. Tank and Tank De-stroyer forces which met and destroyed enemyInfantry and Tank detachments.

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*

,Copper

Co...... ando.J

JU-NE9, 1944-VOL. II NO. 21'

COPPER COM-MANDO is the officialnewspaper of the Victory Labor-Manage ..ment Production Committees of the Ana-conda Copper Mining Company and itsUnion Representatives at Butte, Ana-conda, Creat Falls and East Helena, Mon ..tana •. .It is issued every two weeks ••••COPPER COMMANDO is headed by ajoint committee from Labor and Man-agement, it~ policies are shaped by both,sides and are d-ictated by neither. • ••COPP.ER COMMANDO was establishedat the recommendation of tIM War De-partment with the concurrence of theWar Production Board. Its editors areBob Newcomb and Marg Sammons; itssa.fety editor is John L. Boardmall; itschief photographer is AI Cusdorf; itssta-H photographer is Les Bishop •••• ItsEditorial BOHd consists of: Denis Me-Carthy, CIO; John F. Bird. AFL; Ed Re-nouard, ACM, from Butte; Dan Byrne.CIO; Joe Mat'iek, AFL; C. A. Lemmon,ACM, from Anaconda; Jack Clark, CIO;Herb Donaldson, AFL, atld E. S. Bardwell,ACM, f-rOMCr.at Fails•••• COPPERCOMMANDO -is mailed to the home ofevery employee of ACM in the four loca-tions--if you are not receiving your copyadvise COPPER COMMANDO at 112HaMilton Street, Butte, or better still,drop ill and tell us. This isVol. 2, No. 21.

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In This IssueBLE'SS THE INFANTRY .......•........................•........... _.......• _ _...............•.................. 2General William H. Wilbur, who has been in the thick of the fray for years, writes a compelling articleabout what the Infantry is doing in this war.

FICU RINe A HOBBY .....................................•.........................•....... _._......•................. __.. _ 4Louis Jackson at Great Falls models figures in his spare time. It is an interesting hobby and we thin~you'll like to read about it. t-COPPER BOM BER......................•............................................................... _ 5The products of Our Montana mines and smelters appear on every fighting front today. Every time abomber goes over Berlin, Butte copper is riding with her. IEDITOR IAL "'" '" - '."" ::...•.......•...........•. _.••.•.••• _ 7,

WAY BACK WH EN ..................................• - _ .........•...... _:...•.......•...•....... : .•... 8Here's a group of old-time shots that should tickle the memories of many a Montana miner andsmelterman. I •

THE WHEELS GO 'ROUND AND 'ROUND .................................................................•.................... 10The Local Tram at the Anaconda Smelter is a busy and important operation. We went behind thescene's to talk to the boys and get some pictures of the wheels going 'round.

I FEEL BETTER NOW _ _._...................................................•......... 1ZThe Fifth War Bond Drive starts Monday. Our national quota is stiffer than before because we arethrowing everything we've got to the enemy. And this war costs real dough.

••WHEN the liberty theater was being

constructed, Louis E. Jackson, foremanof the Paint Shop since 1935, was onhand. Louis, since he was a kid, has beeninterested in all kinds of constructionwork and he figured he could get somegood pointers from the fellows workingon the theater. Among the workers onthe theater were two Swiss plaster parisworkers, doing ornamental plaster work.This looked mighty interesting to Louisand he asked a lot of questions. Withthe answers to his- questions well inmind, he decided that he was going todo Some work with plaster paris himself.

"

Figuring a Dohhy~en Louis E. Jackson, foreman of thePaint Shop at Creat Falls, started figur-ing on a hobby, he figured that figureswould make a good hobby. His figuringwas correct, for they have proven to be'a sideline business. In the laSt twentyyears or so, Louis has made and soldseveral thousand statues. About that time, Charles Swartz

was pitcher on the hired ACM team.Later Swartz was sold to the BrooklynDodgers. But even then Swartz had areal reputation as a pitcher and Louiswas one of his fans. He decided that hewould make a model out of plaster parisof the popular pitcher. The model was

•.4.

so good that he was asked to display it ..at the Mint and various other places,That was the start of Louis' hobby. Sincethen he has made many models andfrom the models thousands of statues.Here's how he does it:

First he carves out the figure ormolds it from clay. Sometimes he copiesa particularly nice piece which happensto strike his fancy. He then appliesabout ten coats of liquid rubber, like heis doing in the upper picture. Each coatis applied after a drying period for theprevious coat. When the last coal isapplied, he lets it age or cure for sixdays. Then, when it is thoroughly dry.he puts on' a plaster paris shell. Thisshell is put on in sections so that it can-be easily removed from the model. Whenthe plaster paris shell is dry, it is removedand the rubber removed from the orig-inal model. Then the shell is fastenedover the rubber model and plaster parispoured into the empty center. He letsthis set for about an hour, removes theplaster paris shell and the rubber moldand there he has the finished model.Simple as that. Louis and his wife,shown with him in the lower picturealong with some of the finished products.decorate the models. Mrs. Jackson doesthe "flocking," which means shootingon the fur of the animals. She uses asilk rayon fuzz and a flock gun. It lookslike an atomizer. Louis says he can'tget her to paint, so that's his job .

It's an interesting hobby, all right,and a money-maker as well.

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JUNE 9. 1944

We're ready to give the Axis the works. Just where the invasion drive is to start, nobody butthe top military authorities know. It can com e from the Isle of Britain, it can come from theRussian front, it can come from Italy, or, as far as that goes, it can come from some place else.But this much you can count on: Montana copper is represented on the invasion fronts becausebombers need copper and, thanks to the loyal a nd patriotic people of Montana,' bombers havegot it. And now, your copper is in there for the final punch.

i .

T HERE are millions of-miles of copperwiring used in the construction of air-planes every month. This wiring con-trols take-offs, landings, flight, engines,gun turrets and many other operations ofa combat ai rplane.

The amount of wiring in bombersranges from 300 to 500 miles per air-plane. In other words, in one of the bigbombers it would stretch from Buttenearly to Casper, Wyoming. And in asingle medium bomber of the Mitchellor Marauder type, the wiring would reachfrom the mining area in Butte to Coeurd'Alene, Idaho.

.- But the use of copper is even morevital than this in airplane construction,for without it all-metal planes could notbe built. Copper is used in the aluminumalloy to prevent corrosive action and addsthree times the strength of aluminum tothe fuselage and wings in which it isused.

No less important is the fact thatcopper is used in 75% of the tubing

JUNE 9, 1944

for radiators and cooling systems thatmake our bombers of the Liberator andFortress class, among others, capable ofoperating at high speeds with huge bombloads.

Copper wiring activates all controlsof the combat airplane. The hundredsof miles of wiring are intertwined in thefuselage from tail to nose.

The lives of thousands of our AirForces crews are dependent upon a suf-ficient supply and quality of wiring, forthese miles of thin copper- thread pro-vide them with their only means of com-munication. Communication betweenthe various individuals of an Afr Forcecrew on a single plane is just as vital forsurvival as the communications betweenthe various planes performing a mission.Only by being ever alert for attack andwarning the pilot and gunners of the ap-proach of enemy pursuit planes can acrew reach its target and return intact.

It's deceiving. Looking at the shinyexterior of a giant Liberator 8-24 bomber.

one would swear the plane was madeexclusively of aluminum. But those lus-trous sheets of metal which cover thewings and fuselage contain about 4Y2 %copper which help give the alloy its greatstrength. Approximately 1,350 poundsof copper are used in building each lib-erator bomber, some of it dug right outfrom Butte's underground tunnels.

In addition to the copper used in thealuminum-alloy, about 500 pounds arcused in the thousands of feet of electricalwiring and accessories installed in thebomber. A complicated circuit is ern-ployed in connection with droppingbombs. In the bombardier's compart •ment, is a panel of indicator lights whichflash when bombs are released by elec-trical devices. Throughout each planeare about 80 lights for illumination and.signalling purposes, requiring hundredsof feet of Wiring. Each of the four Pratt& Whitney engines has complex ignitionand starting systems, and most of thesixty instruments dispersed throughout

• .i •

Today's big bombers contain a network of electricwires. Here a Consolidated-Vultee employee isinstalling electric cables on the side panel of aLiberator 8-24 bomber. And you can bet on it.Montana copper can be found in these invadingbombers.

the bomber employ copper in their mech-anisms. The elaborate radio and antennasystems use many pounds of copper.

These giant bombers are marvels ofefficiency and power as long as their cop-per nerves are intact. But if vital cir-cuits are severed by an explosive shell orif flak slashes through electrical cables.h may mean a mortal wound. Manybombers with damaged electrical sys-tems make thei r way back to bases to be'restored to fighting condition again byInstallation of new copper wiring.

World War II has been a huge andhungry consumer of metal. Our vast re-Sources for producing copper and other[Vitalmetals in abundant quantities is the

•BACK in March, Marg Sammons, co-edi-tor of COPPE,R COMMANDO, was askedby the War Department to attend the~ ar Show at San Diego. While Margwas there, she met many high-ranking:Army and Navy officials. She was im-pressed, too, with the hundreds of usesto which copper is being put in aircraftfactories. This article was gathered byMarg during her trip; thanks are due toMajor Rodney L. Southwick, public rela-tions officer of the Army Air Forces, Mid-)Vestern Procurement District at Wichita,Kansas. Thanks are also due to theenterprising press relations staff of Con-solidated Vultee Aircraft Corporation atSan Diego. • • • And over here at theright we see a Consolidated-Vultee Lib-erator B-24, one of the giant long-rangebombers certain to go down in historyfor its smashing assaults on Hitler andlrojo.

•eopp.n.

eOtHtHA ••bo •6.

Dozens of wires are bein; connected in thisiunction box of a Liberator 8-24 bomber by anassembly worker at Consolidated-Vultee's SanDiego plant. These huge bombers are steppingup the tempo of invasion every day of the week.and you will be hearing more about them.

The electrical insides of a bomber are somethingcto startle anybody except an electrician. Hereworkmen at the Consolidated-Vultee San Diegoplant are installing electric cables on the sidepanel of a Liberator bomber. Thousa';ds of feetof wire go into each plane.

prime reason for all ied victories.

Liberator B-24 bombers, which wehave cited as an example of ai rcraftusing large amounts of metal, are beingmade by the hundreds every month byConsolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corpora-tion. A constant source of copper isneeded to feed the assembly lines.

With their sister ships, these giantbombers are being thrown into the of-fensive against both the German andJapanese powers. Powerfully' armedwith machine guns, they are daily rang-ing deep into Axis-held Europe and wher-ever laps are found in the southwest Pa-cific. Although Axis aerial might is grad-ually being reduced. the war of attrition

eats into our formations as well. Gunnersriding Liberators into aerial affrays haveblasted several thousand enemy fightersout of the skies. and som~ of our planesfailed to return.

As an example of the cost of war inplanes and men, remember the famed as-sault on the Ploesti oil refineries? Theattack was carried out by a force of 177heavily loaded Liberators which destroyedfive of the greatest refineries in Europe.Fifty-seven of our bombers were lost, yetthis daring· blow is considered the mostdamaging ever directed against a singletarget. In addition to approximately 500men, it cost about 76,950 pounds ofcopper!

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JUNE 9, 1944

Buy More Bonds 'NEXT Monday the Fifth War Bond Drivewill be launched. Fo'r a month afterward,all of us are going to be asked to dig evena little deeper into our pockets thanbefore.

We know that it's getting to be anold story: There are deductions for thisand deductions for that. We know, too,that despite the efforts of the govern-ment to hold the cost of living in line,prices are inching up all the time. No-body can blame a man for saying, at atime like this, "Cosh, I think I'm doingeverything I can do. I don't see how Ican possibly do any more."

But here is the simple fact: Our,Armed Forces are poised, for the firsttime since Pearl Harbor, and ready topounce. The Army Service Forces, underCeneral Brehon B. Somervell, have donean almost impossible job in getting sup-plies, ammunitions, and practically every-thing else to invasion points. Whetherwe like it or not, the losses in the nextfew weeks are bound to be greater, interms of men and materials of war, thanthey have ever been before. Every tickof the clock means that a staggeringamount of dollars must be ready.

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So Long, JerryIN THE adjoining column, in our "Peo-ple and Places" department, we print'with pride a letter from Jerry Harrington.

Most people on the Butte Hill knowJerry. He is a short, white-haired littleguy with a friendly manner and a boom-ing voice. He has just left our ranks tobecome an organizer for his union, theBlacksmiths. He is off, actually, on asort of three-months' trial basis; if hemakes good (and we know darned wellhe will), he'll go on to talk cooperation.If something gqes wrong, Jerry's old jobis open to ,him in Butte.

Jerry has been a strong and helpfulinfluence in building better labor-man-agement relations. He has always hadthe guts to stand up and defend whathe believed was right. If, he had abone to pick' with the Anaconda Com-pany, Cod knows he picked ,it; on theother hand, if he thought his rank-and-file membership (or the labor movementin general) was making _ mistake, hefeared no man in standing up and call-ing for a square deal.

W. hate to see him go.

People (;' Places]A FEW days ago J. J. Harrington. bet-ter known as Jerry, withdrew from theButte Hill to become an organizer for theBlacksmiths' Union. Jerry, a member ofthe Victory Labor-Management Produc-tion Committee for the AFL Blacksmithsfrom the beginning, sent his regards tothe Committee in the following letter. Tous, it is as eloquent a letter as we haveever read. It is the sincere and honesttribute of a sincere and honest labor manto the idea of cO?peration between laborand management.

.COPPER COMMANDO is proud togive its readers this letter, and we hopeyou are as impressed with it as was everymember of the Labor-Management Com-mittee.

And COPPER COMMANDO knowsthat it voices the views of all of us on theButte Hill when we say "So long, Jerry,and the very best of luck to you always."

Dear Fellows:Some of you men have probably heard that

I am leaving tonight for Salt Lake to become arepresentative of the Blacksmiths' Union of theA. F. of L. I am sorry that I am not going to beable to be with you at your meeting to say goodbye in person.

But, as a member of the Victory Labor-Management Production Committee for a greatmany months, I want to extend my thanks forthe opportunities this group has given me to geta better idea of how problems can be solvedthrough labor and management working together.

When this committee was started about twoyears ago, I don't think there were more than afew of us who felt that it had a.chance. For manyyears we have been battling with the Companyand it didn't look as if there could be any change.But with the war to win, we sat down around thetable and bit by bit we/got acquainted. We got tounderstand each other better. Speaking for my-self, as business agent of the Blacksmiths' Unionhere, I learned that you can get a whole lot farther

not by fighting management, but by siHing downwith management and trying to understand theirproblems too.

Through this committee, r got to knowmembers of fhe Company much better than Iever did before. In our business dealings I havealways been on the other side of the fence andwe have not always had smooth going. But be..cause I had gotten to know these managementrnen better, I could sit down with them in greaterharmony than ever before. .

The whole idea in Butte is for labor to saythat everything that management does is wroRgl.I don't think we have been honest enough with'ourselves, because there are lots of times whenlabor is wrong. We should be willing to give aswell as take. And the Labor-Management Co......mittee, it seem. to me, is the one real way tobring these two groups togetfler in a spirit of co-operation.

Before closing, I want to say somethingabout "COPPER COMMANDO." I don't thinkthere was anything ever in the history of Buttethat has done more to bnng labor and ma.age-ment closer together. Speaking for myself. fthink I have learned a great deal of tolerance,from BobNewcomb and Marg Sammons, the edi-tors. They have shown me that it takes two sidesto make a team. And believe me, I am going outinto the organising field to preach and pradicecooperation. As far as I am concerned. this oldduff of fighting all the time is out. It never getsanybody anywhere-either labor or management.tt is time we grew up and learned to sit clown likegentlemen and talk things over in a friendlyway.

Of course, I don't know if I will ntake goodat this new iob and I may be back after a while.But I am sure going to try my best, and if I don'tmake out, it won't be because I haven't tried.I am going to Salt Lake and then to Los Angelesand then they are shooting me back to Maine soI guess I will be seeing a lot of the country. But,after all, I was born and raised in Butte and Iworked on this Hill a great many years and Buttewill always be my home.

I iust wanted to say good bye to all of you,and wish you the best of luck.

Sincerely,JERRYHARRINGTON.

ALONC with other Labor-Management Committee jobs, Jerry Harrington served on the Ab.senteeism'Sub-Committee. Here he is, seated at tfle extreme right. The others in picture, left to right. are:Cene Hogan of the Anaconda Company, Denis McCarthy of the Butte Miners' Union, and Ed Mc-Clone of .e An~conda Company.

HEREWE CO! The station tender in the old days had his hands full, to judge from this picture.Here is old Curly being lowered down the shaft to pull ore cars. That bundle of hay in her lapis the horse's Aunch bucket. Note the disturbed gleam in the hone's eye, meaning she didn't like itvery much.

~WAY BACKWHEN

THERE are ~any old-timen at Butte, orat An:.conda or Great Fails, WnOcan re-call early conditions in the miRing in-dustry. Mining is stiU conceded to be ahazardous occupation, but it doesn't holda ca..c:JIe today to what'it used t.o be. Inthe old days, a ....iner took his life in hishands every time he went underground;today, so far as human skoill has permit-·ted, a lot of the danger "as been takenout of the illtlustry. .

.You old-time readers ~ \;UPrtk

COMMANDO will probably eRJoy look-ing at these prints, whic,h were Obtainedfrom the Bettman Archive in New YorkCity. Not all scenes are of copper min-ing, but they all apply in some fashieRto tlte work we are engaged in.

Ev~n ~ of the younger fellowsremember without any difficulty whenmules were used in the mines and manyminers have seen them lowered down theshaft-that l1ag descending at the leftwent down on a long chain.

Well, look the pictures over andsee if they recall to your mind some ofthe early days at the mines or SMelters.Maybe you've got some old-time picturesof your own kicking around' the house-if you have, why not bring them in andlet us see them?

CHANCINC SHIFT. This wood cut is dated 1877; there is no identifi-ution of the mine. Note the type of outfit they wore in those d;ays--no... rd hats or safety shoes.

TAP 'ER LICHT! Here's a sketch of minin, methods in the early nine-teenth century; miners worked without any technical aid. Tltey carriedthe ore in rouCh baskets and on shaky ladders to the surface.

THAT'S an American Indian at an Indian coppermine near Lake Superior shown above, The metalwas dug from a shallow hole by individual miners;'like the hunters, the miners sold their productsto the traders ••• Over at the right is a sketchmade of an early-day mine, showing the typeof stairway then in use. These notched stair-

ways were used before ladders .•• The lithographat the lower left shows how men were loweredand raised in the shaft-note the two fellows atthe top turning the cranks, If one fellow hadto sneeze an·d·let go of the handle, down wentMcGinty, • , The boys at the Wire and Rod Millat Great Falls will get a chuckle out of the picture

at the lower right, showing an ea ..ly-day wiremaker drawing hot metal. Instead of a wol'kbench, he sat on a crude but strong swing. Thetongs were fastened to his body and he movedhimself back and forth by using his feet. From thelook on the guy's face, he is geHing pretty sickof the whole thing,

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The Wheels Go ~Round and ~Bonnd ...It's up to the Local Tramming Department at Anaconda to move all materials around the Hill forthe various departments. Not only does this department do the moving, but, too, it's respon-sible for ~he bin crews who load and unload at the stock bins and the lime crusher. Anothercrew are scalemen and still anot~er are in charge of the building and maintenance of thetracks. But the eighteen engines operated by the Department keep them all busy.

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• 10 • JUNE 9, 1944

ONE hundred twenty-five men areneeded to keep the Local Tramming De-partment at Anaconda operating. Thereare track gangs, engineers, switchmen,stock bin crews and scalemen, as well asclerks, needed. But since all of theirwork is dependent upon the eighteen en-gines used to move materials around theHill, in this issue we'll look over the en-gines and look in on the various crews ina later issue.

Two types of engines are needed bythe Local Tramming-there are thirteenseventeen-ton engines, which are consid-ered small engines and are used to han-dle small cars. Then there- are two largetwenty-two-ton engines for handling thebig cars. The three electric motor en-gines can handle the big cars as long asthey are on the third rail. but the batteryjust won't pull them otherwise. If thetht..-d rail isn't there, the electric enginesh~e t.he sma-li cars. For fu~I repai rthe engines are taken to the MachineShoo, but all minor repairs Me cared fori11the engine shed, which is just below'f1he Local Tramming office. In the toppicture opposite page "Bungo" Daily, apipefitter; Bob Parker, a machinisthelper, and "Red" Nowlan, a machinist,had been called over to the engine shedto do some repairing on the engineshown.

That's Fred Sanna, a pipefitter'shelper, repairing a sand pipe on the en-gine in the lower opposite page picture.Jim Mailey, the driver of the engine, hadcome into the shop to check on the re-pairs, and is shown standing back ofFred. In order to get traction on therails, it's necessary to fill the box shownon the side of the engine with sand. 'Asthe engines pull along, an air hose blowsout the sand so that it drops on the railahead of the wheels and that's the way~ the traction is secured.

Valley Blaskovich, shown in the toppicture, washes all the engines broughtin before the work starts on them. Sincea00wt two hundred fifty thousand tonsof material are moved a month by theLocal Tram, it requires ten or more en-g'irleS and one hundred bi~ cars and fourhundred small cars for calcine, workingthree shifts, to move it, and that meansthat there's usua~l-y an engi,;'e or more inw repair work .

The Local Tram is operated muchI'ike a large railroad, inasmuch as thereis a board in the office to mark in and out

. for the switchmen and drivers. Seniorityrights mean the first preference of theJobs open go to the oldest man in yearsof service. When a car needs to beswitched the call is made into the office,a11d it is entered in the day book; theforeman comes in and reads it and givesinstructions. The board. the day book,the typing for the department and doz-ens of other jobs are handled by WillieFedderson, to the left in the center pic-ture. Opposite Willie is Harry Nazer,extra foreman or yardmaster at the Tramsince 191 8. He supervises the menworkine on the engines.

.'•

•The bottom picture shows Neil

Hanson and Fred Mitchell, clerks in theoffice. They keep track of all cars and

tonnages moved by the Local Tram. I...the next issue we'll go out with the crewsand see how they work.

7.

-I'hoto by 0. S. Army Sliinal corps

I Feel Better NowSURE, you feel better now. You're back home again, soldier, having given everytbing you've got forthe protection of your country. You've given everything you've got so that, when you come back, youcan enjoy the benefits of the things you fought for.

This is a pretty pictu.re, and we're sorry it isn '\ a true one, because the boy in this picture wasphotographed before he went overseas-he was home for a few hours to be with his family and onlya short time later. the order came for him to embark: Where he is now, we don't know; we wish.e did. His mother wishes it a whole lot more than we do.

Next week the Fifth War Bond Drive opens. The quota is higher than it was last time, becausewe are at least on the threshold of invasion and we need more of everything to buy the fighting ma-terials that win wars. Naturally, the thing Uncle Sam needs most is money. You can't fight wars ordo much of anything else without it.

•There are many mothers in Butte, in Anaconda, in Creat Falls, and in East Helena-there are "-

many mothers all over t·he country-who are waiting anxiously for the return of their boys. Theyknow that the more bonds we buy, and the sooner we buy them, the sooner these boys will be home.

~The purchase of War B·onds is patriotic, of course, but it's also good, sound business. If you'reweary of the war, so are the mothers. And, most of all, so are the fellows who are fighting it. Let'sget this whole thing over with by buying bonds, and bringing these sons and brothers and friends homeagain.