Show THE standard oil company has just declared and paid a dividend of twenty millions this is the largest dividend ever paid by an individual company and illustrates the magnitude and rapid growth of the oil industry COPPER is all the go again in the eastern markets and copper stocks have shown decided advancement during the past two weeks while the demand for good copper prospects has resulted in the sen sending bendino dino out of a small army of experts and buyers who are invading every mining camp in the quest of such properties it is freely predicted that copper will advance two cents a pound in the very near future THE mines of utah will make an excellent showing C in the way of dividend payments for the month of april as the sum total posted or to be declared within the next few days by mining companies will amount to the handsome sum of A large r proportion of this will find its way into the pockets of utah shareholders surely this is a proof pogi positive tive that eliat mining r pays and a clincher to the oft repeated assertion that utah is one of the foremost amon among the mining minin states of the west AN exchange says that the custom mills of colorado hav leave e done as much or more tow towards ards the building up Z of the mining industry of the centennial state than any other factor connected with the industry there is no doubt but that the statement is correct these custom mills have ena enabled bled the owners of small mines to work their properties to advantage cl it often occurs that the product of a mine is so low grade in its character that hat it cannot be shipped to advantage in or that the property is located such a distance from railroad 0 or r from the market that its ores even though high in grade 0 will not bear the transportation and smelter charges and still leave a profit to the owner in either case a custom mill would solve the difficulty and it is safe to say say that with more reduction reductio n works of this character in the camps of utah greater reater activity and prosperity would prevail IN this day of trusts and combines would it not be well to make diamond cut diamond one of the trusts that is the most antagonistic to the mining industry is the smelter trust which dictates to the producer in almost every phase of ore production and it not only tells the mine owner how much he shall produce and an how much he will be allowed for his product but it also governs the metal market and establishes its own quotations which are to govern in the purchase and sale of silver lead bullion and copper matte it is difficult for the producer to evade the iron grasp of this trust this monopoly and there is no escape unless it might be by the t e formation fori nation of a producers trust the pooling of the issues of the mining operators of the west so that the smelter trust could not get a pound of ore unless the producers trust were willing to sell independent smelters shelters sm elters might lessen the present difficulty either plan would necessarily involve the expenditure of enormous sums of money and it would take some time to make a success of either measure still they might be binau inaugurated and probably will be unless the only alternative is employed and that is for the people of the united states to exercise their god given power in ridding the country of this trust curse THAT the times are good for a certain class of people and not so good for others is evidenced by the strike of the germania smelter employees in this instance it is evident that the times are silver lined for the manufacturer but not for the wage earner it has always been the supposition that smelter men received good wages and there was general eueral surprise therefore ther eforo when the strike brought out the fact that the highest wages received by the germania employees was k but little more than 2 a day why a man can go to work with a pick and shovel on the streets and earn this pittance he can enjoy fresh air and the sunlight of heaven and earn this much and yet the man who labors in the smelters shelters sm elters and breathes the poisonous fumes fumea and gases from froin the furnaces is rated with the man who has healthful employ employment meni and who is not regarded as more inore than a common lab another factor and feature in the case is that L good times have advanced the cost of living r the price of manufactured commodities to such an extent that 2 will not berin begin 0 to reach as far as was the case two years ago A man with a family could live on 2 a day then but he cannot do so now this beings being the case the men at the germania cannot be blamed for asking for living wages and t this hi il request should be granted |