Show THE SMELTER SITUATION no current topic has been more broadly discussed in mining circles than the new condition in the smelter situation the advent of the cole ryan crowd is viewed from many different angles and the enterprise alternately discredited and endorsed in a rece recent A t issue of the mining scientific press editor T A rickard makes the following comment the american believes in freedom of opportunity and the career open 0 to o talent but he is like any other otheir intelligent tell igent human being in hating a cinch in in objecting to a tyranny whether political or commercial most of the time he is subject to both but the subjection is nicely viled and rendered as pleasant as I 1 circumstances require or as th the 6 standard oil company the southern Southe Tm pacific or the smelter trust permits so now the time seems ripe for competition the conditions eions are ready for another big smelting smelling sm elting company that shall smite the guggenheims ha hip p and thigh and deliver the downtrodden down trodden browbeaten brow beaten mine operator of the great west it sounds fine but it is bitter irony rockefeller rogers broughton ryan cole and the other sunday school teachers in that group of beneficent and patriotic citizens must smile at the gutc against the guggenheims and the use they have made of it for bearing smelter stock thereby making enough money to build their own smelter the mine operator who expects the standard oil to do better for him than the guggenheims ms is a simpleton the guggenheims may have made their yoke heavy but the little finger of the standard oil shall be thicker than the loins of the present smelter trust to paraphrase ras e further from hebrew history the guggenheims chastised the mine operators with contracts but the standard oil will chastise them with rebates the evidence given in the recent federal prosecutions of the standard oil people has shown them to be the mildest mannered men that ever cut a throat financially or scuttled a ship commercially no relief lies there the situation appeals to us differently while it is true that the standard oil crowd is stronger than the guggenheims the fact that the two will undoubtedly uh be pitted against each other should make some competition at least there is no love lost between the two and the guggenheims will make A a bitter struggle it is not in the nature of either side to io give the other fellow a cha chance nce and it is doubtful if either would at this time look favorably upon a consolidation the supremacy must lie with one or the other whichever wa way the tide turns the relief will be but temporary should the operators combine to protect their interests and form an alliance including every producer in ta the country then th they ey might have a small chance of success otherwise it will be up to the trust busters austers Bu to save the day for the mining operators |