Show COPPER STRIKE INQUIRY special correspondence houghton midi mar 10 lo jjames james macnaughton general manager of the calumet hecla and of a dozen companies subsidiary to that copper giant has been giving the congressional investigating committee much interesting information about the great business under his control he has been the star witness thus far and the attorneys for the strikers have improved to their utmost the opportunity to give him an exhaustive grilling under cross elamin aaion the chairman of the committee lias has even felt under the necessity of admonishing attorney hilton who has a gift of sarcasm to be 11 as polite as he can mr macnaughton made the assertion that he took a deep personal interest in the miners that he had many warm personal friends among the underground men whom he greatly admired and that he felt sure the employed emp loyes had no scruples in going to him direct for the redress of grievances congressman casey had his doubts whether tIler a workman with ten eleven or twelve children families even run as high as sixteen here would want to take a chance on losing his job by going to the big chief himself with a kick you dont know our men responded the general manager he would come and bring all his children even borrowing a few if he have enough of his own it was evident from the testimony of mr Mab macnaughten in reply to questions that the properties he represents devote a grbac deal of attention to promoting the comfort and welfare of their men there was the question of dynamite gases in the loose rock for instance mr macnaughton said it seemed to toe be a nitrous acid from the thes powder which was released when the loose 0 damp rock was stirred up and caused head aches among the men he said that a great deal of experimenting was done to meet the demand of the mines for a powder that would not give off such gases but in the meantime the men are instructed after a blast to let the compressed air that runs 7 the drills blow to drive out the smoke and gas he maintained that in general the air and ventilation are good another thing touched on was the temperature in the mines in the conglomerate it is hotter than elsewhere the company has made a study of this subject deep holes have been drilled and slow register ing thermometers have been sealed up in them for weeks and months in the tarri tarn arack mine the hottest record was found in october 1909 on the level it was 89 degrees the ordinary temperature here is 82 to 84 and in the veins 55 to 70 As a landlord the C H is pretty easy it owns houses appraised at ac although they cost about more the average annual expenditure for repairs is and the income from rentals is 61 leaving a net annual income of employed Emp loyes who wish to build their own houses can lease a large lot for 5 a year which includes garbage removal there are about 1000 such leases the company has also built twelve school houses at a cost of and leases them to the school district for about 3 per cent there are some very fine stone churches in the copper country and the company has helped to build all of them there is a great deal more of it but it would be a long story for instance em aloyes of 20 years service on reaching the age of 60 are pensioned or given jobs which amount to pensions the company carries a charity account and spends a month just in hauling free coal to widows wido vs every widow is kept track of |