Show mo mes ines of the northwest I 1 SPECIAL CORR correspondence cl spokane wash dec 26 the first dividend to be declared by a coni company pany operating in the fields of stevens county washington is a 2 per cent return to stockholders of bf the american minerals production company st S ck holders will receive a total of the company i i quarrying on a big deposit west of the town of valley and has been shipping bot boi i crude and calcine material for several months this is the company headed by T alimas Tl imas W cole of chicago work on the railroad contracted for by this company to extend from valley to the quarries is being rushed A disputed point over operations on account 0 of industrial insurance applying has been ruled upon by the state insurance commission with a decision that taking out is quarrying and not mining and the hauling of the product to kilns kalns is incidental to the quarry work however it is expected that t operations will be classified as mining in the public mind regardless of the decision by the commission record at blacktail again the armstead mines operating at Black blackhall tall on lake pend oreille idaho has broken the record for tunnel work the main tunnel was advanced feet in twenty eight days of november this performance for mance beats the former record of feet in twenty nine working days of october we vie are not seeking to establish a tunnel record said henry H Arn armstead istead president we are driving the tunnel to cut the velnon vein on the lowest level without waste of time all of the high figures on tunnel driving are based on a full working month of 31 days we made feet in the last thirty one working days if I 1 disregarded co cost stand and worked sundays we could make more footage but a record in tunnel cutting is not what we are after trail smelter still closed mining men are noticing with much concern that there seems no likelihood of the trail smelter being reopened the plant was closed a few weeks ago owing to a strike of the 1600 employees who demanded an allaround all around eight hour day only about men would have been affected by the change apparently all negotiations for settlement have broken off the fires in the furnaces have been drawn closing of the smelter seriously affects adlof all of the kootenay mining district of british columbia and several mines of northern washington A number of properties have closed down in consequence in spite of the closing of the smelter the consolidated mining smelting smelling Sm elting company of canada has declared its usual quarterly dividend of 2 per cent this will make the total payments in dividends this corporation owns the smelter there is said to be a surplus of lead held by the corporation sufficient to supply all its customers including the government for several months the hecla mining company operating in the coeur dalene district idaho has declared a dividend of 5 cents per share for december the company has been paying 15 cents a share but the low price of lead and uncertainty of the war tax caused a reduction in the dividend rate for this month substitutes for technical men A short course at the idaho school of mines at moscow this winter is being planned with a view to preparing substitutes for the young professional and technical men filling positions as assayers and mine su surveyors who have gone to the army we are receiving every day calls for men to fill such positions and do not know where to turn for a single man says dean F A thompson young men not yet of draft age or those who for various causes have been exempted will do well to consider the opportunities thus afforded while of course the training must of necessity be largely of an empirical kind we feel that this is a time for emergency courses and for the brushing aside if need be of academic precedents |