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THENAVY

THANKSLABOR

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In reviewing labor's contributions to the war for 1943, Under Secretary of the Navy JamesV. Forrestal paid the workers of America high praise. COPPER CO M MAN DO takespleasure in reprinting this news dispatch recently released. Montanans did their part tooin contributing the metals which enabled labor to make such a fine showing.

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WASHINCTON - American labor's outstanding performance for the Navy on the production linesduring 1943 was cited by Navy Under Secretary James V. Forrestal when he revealed that 65 aircraftcarriers and 13,617 combatant naval planes were completed in that period; !

Forrestal said the Navy "now has in being forces which constitute the greatest sea and air strik-ing power in the world. We completed in 1943 1,600,000 tons of combatant ships, almost doublingthat which existed at the beginning of the year and nearly three times the tonnage completed in 1942."

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He said six of the new carriers were 27,000 tonners of the Essex type, ft.ine of the 10,OOO-ton con-verted cruiser type and 50 escort carriers which are smaller ships and have been used to hunt subma-rines in the Atlantic .

.. Aircraft workers bU'ilt for the Naval Air FOf'cea total of 13,617 combatant planes which "gave usat the end of the year a net, after all losses, of nearly 16,000 combat aircraft, against 5,800 in exist-ence at the year's beginning."

In paying tribute to labor's production feat, Forrestal said that labor had put its heart and sOul, aswell as its back and arms, into the war job..2. .. MARCH 17, 1944

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CapturedJaps

•Here are Jap Tree Climbers! Notesplit-toed shoes, helpful in tree-climbing,worn by these Japanese soldiers capturedon Cuadalcanal Island by U. S. Marines.

'0. S. Ma:rlne OOr»a Photo.

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COPPER COMMANDO 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 Manage- .

" ment, its policies are shaped by both sidesand are dictated by neither •••• COPPERCOMMANDO was established at therecommendation of the War Departme~twith the concurrence of the War Produc·tion Board. Its editors are Bob Newcomb-and Marg Sammons; its safety editor isJohn L Boardman; its chief photographer-il AI Cusclorf;' itS' staH photographeri. L.s Bishop •••• Its Editorial Board con-sists of: D.... s McCarthy, CIO; John, F..Bird, AFL; Ed Renouard, ACM, fromButte; Dan Byrne, CIO, Joe Marick, AFL;C. A. Lemmon, ACM, from Anaconda;Jack Clark, CIO; Herb Donaldson, AFL,and E. S. Bardwell, ACM, from CreatFalls. • •• COPPER COMMANDO ismailed to the home of every .... ployee ofACM in the four locations--if you arenot receiving your copy advise COPPERCOMMANDO at 112- Ham1ilton Street,Butte, or, better still, drop in and tell us.This is Vol. 2, No. 15.

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(;opper (;olDlDandoBUTT<EDOES IT ACAI N __.... .. .. ..... PACE 4

The Victory Labor-Management Production Committee, in cooperation with theWar Department, sponsored free showings of films for the Anaconda employees ..These films brought home to the copper workers the grim messages of wa-. Com-munity ~oups contributed their services and made this event an outstanding success.

BRASS MILLS .__. . ._._.... _. . : . ._________PACE 8In this issue COPPER COMMANDO continues its trip through the Waterbury ",Iantsof The American Brass Company, an Anaconda Copper Mining Company subsidiary,to show you just what happens to the copper you mine. smelt and refine. Cartridgebrass. which is seventy per cent copper and thirty per cent zinc, is made into am~munition cups.

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A,-LEY, OOP! __. . . .__ ._ ._ . ._: __.. PACE 10

When the boys and gals from the ACM Bowling League got together for their thirdannual tournament a fe-w weeks ago in Butte, COPPER COMMANDO was on hand.Miners and craftsmen. office workers and Company officials, all participated. TheSteward Mine team with a total score of 2876 was the champion team.

COPPER COMMANDO COES ,TO A PARTY __.._..._.•. . ... .. . .__. PACE 12At the Smelter in Anaconda ·the gals have a lounge in the basement of.the main officebuilding. There's an electric plate, dishes and silver, so when anyone of the gals ismarried, the bride is feted. Chided for always showing employees at work andnever at play, we hurried over to get in on the recent party given in honor of EleanorMerrick, a recent bride.

THE FRONTCOVER: Cals as well as men took part in the ACMBowling Tournament which was held at the Winter Carden, andCOPPER COMMANDO'S photographer got this shot of three of

the bowling beauties. From left to right they are: MargaretCoyne' of ....e Belmont Hiring Office, Beverly McVicars andDorothy Shaffer, both of the Purchasing Department.

Btte Does It Again!Victory Labor-Management Production Committee, in cooperation with War Depart-ment, sponsors free ·showings of films for Anaconda employees, as grim message of war isbrought home to copper workers' •

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W1TH many groups in the communitycontributing their services to the successof -the event, tHe Victory Labor-Manage-ment Production Committee at Butte onFebruary 20 sponsored a showing of threerealistic war films in cooperation with theWar Department at Washington. Thisshow, held at the Fox Theater, played tocapacity crowds for the three perform-ances given. All mine and shop em-ployees of the Anaconda Copper MiningCompany were eligible to attend theshows: however, the demand for tick-ets was so overwhelming that the Com-mittee .was obliged regretfully to turnhundreds away.

The films, borrowed from officialfiles of the War Department through thecourtesy of its Industrial Incentive Divi-sion, are rated by War Department offi-cials as being the finest available. Theywere "War Department Report," "FilmCommunique No.3" and "Baptism of

Fire." All who saw the films were intotal agreement as to their effectiveness.

The fi rst performance was held attwo o'clock on Sunday afternoon and thehouse filled quickly; two other perform-ances were held in the evening-one atseven o'clock and one at nine o'clock, andfor the 'last show more than four hundredpeople lined up outside the theater togain admission as soon as the showstarted.

"War Department Report," whichhas the official endorsement of Under-Secretary of War Robert P. Patterson, isa realistic portrayal of the progress of thewar; "Film Communique No.3" is a se-ries of exciting incidents taken on allfronts. Featured in both were clips fromcaptured German and Japanese filmswhich were extremely interesting to all."Baptism of Fire" is a document designedto show the new soldi~r what he confrontsand how best to confront it.

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The War Films Sub-Committee ofthe Victory Labor-Management Commit-'tee was headed by John F. Bird, AFL elec-trician. Associated with him for Laborwere John Cavanaugh, CIO engineer, andBert Riley, CIO miner. Representing theAnaconda Company was Eugene Hogan.All are members of the Victory, Labor-Management Production Committee.

On the following pages COPPERCOMMANDO, official newspaper of theVictory Labor-Management ProductionCommittee, seeks to mirror in pictureform this event in the history of Butte.It wishes to express, too, in behalf of theentire Victory Labor-Management Pro-duction Committee, the deep regret ofthat group that the War Films Show wasso spectacularly successful that it was notpossible for every employee of the Ana-'4:onda Copper Mining Company to attendthis thrilling and exciting portrayal of theUnited Nations at war.

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Section of audience at first evening show, with Charles Black and Mrs.Black in left foreground. He i. Labor c:Nirman of Victory Labor-Mall-age",ent Production Connnittee. ~

•Tremendous credit is due the groups which cheerfully andwithout charge donated their services to make the show asuccess: The Theatrical Stage Employees and Motion PictureOperators Local 94, which supplied fine operators for all three

~shows; the Musicians' ~ssociation which donated three full-si%ed popular orchestras--Fred Harvey's, Bi.lly Hamilton's ofthe Copper Bowl and the Rocky Mountain of'chestra-thewomen and girls of the Miners' Union Ladies' Auxiliary, aswell as other women who served as ushers; the managementof the Fox theater, Bert Henson, manager, for the use of thehouse and the Montana Power Company for power.

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The house filled quickly once doors were opened. Musicians' Union pro-vided most stirring music with three fine bands which played as crowdentered and left theater •

Neil Weston, Butre Miners' Union ex-president, and Mike Lacey, CIO statehead, af left, join Committee Chairman John Bird and wif~, shown at rightwith friends in theater lobby.

Crowds thronged into the lobby following each show. figure in centerforeground is Frank BirMingham, AFL teamster, and Victory Labor-Man-agement Production Committee representative.

Behind Mike Lacey chat Mrs. Lacey and Mary McLeod, wife of the Miners'Union Recqrding SecretCM'Y. Center figure K Mrs. James Byrne, wife offormer Miners' Union chief.

Miners and their families outnumbered others greatly. Lobby commentindic~ted great interest in end uses of copper which Montana copperworkers produce for United Nations.

Typical lobby scene as guests departed. At extre~ left are Cene Hogan.Anaconda Company representative, and Bert Riley, Butte miner, who servedon the Sub-Committee.

Copper Commando staff photographer took many group pictures as crowdseagerly awaited start of the various shows. See how'many friends of yoursyou can recognize here.

Lower floor of theater filled very quickly. although many preferred balconyseats. Many sons and daughters of Company workers could be found in thetheater's packed audiences.

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WARFILMS

•Cuests appeared to agree that War Department pictures were the finestever to be seen in B.utte; many expressed the hope that they might beshown again in the near future.

Committeemen Cene Hogan. Bill Petrovich. John Bird and Bert Riley posewith pretty. competent group of girls who cheerfully donated their servicesas ushers at one of the shows.

Fox Theater's Dan Kalen poses with second group of ushers who helpedhandle crowds. The girls did a splendid job in seating the people quicklyand without any difficulty.

Third group of ushers. Several of the girls volunteered not for one but forall three shows and went through the wearying grind of handling the tre-mendous crowds.

Sub-Committee member for CIO engineers. John Cavanaugh. pauses inlobby after show for visit with Cene·Hogan. Anaconda Company Commit-tee representative. Both labeled show a success.

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Before last show started hundreds lined up outside the theater. Here twoof Police Chief Bart Riley's boys did a service in keeping the large crowdorderly and cheerful.

Camera fissled in getting two of the three bands-Copper Bowl and RockyMountain group pictures did not come out. Here is Fred Harvey and his ex-cellent crew of musicians.

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Top flight cooperation was offered by operators who gave up otherwiseproductive day to donate their services free to the Victory Labor-Manage-ment Committee moving'picture program.

Second group of operators also contributued their time. The Victory Labor-Management Committee expresses its deepest gratitude to these public-spirited men from the Operators' Union .

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•Views of people you knowwho saw the ArlDYWar FilIUSat the Fox Theater in Butte •.Seehow lDauy of your friendsyou can identify. I

Carl Jones, WPB deputy regional director, at left, poses with Committeemembers, government officials and editors of Copper Commando. WPB',Oscar Baarson is in center foreground .

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Before films began, atmosphere was tense with excitement for advancepublicity had indicated the serious and dramatic nature of the three WarDepartment films to be shown here.

Shows brought labor and management more closely together in commonappreciation of the gravity of the war and the need for pulling together tohelp get the war won quickly.

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Brass MillCARTRIDGE brass is seventy per centcopper .and thirty per cent zinc. In ourlast issue you may recall how these brassslabs were poured-they came out inhuge slabs weighing 730 pounds each.

After the slab is chilled and gatedit is run through a number of cold rolls-the idea is to flatten them and extendthem so they can be fi nally used forpunching out small arms ammunitioncups. These ammunition cups, whencompleted, areshi to arsenals where

they become cartridge cases, to be loadedwith powder and bullets. In the largepicture at the top of the page we see a"four-high" roll. This is the second coldrolling operation and it gives you a goodidea of how the brass slabs are reduced-we will tell you more about the "four-high" roll in a minute or two.

In the small picture at the top ofthe page the operator is using the elec-tric hoist to raise the furnace in positionto pour. These are 19V2 inch bars and

In our last issue we took a trip to th~Waterbury plants of The American BrassCompany in Connecticut. Here we sawrirgin metal being alloyed with scrap toform brass for war production. In thisissue we continue our trip.

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.8. MARCH 17, 1944

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they are cast in water-cooled molds. In•the picture just below it the actual pour-

ing is taking place. Down at the bot-tom of the page we s~~ the finishedslab after it comes from the furnace.It is being loaded on a "dolly" so thatit can be moved.

At the time we visited the Water-bury plant, the first cold break-downroll was not in operation, so we movedon to a picture of these slabs after thefirst break-down had taken place. In...the picture at the lower right corner of......page 8 we see a stack of these slabs.You can already see that they have beenconsiderably flattened out after the fi rstcold rolling operations.

As we have said, the whole idea hereis to keep reducing and extending theoriginal slabs, because when they are fin-ally ready for stamping they must be flatstrips of exact thickness, frojn which thecartridge cups can be stamped out.

After the second break-down oper-ation, the slabs are rolled on a smaller"four-high" roll, as you will see in theupper left picture on this page. Herewe see the metal actually coming offthis intermediate rolling operation andbeing formed in a coil for easier handlingon automatic conveyors. This is notenough - the metal is still not flatenough. It must be .rolled and re-rolledcold through these rolls until it hasreached the proper thickness. In the pic-ture at the upper right we see the coilsat the end of the automatic roll. Theyare returned for re-rolling to reduce themfurther.

Now let's look again at the large pic-ture on the opposite page. This, as wehave said. is a "four-high" roll, so calledbecause there are actually four rolls inthe press. There are two big ones andtwo little ones, and the pressure they canapply to metal is tremendous. When theslab is finally sent through for the lastrolling operation. it has been reducedmany times its original thickness and hasbecome greatly elongated. In the large

MARCH 17, 1944

picture at the lower right of this pagewe find coils from the "four-high" rolls ~for small arms ammunition cups.

Torrington is about twenty mi lesfrom Waterbury, and in our next issuewe will take you to this wonderful plantwhere you can see the cartridge cups forour fighting forces actually being stampedout and shipped to the Army arsenals fortransmission to the fighting fronts allover the world.

It is necessary to go to Torrington tocomplete this story. but we will be backto Waterbury again to show you howcondenser tubes for the Navy are made.This is one of the most interesting stories,to come <?utof the brass mills of the East.

All in all, you certainly get the im-pression that these brass plants are de-Iiveri ng the goods for the fighters of theUnited Nations.

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AlleyO~p!

•The 'boys and gals from 'the ACM BowlingLeague got together f... their third an-nual tournament a few weeks ago inButte. Here are some pictures of theplayers taken on the opening evening ofthe tournament, February 12th •

Members of the CommiHee with Compafty officials: Back row, left to right-Steve Matule, R. H.Clover, Counsel; A. E.Wilkinson, chairman; Jim Murphy, Peter O'Neill, Cus Kingston, and E. S. Mc-Clone, Ceneral Manager of Mines and Metallurgical Operations in Montana and Idaho; front row-D. M. Kelty, Vice President; EarlWilliams and Pete Rebich.

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These are some lcenes talten at the Winter Carden the opening night ofthe ~ffair. The ACM Bowling League was organized in 1940 and includesemployeel from aU branches of the Company service. Miners and "aftl-

men, office worket'l and Company officials, all participated. The League.when formed, consisted of only eight teams; today it has thirty-six. Thistournament was won by the Steward Mine team with a totallcore of 2,876.

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NO LET UPTHERE is talk in many parts of the coun-try of production goals h a v i n g beenreached. To too many people, this seemsto indicate that the war is about over, for,some folks reason, if we have reached aproduction goal, then there can't be any-thing more to worry about.·

Stop and think of this: After PearlHarbor, American industry was taxedwith the problems of producing warmaterials in quantities never heard of be-fore. It was necessary not only to reach ahigh peak of production but, once thatpeak had been reached, to maintain it.

W~ hear a fot of talk in our industryand in other industries about stocl(piling.But stockpiles of metals, for example,are chiefly insurance against a suddendepletion of vital metal stocks. Accord-ing to official government sources, theAllies can shoot away the existing cop-per stockpile in two major naval engage-ments and we would be obliged then tobuild it up again.

Any army fighting a war needs a re-serve, whether it is in planes or tanks ormen or materials. OUf country has astockpile, for example, of all of thesethings and it must maintain them. But·we are still building planes and we arestill building tanks and we are still draft-ing men into the military service. In thesame way, we must still produce vitalmetals.

The worker who figures today thathe has reached the peak of productionand needs to produce no more is unwit-tingly following the propaganda the Axiswants him most to believe. He shouldhave no other desire than to end this warjust as rapidly as possible, and the onebest way in which he can do it is toKEEP producing. Needless absence froma job today is as grave a crime as it was ayear ago when the odds. were against us.

We ar-e all bound to hear of produc-tion peaks having been reached. Weknow of production being suspended, forexample, in some small arms ammuni-tion plants for the reason that, for thepresent at least, we've got enough. Butwe haven't enough long range bombersand we haven't enough landing bargesand we haven-'t enough large type ammu-nition at this point to sustain a major in-vasion in the Pacific. Or, as far ~s thatgoes, in the Atlantic, either.

MARCH 17, 1944

People (;' PlacesBOWLI NG fans throughout the Com-pany locations, and particularly those atGreat Falls, were heart broken at thenews that the ACM Club there was re-cently ravaged by fire. It was one of themost tragic blows to lovers of bowl ingthat can be imagined. The Club itself wasa congenial gathering place for GreatFalls employees and the loss of the Clubwill be keenly felt all over the Hill.

One of the activities which the Clubsponsored so successfully was women'sbowling. Recently, when your editorsvisited the Great Falls Reduction Works,we stopped in at the ACM Club to pho-tograph one of the groups of girls as they.rolled them down the alley. That's apicture of them below and here are theirnames: Left to right, bowling-MarieLevandowski, Emma Smith, Ruth Meyers,and Myrtle Petrini; left to right, stand-ing-Teresa Dunkin, Lucile Grady, EllaLipton, Ruby Schatzkn, Ethel Montgom-ery, Luella Levandowski, Mayme Myers,Rosann Holmlund and Helen Daniels.

The fire gravely endangered DickTownsend, manager of the Club, his wifeand her mother who were asleep up-stai rs, but they got safely out of thebuilding. Among the several attractionsof the Club were a fine library, an inter-esting exhibit and large and comfortablerooms ..

eood LuckCOPPER COMMANDO would be un-grateful i"deed if it did not pause to saygood-bye to Harry O. King, former chiefof the Copper Division of the War Pro-duction Board in Washington, who hasnow withdrawn from his important postto return to private industry. The war

production work in which Harry was en-gaged before he took his Washingtonposition, now demands his full attention.

For many 'Iong and trying months,Harry King worked on the gigantic prob-lems of production aided by the best .ef-forts of management and labor in the in-dustry. He will be remembered in thissection particularly for the awards givento copper workers at the big doings lastSeptember in Butte. We wish him thevery best of luck.

Harry's place has been taken overby Michael S c h war z , affectionatelyknown as Mike. Mike has been Harry'sable Iieutenant these many months andhe steps into a post he knows very well.Our Victory Labor-Management Produc-tion Committees, pulling together to getthis war won,,,welcome Mike Schwarzand wish him also the very best.

CommentEARLY reactions to our series on theoperations of the Americarl Brass Com-pany (we started the series in our lastissue) have been most interesting andfavorable. It was the idea of our Laber-Management Editorial Board that it mightbe useful to show copper and zinc work-ers in this area how their products wereused, so COPPER COMMANDO made a

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trip to two of the plants of the AmericanBrass Company. (which, as practicallyeverybody knows, is a subsidiary of theAnaconda Copper Mining Company) inConnecticut. In later issues we expectto take up such interesting manufactur-ing projects as projectile bands for shellsfor the Navy, condenser tubes for battle-ships. etc. It was fun doing the seriesand we hope you like it.

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(;opper(;olDlDando

Goes toa Party

T HE gals from all the departments lo-cated in the various buildings on theHill drop in the lounge, which is in thebasement of the main office building,during the afternoon for a party. S;ncethe refreshments are served buffet ltyle,the gals can come in, help themselves toan appetizing snack, wish the bride welland be back on the job. ~n electricgrill, coffee percoiator ,disbes and silverare kept in the lounge. One girl-forthi's party it was Delores Cardinal-takescharge of the party and in this way eachgal has a chance to use her own ingenuityin making the party a success. In thepicture 10 the right are: Dorothy Kurtz,Virginia Hoyt, Alice Kreber, Fay Jensen,Lillian Dee, Ceorgia Masten, Eva Thomp-son, Mabel Kelly, Myrtle Riley, Ida Kee-nan, Eleanor Merrick, Alice Bubash, Lu-cille TuHle, Lillian Pearson, Marie For-rest, Kay Callagher, Margaret Nuckolsand Rose LaPointe •

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ONE of the gals at the Anaconda Re-duction Works collared us the otherday and said, "Look here, why don't youCOPPER COMMANDO folks show thesocial side of life every once in a while?"She told us all about a party being givenfor Eleanor 1teardon Merrick, a stenogra-pher for the Traffic Department. Eleanorwas married to Nick Merrick on Decem-ber 1, 1943, and he has since rejoinedthe Army in Louisiana. Because the galsgive a buffet party for each of thegif'ls after she is ma,rried and present thebride with a 'gift, we thought it hightime we looked in on one. They pre-sented Mrs. Merrick with a $50 WarBond. In the picture above we see, leftto right: Delores Cardinal~ Lois Arvish,Cecil Ward, Mary Lenihan, Eleanor Mer-rick (bride), Marcia McBride, Salle Hoyt,Rena Stearns, Ann Burlovich, Helen Vee-der, Cloria Dunne. In the picture to theleft that's the bride, Eleanor, Ida Cros ..white, Helen Monohan and Doris Hamill.

MARCH 11, 1944