Arizona republican., 1899-03-31

any degree Of importance. These
 mines were SO prolific and the metal
 produced of such high standard that
 they made a profound impression on the world of metallurgy. They had not more than arrived at fruition when
 the great mines at Butte, Montana.
 were discovered and vigorously mined,
 and America stepped to the front as
 a producer of copper The rich ores
 of the Michigan and Montana mines
 soon made their impress upon the
 copper market to such a degree that
 the low grade mines of the New Eng
 land states, New Jersey and Tennes-
 see sank from public notice as produc-
 CTS of any considerable quantity of
 cCEper. In the meantime the adven-
 turous prospector had penetrated the
 wilds Of Arizona and discoveries of copper were reported at various points
 within the territory, but not until the early sos was there any systematic eff fort made towards opening the mines. | Ii is true that while Globe and Bisbee had made some progress towards open | ing the rich deposits found at those
 places, the lack of transportation fla | cilities precluded the possibility of eX- l tensive operations. But the advent of
 the Southern Pacific and the At lantic and Pacific railroads as well as the more recent railroad lines rami- flying throughout Arizona, has wrought a wonderful change, and has stimulat- ed and made possible the settlement
 and reclamation of Arizona; but above all and transcending all other inter ests, the advent of the railroads has made possible the development of the
 great mineral resources of the terri
 tory of Arizona, among which copper
 mining stands pre-eminent.
 vsr 1 in the production of copper. Can she
 aspire to take first place, and having
 taken it can she maintain it? Through out the broad eXpanse of the peerless Union Of states with it's immense areas
 ot agricultural lands and forests of l timber, with it's millions of acres of coal, with its vast deposits of iron and wide diffusion Of mines of silver and gold, with it's more than imperial area Of twelve mountain states and terri tories, stretching from Canada on the north to Mexico on the south, there are but two states and one territory that produce the copper of America, to-wit, Michigan, Montana and Arizona
 The contest, therefore, for supre- macy lies between the above men toned states and Arizona Without any intent to disparage the magnificent copper mines of Michigan or Montana. the writer is constrained to say that the copper bearing areas of those states are very circumscribed and of well known limited extent, copper be- ing found in quantity only at one To- cality in Michigan-near Lake Michi- gan-while the storm center of copper production in Montana is more or less limited to the region around Butte.
 On the other hand Arizona has today in operation six distinct copper camps, each camp being the center of well known extensive deposits of copper, and each camp, with two exceptions, being widely separated from each other, averaging from one hundred to three hundred miles apart. In addi- tion to the we'll known mines now in operation in Arizona there are now in process of development numerous promising prospects, many of which will undoubtedly prove to be produc- ing mines and will in the near future add very materially to the output of copper in Arizona.
 The oft repeated and threadbare ar gument has recently been reproduced in an eastern paper that Arizona can not compete with Montana and Michi- gan copper owing to the cost of labor, fuel and transportation in Arizona" It might be well to merely point to the fact that we have competed for the last ten years with copper selling at cents in New York for the most of that time and with fuel at nearly double the cost that it is today Our mines have not only competed but have made extens- i've developments in the way of ma chinery New and modern furnaces, and in two notable instances the con- struction of long lines of standard gauge railroads to these mines.
 ic +1,a c,,oaoez Arizona copper mines that the writer is in no wise under obligations to keep, and that secret resides substantially in the fact that the ores of the Arizona copper mines, taken upon the average of all the Sres treated, are of three times tha llue in copper of the ores treated Michigan and 50 per cent highe< llue than those treated in ? MoI n addition to this it must nd ooke1 that in nearly all of thN res treated in Arizona gold to srabie extent is found. and conA t1Ies a very important factor in the Value of the bullion shipped. To the earnest investigator of the compar- atIye cost of laying pound of copper down in New York as between Michi- gan, Montana and Arizona based upon the value of the copper alone, Arizona will be found to have the advantage to the extent CT half cent per pound, and to this may be added the value of the gold contained in the bullion.
 And while upon the subject of the ability of Arizona copper mines to com pete, and while our attention is so called to the three thou sand miles of railroad stretching from Arizona to New York as being a great drawback to the copper industry of the territory, we simply rise to explain that we are successfully competing un- der all Of the conditions named, and are maintaining our mines OH fine paying basis; and we respectfully call