Bisbee daily review., 1905-06-27
STEVENS VIEW
 OF THE SLUMP
IS OF OPINION THAT THE DESIRE TO CONSOLIDATE HAS TO DO
 WITH DECLINE.
That Has Been Prominent in Recent Weeks-Also Cites North Butte Transactions as an Aid-The Copper Country Close Down.

hOughton, Mlch-. June 24.-(Spe- cial) 1.-The Phoenix mine, after six
 years of effort. has given up the
 ghost. The mine was closed down
 this week, and while it will take a
 month or so to complete the work of ldismantling and to close up the odds
 and ends of business, it may be ac- cepted as a fact that the Phoenix is
 out of business for keeps. The pres
 ent company was organized in 1899,
 and holds title to the Phoenix, St. Clair and Robbins mines. The old
 Phoenix mine proper is one of the old est in the district. and paid smaiI oIvi-
 dends, but laid out far larger sums in development. The present Phoenix Consolidated Copper Company is the lineal successor of the first mining company organized to operate in the
 Lake Superior Copper district, sixty odd years ago. The present compa- ny did not reopen the old Phoenix
 mine, which produced a single mass Of five hundred short tons weight, many years ago. but devoted attention to the development of the St. Clair and Robbins or Garden City mines. The property has a small mill and has been a small producer for the past eighteen months.
 The downward course of the locally owned Bisbee stocks continues un- checked With Calumet & Arizona selling at se2 per share there evident ly is a screw loose somewhere. Care full review of the situation leads to the belief that the present low prices are due to one and possibly both of the reasons set forth hereinafter. The first and most palpable reason is the stretching of the buying power of the people who have been speculating in these shares, to a point where time must elapse before recuperation can set in. The last big flotation, the North Butte, called for many millions in cash, and. outside of a few wealthy men connected with the so-called Bonanza Circle" stocks. the million raised had to come largely from the Bisbee shares. The wiser investors in North Butte sold Bisbee shares out right. at what proved top prices, and while their North Butte has declined also from the high market price, those who got in at subscription fig ures are still far ahead of the game, and even those who bought into North Butte at the top market prices, sell ing Bisbes stocks to do so, are uv worse off than they would have been to have held their Bisbee shares The people who really got pinched in the deal, and who are helping to make g | bad market worse, are those who bor- rowed at the banks upon their Bisbee shares to buy North Butte. The Bis bee shares naturally declined, because
 Of the heavy selling and the heavy
 borrowing thereupon, and, as decline
 was due shortly. in the natural course | of events. the situation found nobody ! on the ground with 2 prop or peg.
 AS the Bisbee shares declined, bank CTS begun to ask more collateral, or
 cash upon account, and this threw
 more stock upon the market, at time when. the market was suffering from lacute indigestion. The first stock to
 get a black eye was. very naturally
 Junction. Junction was the first to be marked for slaughter. because il was the newest of the Calumet & Ari- lzona sisterhood. and showed the Iars lest profits to the majority of it's hold iers. The other shares moved off in ,sympathy a few points, and a little later were themselves placed under lthe same sort of selling pressure as
 Junction. from the same causes, that lis, the necessity of raising cash
 Eventually the trouble reached Calu lmet & Arizona itself, stock that i: lpaying per cent, and earning nearly
 twice that on a market price of $1O( lper share. The necessity that specu llators were under of raising monel caused them to sacrifice Calumet 6 . Arizona in the end, grudgingly, to b' , sure. but none the less certainly.
 The reason set forth in the foregoini
 paragraph may be accepted as strict , fly true, and will be so accepted by al good judges of the situation, and al , close students of market peculiaritie
 and stock speculation. IL is a cues
 tion. however, whether there is no