The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-03-26

the case In 1902, laboring under a weight Of
~undigested securities or endeavoring to
Tree themselves from the bonds Of unsuo-
cessful syndicate operations and similar
engagements. While the stock market has
been thus hesitEting, the actual wealth Of
the country and the profits OF business have
gone on accommodating; and now, as the
spring approa ches, there Is an unfolding Of
plans for new business enterprises n
undertakings OF various sorts to be executed
in the remainder OF the year which will,
1t Is almost certain, make the year the
most tremendous one In a business sense
thus far In our oountry's history. The
Rdiludy Age, the recognized authority on
such matters, declared last week that there
is now unde way in this country the con-
struction Of 13,0l4 miles Of new road, and
that what are known as "live proiects' are
making for the building Of 8 .4s3 miles more.
The centre of activity here seems to be in
the Northwestern and Western sections,
owing to the huge extensions planned by
the Hill and Hartman, the Gould and the
st. Paul interests.
While it might perhaps be invidious to
select any one branch Of the country's bust
ness as a subject for particular remark as
regards its present and prospective activity,
every observer Of the general trade situa-
ton must be impressed with the enormous
part now played and likely to be played
in the future by the copper mining and
manufacturing industries. While there
have been signs of a lull, doubtless nc
more than a mere temporary resting, in
certain departments of business, there
is absolutely no let up in the immense
consumption of copper metal and in the
multiplication Of uses to which copper is
put. SO far as car be learned. about 50,-
600, 900 pounds of copper a month is now
being consumed in the United States in the
arts and manufactures The General Flee
trio and Western Electric companies alone
are using 14o. 700. eco POUNDS Of copper a
year, an amount only less in a trifing de-
gree than the entire production OF the great
Lake Superior copper mining district six
years ago; and from every trade indica-
ton it is not probable that the average
price of copper in the country through
out the year will be less than Is cents a
pound. Mention should be made, finally, of
a singular and in many ways unexplainable
fact. To a surprisingly large majority
of the spectators and casual investors
III Vol ADNlCOt lAltoS ar w tiiC BlODlti'y
Of copper mining only focus themselves
upon the few copper stocks listed on the
New York Stock Exchange or upon those
bought and sold in the local curb market.
There exists in general a lack of under
standing that is simply extraordinary re-
garding the status Of the great copper
concerns which are only dealt in in Boston,
long the leading market for copper prop
critics. While spectators here will en-
Enthusiastically buy shares of copper mining
companies that have an active New York
market, but which are either so circum-
stanced that the dividend return on them
is relatively small or that no substantial
degree Of Information concerning their
condition and prospects can be obtained,
they pass over out of sheer ignorance, so
far as can be seen, the stocks of Lake
Superior mining companies, yielding a
current return on an investment in them
of from 9 to l215 per cent, and whose skilled
and economical management and magnif-
cent earning capacity have been as soundly
demonstrated through long years in the
past as those Of any railroad system in the
land. 1t will be arguing an almost in
conceivable faulty and stupidity on the
part of Wall Street il in the coming ad-
vance in copper shares-that is according
to every reasonable indication probable
the price Of some Of the copper stocks so
long and favorably known to the Boston
comparatively as those of the no more valu-
able, even if better advertised, properties
whose aha res are bought and sold here.