The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-11-26
BOSTON DOES NOT
LIKE HIGH COPPER
News Bureau Springs Somewhat
of a Surprise to the Cop
per Interests.
HIGHER MARKET HAS
ULTIMATE BAD EFFECT
Interesting History Given About
Attempts to Corner Red
Metal Market.

While Boston copper stocks have not
vet discounted 2O-cent copper mar
kct. it looks rs though 25 cents per
pound for the best brands Of lake cop
per for quick delivery might be reached
before any copper has again sold as
low as 90 cents per pound, says the
News Bureau The action of the ANA
gamated selling agents recently looked
like an attempt 10 break the market,
and certainly a higher copper market
is not In the interest of producers, for
its ultimate effect must be bad, Not
In the present generation has copper
sold at the present price. and what II
means will be best understood hy a
reflection upon two mountain peaks of
copper mining history the past gener-
alton: the first, the Secretan syndicate,
seventeen years ago, cornering the cop
per supply of the world at Is cents
per pound, backed by all the mining
companies and banking credits of the
world NJ Secretan was ono of the
largest copper manufacturers IN the
world, and saw early the shortage in
copper supply which has now, for the
first time, effectively materialized.
seventeen years afterwards He fore"
saw the electrical development Of the
world on a wholly inadequate copper
production basis
But the inertia of the world and his
inability to make other people see it,
broke his back on a lucent copper
market, with India and the East, for
the first time in 100 years, a seller of
copper instead of buyer, and all this
on a 15-cent copper market, or only
3 cents above the average Of the ten
preceding years. II took the whole
world seven years, with n break to
below 10 cents in the copper market,
To absorb the 200.00o,000 pounds sur
plus accumulated by the Secretan syn
dicate, Within three wears after this
surplus had been absorbed, the Stand
ard OIL party began to move TO attempt
the same thing over again, but this
time upon more daring scale and by
the control of the copper mining situ
alton. They ran up against f. Angus
tus Heinze in Montana and the liti
cation which followed was responsible
for larger copper development than
BUTTE, They accumulated 200,000,000
pounds of copper at IL cents. and sold
most of it at IL cents Then the
Standard Oil party quit corncring cop
per. quit Montna politics. and placed
their copper interests in the hands of
John ID. Ryan, who had been brought
up in the good school of Lake Superior
S'pPNl hliHihGs HOI1ldS Il. iOlp.
the head of the mining department of
the United States Steel corporation.
Mr.. Ryan did what II, Fl, Rogers
ought to have done years before; put
the ground disputed with Henze out to
arbitration, settled the boundaries, sank
the Anaconda shafts. and gave the
Butte mountain chance Of pouring
forth another billion of wealth. But
all that the Butte mountain. with n
IA Al
the enlarged Lake Superior copper dis
trict, all that Arizona, Utah, British
Columbia and Mexico, with their new
production never dreamed of when the
Secretan Syndicate went to pieces, ap-
pear now as unavailing to meet the ris-
ing demand for copper throughout the
world. When the selling agents of the
Amalgamated appealed to Mr. Rogers
to check the advance in copper, he
looked over the situation and The sales
sheets Of the Amalgamated Copper
companies and then coolly remarked: |
Well, what have YOU or ] got to say |
about what the price of copper shall be |
when We haven't any copper TO sell? |
The future of the copper market de-
Pends upon the buyer and the man who
mas got any copper to SELL -
The Calumet & Hecla people do not
usually have to ask advice on copper
They employ the best talent money can
command in the world aud then have
that talent serve only the Calumet &;
Hecla shareholders When Mr.. Rogers
could no longer hold down tho copper
market at II cents or even Is cents,
the Calumet & Hecla people prudently
stepped aside until they had nbout 90 |
100000 pounds of copper, with which
they thought they might have "some-
thing 10 say about the price. Then
MI. kaht, the New York selling agent,
was informed that although Some
grades of copper might be selling
around 81 cents, he might offer 10000,
600 pounds Of Calumet copper at 22la
cents. over future months, Just to allav
any fears that manufacturers might
have that copper would be unavailable.
AIR, Raht replied "Of course, we do