The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-17
BOSTON IS HOME
OF COPPER STOCKS
Anaconda Marked Up to 800
on Wall Street
METAL IS GOING HIGHER
Such Is the Confident Prediction of
Copper Enthusiasts-ereat Rail-
way Identification Age
Is Approaching.
METAL IS GOING HIGHER
BY w. G. NICHOLAS.

New York. February 1G.-The marking
up of Anaconda Copper to 300 is Wall
streets way of advertising the copper
boom. Boston is really the home of cop
per stocks. and a very large part of the
capital that goes every year into copper
mining comes out of New England. We
had a boom in copper stocks at the time
of the Notation of the Amalgamated Cop
per company, but the metal was very
much cheaper then than now and the de-
nland for it was not nearly SO great. The
Standard Oil capitalists went into the
American copper business with the idea
OF controlling it, They made failure
and the copper market collapsed in I'M
der them. Since then they have learned
more about copper mining and they have
placed the Amalgamated in a very much
stronger position The natural conditions
are now very much better for a boom in
copper stocks than eight years ago.
In peering into the future of the copper
market, it is well to remember that a lit
tie while ago you could buy eight pounds
for dollar; now the dollar will buy cnly
-four pounds; and the enthusiasts tell us
that dollar may buy only three ond two
and one-half pounds of copper. Just to
increase with higher prices for the metal,
here is a little illustration:
If a $25.00000O copper company produces
80 100000 pounds of copper at cost of
Il cents a pound and sells 1t at 10 cents,
Its net is 81 100000, or 6 per cent on the
lcapital. With 25-cent copper its net is
k6,500,000 or 26 per cent; and with 3O-cent
"copper" its net would be 100000. or 80
per cent.
But the copper enthusiasts who are
predicting sky prices for the metal will
find food for thought in the annual report
of the Western Electric company This
company has grown very rapidly during
the past ten years of amazing prosperity.
Its gross business in 1896 was SIS, 900.
For 1906 1t was nearly $00W,000 Last
years big figure was an Increase of So
600. 900 over the previous year. The COM
pany at the end of the year employed
q, 900 men; the hgh-water mark was in
August when there were 5000 on the
pay roll Here in Wall street the aver
age speculator wants to know what the
Western Electric company is The only
companies he ever hears about are the
westinghouse and General Electric
The big eastern company Is the General
Electric, but its gross business last year
was only $5O000,OO0 and it's pay roll only
carried $4,000 names. So 1t is seen that
the Western Electric is fairly big ar
fair. even though the Wall street spec
annual report. which gives the astound-
ing figures of the company's business. APP
pears this Illuminating sentence: "Busi-
ness is falling off and the outlook is for
reduced earnings owing to customers
planning less construction on account of
high prices of materials"
The copper enthusiasts predict that the
metal Is going higher There must be a
limit to price If the consumers of copper
nre expected to continue to sell their
manufactured product at a profit The
directors of the Western Electric already
find that their business Is falling off be-
cause their customers who have been so
lavish in their orders the past year or
two balk on buying machinery on the
basis of 25 cent copper. Several weeks
ago word was passed around in the great
shops of the General Electric company at
Schenectady that at any time the laying
off of men, 500 at a time. might be ex-
pected. The General Electric company is
swamped with business for months to
come, just the way the steel mills are,
hut the experience of the company in
the last electric boom showed that a
boom collapses very quickly after it
starts.
That we are entering upon great rail-
way identification era there can be no
question One hears every day that some
railway is planning electrfieation of some
part of its system. The New York Cen
trail Erie the New Haven and Pennsyl-
ivania have gone into identification in a
big way, and all the roads entering New
York are at work on the electric prob
lem But the railways, already hard
pressed to raise funds for buying cars,
locomotives and rails, are not going to