Bisbee daily review., 1907-08-25

That is encouraging. and there is ev- cry likelihood. so experts say. that the growth will continue. New fields for the production of copper are being opened up every year. Although this country now gives up more than half of the worlds present output it's capac- itv shows no sign of exhaustion On the peninsula of Michigan, for eX- ample. where immense quantities Ot the metal have already been taken out since the fOrties. the older mines con- tinues to yield and number of new ones will soon be producers. Montana, Nevada, Arizona. California and other states are yielding more and more. Then there is the vast and only par tiallv explored Dominion of Canada. Mexico is already second OTly to the United States in copper output. FIX cepting Chile. the enormous deposits of South America have hardly been touched. The Rothschilds are busy in Spain which they have made the third copper producing country of the world. Siberia is known to have great possibilities. Australia is beginning to have copper mines as well as gold fields.
 The only reason for depression has lain in the fact that while each years supply of copper is greater than the last. the worlds great electrical in dustries have been expanding so much faster that it has been hard to see how there could be copper enough to go around. As things are, the Bell telephone system is said to be the largest single user of copper in the world, and the telephone utility gen. orally is making, and appears likely to continue to make, tremendous de mands upon the available supply Of the red metal The Bell companies now have more than 5000, 900 tele- phones in use, these telephones being connected by more than 100000 miles of wire.
 In forecasting the demand foE cop per in the future the telephone en- gineer must take into account, not only the telephones in the Bell system, but those not connected with it. Ac- cording to reliable estimates, there are about 1000 900 independent telephones in the United States. Then in Europe there are now about 100000 tele- phones, and the more progressive Of European countries are awakening to their past deficiencies with result that several of them are now showing growth which is almost American in it's rapidity Outside of North Amer ica and Europe only about 100000 telephones are in use, but there are signs that even the silent sullen races are awakening to the advan- tages of the utility which annihilates space and time. # fhl ticaIly universal extension of their utility have made telephone engineers in particular wonder just where they are coming out. The recent high price of copper, it is we'll known, has al- ready caused many of the independent companies of the United States to face the alternative of either raising their rates or of going into bankruptcy. Some of these enterprises started in with an honest belief that they could give service at low price; but their estimates were made at the time when copper was selling for 15 or 16 cents. Bell companies have not generally been obliged to increase their rates, but 25 cent copper has made the problem of keeping them down a very difficult one.
 Electrical engineers in the employ of street railway and lighting corpor- ations are said to be having the same experience Miles of track of the transportation companies Of this country, for example, increased from s,123.02 in 1890 to 22.5z6.99 in 1902; and the extension of the lines is still going on with unprecedented rapidity. Lighting services are everywhere be ing expanded and the various minor electrical enterprises are all using copper Everywhere the difficulty has been left of giving service at prices which were reasonably remunerative when coper was selling at Is cents.