Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-06-13
STILL BELIEVES
 COPPER STRONG
George l.. Walker Scouts Reports that Metal Win Be Reduced Several Gents Disturbed Confidence Rather than Declining Market Cause of Unrest

 issue of the Boston Commercial:
 Copper is quiet and unchanged. The largest producers and selling agencies have not reduced their prices, but are still asking 25A cents for Electrolytie and. 251a cents for Lake copper. There gre persistent reports that new con tracts are being negotiated at 23 to 2i cents per pound for July, August and September deliveries. These reports, however, cannot be confirmed.
 There is good reason for the belief that limited amounts of copper could be purchased at lower prices than those quoted above. It seems that one or two of the smaller producers failed to take advantage of the big market which ob- tained in February and March and sell their output as far ahead as the end of June, as practically all of the larger producers did. They are now the only nervous factors in the situation. One of them announces that he would sell copper at 24 cents; but he says that if he saw consumers coming into the mar ket he would raise the price to 25 cents.
 The unruffied composure of the larg- est producing interests has for it's basis the fact that there is absolutely no real reason to expect or warrant reduction in metal prices. Practically speaking, there are no surplus stocks of copper in existence. There has been no increase in production during the first half of this year, and as yet there is at most only slight falling off in consumption.
 The current hesitation on the part of consumers is clearly due to disturbed confidence rather than to a declining volume of business. Consumers must come into the market soon for their July supplies, and it stands to reason that with the prevailing state of busi- ness sentiment they will buy as much copper at 25 cents as they would at 23 or 20 cents. Some authorities declare that the consumption of copper is ac- tually continuing to increase, and they express confidence that when the buying for July, August and September ac- count gets well under way it will be found that there is not copper enough to go around.
 If the normal growth of consumption is maintained, it will easily take care of all the increased production that is likely to come during the next two or three years, and in such an event it may be expected that prices will hold at about their present level.
 Every little while we hear the opin- ion expressed that Alaska will soon be in a position to supply the world with all the copper it needs. So far as men who know the copper mining business are concerned there is no occasion to discuss this proposition; but for the benefit of those who ao not know that it is tremendous undertaking to de- velop and equip copper mine and pre- pare it for large annual production, take this occasion to make brief explanation.
 At present Alaska Is almost inaccess- ible, viewed from business standpoint. It may have harbors, but they are not equipped to handle large vessels and the heavy ore shipments which would be necessary to a big copper producing business It lacks railroads, and also, what is most vital of all, supply of labor.
 Here in the United States, where we have all the advantages of favorable climatic conditions, and where labor is plentiful, it is tremendous undertak- ing to develop a copper mine when it is as far as forty miles away from a rail- road. What can be said of the copper deposits which exist in Alaska hun dreds and thousands of miles away from transportation, in a country scantily