Bisbee daily review., 1907-10-10
COPPER WIRE TIE MAIN CAUSE
 IF SLUMP
Usually Needs Half ci the Annual Metal Product and Is. At Present Apparently Dead Proposition.

Boston.-whiie in the aggregate a considerable volume of copper is moving in the supply of the ordinary trade demands. there is. nevertheless. a declining price tendency Cables received from Europe stated that cleo troiytic brands were offered as law as scr 5s, which Is equivalent to 14 1-2 cents on this side. This is the lowest figure which has recently come to notice.
 The best opinion is that notwith- standing the restricted output of the Amalgamated and so-called Cole-Ryan properties, the production today is still in excess of the consumption. This falling off in consumption is al most wholly the result of the absolute cessation of demand from copper wire manufacturers.
 It was the wire people who made the 261-2 cent price a few months ago, and it IS the wire people who are responsible in large measure for present trade conditions They over bought on the advancing market. and now report that there is absolutely nothing doing in their department of the finished goods market.
 It is conseryatively estimated that at least 50 per cent of the American consumption of 700,000. 900 pounds last year was for wire-drawing pur- poses. It is easy. therefore. to under. stand the present accommodating sup plies when it is known that the cop per wire business is at standstill. Probably One-half of the consumption of 350,000,000 pounds which went into wire was n connection with electric traction and electric power plants which were built for Notation pur- poses. Money conditions have pre- cluded the sale of traction securities. and so the 175, ,000,00 pounds of cop per which last year advanced the price to 261-2 cents are now hanging over the market and constitute in ef- feet portion of the accumulated sur plus.
 We have made some investigation and find that by far the major portion or the present accumulation-prob- ably 75 per cent-is being carried by the United Metals Selling Co. and Phelps. Dodge & Co. who have allied themselves. for the present. at least. With the Amalgamated selling agency.
 The demand duEsng the past 60 days has come largely from Paris. A German manufacturer who consumes 40,0O0.OOO pounds of copper annually states that since July 1 there has been deplorable lack of demand for copper wire products and that the conditions in the United States have an exact counterpart in Germany.
 It is said in well-infOrmed trade cir cles that the United Metals Selling Co. Is financing it's producing com Ia pF T Yanees averaging at least I5 cents per pound on 100000 900 pounds of copper-amatter of s1S,OOO. GOO.
 It is this financial problem which has. therefore. led representative of the United Metals Selling Co. to seek larger restriction of output. especially by such companies as had not already put into force any sub stantial curtailment. It is known that the Metals Selling Co. interests have taken a very gloomy view of the situation, even limiting at the poss.- bihty Of being compelled to with draw their agreement to advance funds against unsold supplies.
 There is a growing conviction that 44eNSnnl=r fhR -Ilarkat- -GaaIzn- -a-I.1sl-. fectly natural level the duickeS-and more permanent will be the recovery. There are those who hold to the view that there should be no attempt to re- strict output in the hope of maintain ing even l4-cen price for copper: mat the sooner the highcost copper IS removed from the market the soon- CT will the whole situation be cleared up. Of course. those who argue in this strain are the producers who can make their copper for 10 cents per pound and less. The survival of the fittest" is their motto. and they are not disposed to help out the high cost mines at the expense of their own stockholders.