Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-04-19

possible general increase of about per cent in the American production. They believe, also, that curtailed de- mand for railroad equipment, with re. in other lines, will reduce the demand for copper to some extent Even though the price may be main tained at it's present level during July, they feel that it is abnormslly high and that the tendency will be for persist ent sagging until such time as the larg'f est producers are willing to mark the price to about the 20-cent level.
 Confidence that the price of copper would decline led to heavy speculative short selling of "G. B. M. ;" in London, and this selling was responsible for the sharp decline two or three weeks ago. The shorts are now being forced to cover. This is the explanation of the current advance in London speculative prices.
 Just previous to the decline in "G. B. M." the European consumers had be- gun buying copper quite freely in this country. The speculative decline then checked the demand referred to; but as Europe is bare of copper, the buying must be resumed soon. Domestic man ufacturers have covered their June re- quirements and producersr with & few unimportant exceptions, have sold all the metal they will be able to deliver up to July l.
 -'ae falling off of production during the winter months made it necessary for refners and selling agencies to i'm port all of the scrap and blister copper that could be had in Europe and refine it in this country. The result is that the situation is even more strained now than it was three months ago. It is probable that there is less than 2O,OOO,- 900 pounds of unsold refined copper ready for delivery this month and next in the entire world.
 Labor troubles are reported from Bis bee. A strike seems almost invariable. Should the Bisbee output be cut off for month or two the price of copper might advance temporarily. A labor strike in the big copper refneries would bring on famine conditions again. Al
 together the situation is a strikingy
 peculiar one; but the prospectus very
 good that this years copper production
 will be sold at a considerably higher
 average price than last years
 The Copper Share Market
 Coppers are already rehecting l5'
 cent metal market, though they never
 discounted the 25.cent market. The
 metal market reached 25 cents about
 January l, and substantially all of the copper producers have since sold be tween three and four months output al
 25 to 26.50 cents per pound. There is
 every prospect that at least two months
 longer the output will be solo
 around 25 cents and it is altogether i'm
 probable that the price will decline be How 20 cents this year. In view of this
 1907 will be by far the most prosperous
 year in the history of the copper pro
 ducing trade. Net earnings will be al
 least 20 per cent greater than they
 were last year.
 All of the tremendous increases il
 copper mining dividends are the resul
 of the 1850 to l9.50-cent copper marke
 which ruled last year. While those div
 idends were being paid most of th'
 companies were also building up treas ury reserves. Now they are all blessed
 with overfowing treasuries and in sucl financial position that their manage
 ments will feel called upon to pay ou practically their entire net earnings il dividends. I look for much larger az , gregate dividend disbursement this yea than last. It is not improbable that tw , or three companies may increase thei dividends in the near future.
 r The copper share market is on an ir . vestment basis, however. We can hard [ ly hope to see a return of bullish specr : lation for some time to come. A fe' of the dividend paying eoppers are sell 5 ing considerably too high, and const B quently should be given preference owe [ the speculative stocks. This is true pal !. ticularly of those that produce thei ' copper at a very low cost and have ur ? der way plans for comparatively earl ] increase in production. My favorites i
 this latter class are Utah Consolidated 3 Copper Range and Granby. These stock g are in comparatively stronger pos Y tion, viewed from almost any stand n point, than Amalgamated, Anacondi e North Butte, Osceola and most otht :. coppers. They are closely held, and t expect them to be selling higher tw E years hence, even should the price C ], copper be down to IA or IS cents. e There is another class of copper l which should be bought at this level, (
 slightly lower prices. I refer to Il F companies which are not as yet regul, e dividend payers, but which have deve | oped very large and valuable mines an | partly or wholly constructed reductio s fplants, or made shipping arrangement I which will bring them to the dividen I paying stage very soon. The best { n these are Old Dominion, Boston Consol n dated, Utah Copper, Greene -Canane n Michigan, East Butte, Utah Apex ar i. Helvetia. These stocks should l. bought at the current level of priees.- e Walkers Copper Letter.