Bisbee daily review., 1907-10-26
MONEY TOO CHEAP,
 QU0TH MIR. STEVENS

ITO arrive at a clear understanding of the present demoralized condition of the copper trade 1t is necessary to go back for a long distance and to begin with generalizations of world wide scope says Horace J. Stevens, formerly commissioner of Mineral Statistics for Michigan.
 .'The trouble in copper trade is merely local manifestation of dis ease from which the entire civilized world is suffering. The copper trade is in bad shape because money is tight, not only in the United States but in Europe as we'll. and money is tight throughout the world because there has been such an unusually large supply of money during the past ten years. This may sound paradox ical, or even nonsensical, but it is absolutely true. Tn the presidential campaign of 1896 the two great polit- ical parties of America lined up on either side. one taking the Qualita- tive theory ot money. The republi- cans who took the qualitative side. were nearer right than the democrats but neither party grasped all of the truth. Money is a commodity, differ ing from others in that it is the sole commodity which the values of all other commodities are measured, yet money is governed, as any other com modity, by the general laws that gov ern the price for all commodities.
 Like any other commodity, money becomes dear when it becomes scarce, and grows cheap in propor- tion as it grows common. The price of money is what it will sell for. and not what it will rent for, just as the price of house is the sum for which it can be sold. and not the charge made for its occupancy.
 Beginning with the first large flow of gold from the mines of the country there has been a tremendous increase in the production oE this metal on which rests the entire bus mess fabric of the world
 By reason of the wonderful stimu- lation caused by the increasing sup ply, the amount of money for new enterprises, while increasing from year to year. has grown too small for the demand. The financing of the great American railway lines during the past few years offers an instance of what has been done in most other industrial fields. and in most other countries.
 By reason of the stimulus given
 business and investments, through rising prices caused by increased gold supply, the entire world has increased l it's monetary requirements to the I point of temporary exhaustion With I perhaps SS,0Oo, 900 900 Of new money available yearly for investment. the { demands of the world at the begin
 ming of 1907. were at the rate of nearly or quite s4.O00.0O0,O0O for the gear, not including the visionary <, schemes by which at least S250 .00O.- : f coo and probably even a larger sum. are diverted yearly from legitimate channels, to be lost ip the arid sands i of illusionary enterprises or diverted : into the private canals of the preds- l tory.
 i The entire world has been invest ' ing beyond its income. The market | for copper has not yet found a sure level. but I look for such a level of price to be found near the present range of quotations The drastic
 measures taken by Montana and Ari-
 zona mines in practically cutting pro auction in half are being supplement. ed to some extent by the Lake Sup erior mines, which with slightly re- 1 duced forces, are undertaking such ! dead work as is necessary with conse- quent curtailment of output.
 "The world is richer than ever be- i fore measured either by the standard
 of actual money in possession, or by ! the truer standard of its various in- dustrial Improvements. The world. | however, like many an individual or
 corporation possessed of large tang ible resources is hard up at present ' for ready cash, and the only process
 by which this stringency can be re- lieTed is the simple and natural,
 though not always agreeable, plan of curtailing unnecessary expenditures. i "The copper industry is fundament-
 ally sound for the reason that this
 product is necessary in twentieth
 century civilization. A general collapse
 of the copper industry is not to be ! looked for, but collapse of over-es.
 timated copper demand and prices
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