The Ketchikan miner., 1908-05-23
THE COPPER MARKET


 the resumption of that class of busi- ness which involves new structures. says Mining..Science. The consumption of this metal through ordinary wear and tear amounts to less than half the normal demand--that is. the normal demand in a growing country like ours and in a progressive age such as this is. In country which does not grow. the normal demand would, of course. just equal the absorption through normal wear and tear. Mr James Douglas has shown tha, about one-third the copper is consumed in brass wearing parts. This demand ls of course, a comparatively steady one. because it simply keeps up ordinary wear and tear. One-thlrd the demand
 is for architectural brass, bronze and structural copper. Of this third, a part is for renewals and part for new structures. The remaining third is for electrical equipment and the re- newals in this line are relatively very small. Thus we see that stoppage of new business might readily decrease the demand by 5o per cent. and this is about what happened during the last months of l907
 "Down East the people aIe still very blue and depressed aud they ate afraid to move for fear of getting nip ped. Inc West, ou the other hand. with true Western spirit took stock of the injury done by the fnarciaI blow and finding it slight. promptly nothing had happened. There are those V ho say that tine peSsimism anG depression of the East will gradually spread West. and that the West will see its halde>t times this sumner. We are inclined to take the opposite view-pamely. that the optimism of the West will spread East and drive dull care away rom the moWs of our financier> So far as this country i> concerned. only little improvement can be looked for until the East gets over it's it of the blues. The East is the seat of the major consumption oi copper. and >o long as it is out of the market the American market is gcod deal like q four-norse team with three of it, horses down Tn the mud. The fact that the fourth horse is up and doing will Lot @otk much ad- vanceneLt until ali can ruil together. As an illustration of Western spirit. it is interesting to note that there are three electric lines now building near Denver. and at Sheridan, Wyo.. a franchise is being asked for to put electric cats on the streets.
 Luckily our copper market is not limited to the American d,maad. and Europe in .eueral. and Gvtmany in particular. has not felt the depression as much H. tn. eastern pant of the United States. Germany has been q very large buyer of copper in tie United States mar kets during Fenlu- ary ana M1lch. The Eufopean buy ing. together with tie optimistic tone of the NVe>t. gre the two most encour- aging features oi the copper trade.
 The large surplus stock Of copper which was on hand last fall has been entirely c.susumed, according to Mir. John D. E,an: according tU o'lers. large pars of it has simply pass, d ir- to the hanOs oi epecuiators and re mains menace 10 the market. All the ma.garnated mines at Butte have been ieopened. Mr. Ryan states that the increased resumption of building at home justified this step. The '.knockers" have it that this move is simply to whip the Lake producers in line. The latter group of producers went right along producing copper when the Amalgamated was closed down and was trying to bolster up the market, so It IS only natural that there should be some bad blood. but we think DO sane man. and Mr. Ryan is certainly sane, would go to all the trouble and expense of starting the Butte mines to simply whip the Lake producers into line. The more tena- be theory is that Mr. Ryan means just about what he says. There is q little profit in l3-cent copper, and the Amalgamated might as well get it's share.
 Looking beyond the immediate fu- ture, the outlook for the copper mar Ket is extremely good. The world has increased it's consumtion of copper about 5.s4 per cent. each year since 1880. It will keep on needing an in- creased supply of copper each year. ! and, of course, the price will have to be sufficient to rewa.d the miner for i getting it out.
 The average price of copper since