The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1908-02-06
DR.. James Douglas Brings Words of
Cheer.


years up to last October, and all
kinds of wild speculation had been
INDUCED in. Perhaps it will be bet
ter that something happened to sober
the people and put then back to
more sane and sound business basis"
Thus spoke DIR. James Douglas last
week in the Office of the Copper
Queen Consolidated Mining company
in Bisbee. He arrived and has been
considering matters pertaining to
the operation of the Queen mines in
this district DIR. Douglas is of the
opinion that with little help for the
weak by the stronger there is little
danger of many failures hereafter as
a result of the financial disturbance
and expressed his surprise that more
failures had not occurred.
Asked as to the present demand for
copper and the probability of bet
ter price in the future, Dr. Douglas
said:
"There is a healthy demand for
copper in Europe, and 1 judge that
Tic CSIlmdIC0 SuplluS VI ZOO,OOO,OOO
pounds on October has receded now
to less than 10000, 900 pounds: Three
quarters of the surplus on October
first has been disposed of and that at
a time when copper receipts at the
eastern refneries from the mines was
practically normal. The result of
, the curtailment policy in copper pro-
duction, which was inaugurated four
months ago when the demand sud-
denly fell away was not felt in New
York before January first.
1.-THE Copper Queen sold all its sur
plus late in the fall and is now selling
for delivery in the spring. We are
carrying no surplus at this time.
"Copper is now selling at IA and
144 cents for spring delivery, while
the metal is selling for less for i'm
mediate delivery and this would indi-
cate quite clearly that the consumers
are anticipating an advance in price
in the near future. This opinion
think is fully warranted because of
the short supply which will be coming
from the mines as a result of the
curtailment in production during the
last three months, and which curtail-
ment must continue until three
months after all the copper reduction
works, are back at the maximum of
their capacity as they were prior to
October 1st."
Regarding the copper production
at the Douglas reduction works DR..
Douglas stated that last week an adj
ditional furnace would be put into
commission. The Queen smelter
which was running nine furnaces dur
ing the first nine months of 1907,
shut down three on October 1st and
only six were in blast for three
months. The seventh was blown in
about the first of the year. Now the
eighth furnace is to be started. Re
garding further increase in produc-
tion at the Copper Queen smelter,
DR.. Douglas continued.
ST understand that the Moctezuma
Copper company will be ready to
operate the new concentration now
under construction at Nacozari in
April. This will treble the amount
OF concentrators from that district
which has formerly been smelted at
the Douglas smelter and this with the
expected custom ores by that time
will require all the available furnaces
at Douglas. Within the next sixty
~ oinafv dave avnacf fO coo the
copper industry in Arizona very much
improved and reduction works in
operation to practically the limit of
their capacity"
An important Improvement on the
FL Paso 81 Southwestern railroad sys-
TEN, of which DR.. Douglas is the
president, is the completion of the
pipe line which brings water for use
in the engines on the eastern division
of this road from the White noun
tains. This water is brought from
the head waters of Bonita creek,
high up in the mountains, distance
of thirty-fve miles to Carrizozo.
= Fifteen miles from Carrizozo the pipe
empties the water into a natural
rock-bottom and rock-walled reser-
yoir where a two years supply of
water may be stored, thus providing
against any accident to the pipe line
: from storms or other causes. The
water brought to the railroad in no
way affects the supply to farmers in
the valleys below, as the company
owns the land between the junction
of the north and south forks and to
the point where it all sinks before
reaching any agricultural lands, but
the reservoir will enable the railroad
to refrain from drawing water from
the creek when the water is low.
This pipe line was put in after the
matter had been investigated and re-
ported on by the government officials.
The Importance of this new water
supply can be more fully realized
when it is stated that heretofore
water pumped along the line of the
eastern division of the E. p. & S. w.
had to be chemically treated before