The copper era and Morenci leader., 1914-11-13
COPPER DECLARED
CONTRABAND BY
ENGLAND
Result is to Further Hammer Price
of Metal and Restrict Exports
State Department. is Being Urged
to Enter Vigorous Protest.

!
to Enter Vigorous Protest.
George L. Walker, writing in the
Boston Commercial under date of
November 7th, regarding the copper
situation, says:
Copper is dull and the tone of the
market is weak. Lake is IL IL to
II "a cents and electrolytic is IL IA
to IL IL cents a pound. The weaken
ing of prices resulted from the action
of the British government in chang
ing the designation of copper in car
goes destined to neutral and belliger-
ent countries from conditional con-
traband" to ''contrabrand This
is having the effect temporarily of
practically stopping shipments of cop
per to Italy, Holland, Norway and
Sweden. 1t will be necessary to wait
for orders by mail from consumers in
those countries, as the copper shipped
to them hereafter must be accompan-
led by a sworn statement that it will
not be reshipped to any belligerent
country. Vessels are declining to ac-
cept shipments of copper not so bill
ed. During the next 10 days or two
weeks, therefore, exports of copper
are likely to show slight decrease.
After sufficient time has elapsed to
permit of the receipt from foreign
consumers of pledges and guarantees
the export movement should again
increase.
I. The leading producing and selling
agencies have filed further protest
with the government at Washington in
which they point out that should cop
per exports be cut entirely it would
bring further paralysis to the produc-
ing interests in this country. They
state that the use of unwrought cop
per in the Industrial arts is out of
all proportion to its use for war pur-
poses; that upwards of 100000 peo-
pie west of the Mississippi river are
directly and indirectly interested in
the production of copper, and that un-
der normal conditions there is an ex-
penditure of about $120,O0O,OOO annu-
ally for wages, transportation and
supplies.
1t is reported that two of the YES
sells recently seized have been re-
leased, but that the American ship,
Kroonland will be required to dis
charge its cargo of copper before pro-
ceeding to Italy. 1t seems that
considerable portion of this shipment
of copper is in anode form, unrefined,
that it was being shipped to Italy to
be manufactured into copper sulphate,
which is used extensively for spray
ing the vineyards there and in all
other southern European countries.
1t is hardly possible that Great Brit
ain can expect Italy to remain neutral
if such an important industry as it's
grape growing and wine making is to
be endangered by this effort to pre-
vent Germany from obtaining any cop
per for the manufacture of cartridge
shells. Unquestionably Germany and
Austria can produce all the copper
they can possibly use for war purposes
from their own mines, and such ef-
forts as may be made to restrict their
copper imports can have no effect to
bring about cessation of hostilities
There was a slight increase in the
total visible supplies of copper at for
eign points during October Exports |
for the month, however, were larger
by about 100000 pounds than in
either September or August. 1t is |
not altogether improbable that Novem-
Der shipments may prove to be fully
.hough the outgo during the first
week or two is materially lower.
On two or three previous occasions
he experiments of alloying steel with
copper for the purpose of preventing
have been mentioned in
hese letters. Sufficient time has
low elapsed to permit manufacturers
o test thoroughly the advantage of
uch alloys. Thin sheets of steel, L.
ONE of which were alloyed with as
DIV as .07 per cent and others as
Ugh as "a per cent copper, were
xposed to the weather in competition 4
nth other sheets made from the Io
anne MEETINGS, but containing no cop
er. These sheets were neither I
ainted nor galvanized, and when
hose of pure iron had completely II
listed away the sheets containing
opper showed very little corrosion, =
ome of them appearing almost as L
ood as new. C
These experiments indicate that the {
fe of steel is practically doubled by Y