The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-20
COPPER ID RIVAL | STEEL AND IRON IN NEXT FEW YEARS Electric Expansion Causes Constant Increase in the
 Worlds Demand AMERICA HAS MOST
 OF WORLDS SUPPLY Alaska Will Turn Out Vast Quantity When the Proper Railroad
 Facilities Are Afforded
 for Mining
Nv HOLLAND

By HOLLAND
 New York, November 1s-tSpecial) There are two parties, so to speak, both of whom speak with enthusiasm about the copper industry-one looking at It from the point of view of the specula- tive market. which is thought to be dis counting in fine manner the future or this industry, while the other party dis cusses the industry itself, not paying par ticular heed to the market quotations for the security. What appears particularly to stimulate enthusiasm with those who look upon copper as an industry and not ,a stock market feature in it's relation to the steel industry, and the remarkable manner in which copper as an American output and the market for it are ap- preaching the figures that tell Of the magnitude of the steel industry.
 Those who are familiar with the situ- ation say that the recent large develop ment of American copper mines is not to be wholly attributed to demands oc- casioned by the European war. These de- mands are very heavy, but there are some domestic undertakings of magni- tude now under way which occasion an increased demand for copper. George Westinghouse used to say that when the development of electrical energy had been perfected copper would command place in the list of American industries not far behind the steel industry.
 In the far west unusual demands for copper have been made, and the demand will continue. This is especially true of the St Paul Railroad company, which ex- poets within a year to have elecuined 450 miles of it's track, having, in fact, already electrified about one-half of that amount The prevailing opinion is that the St PauPs successful demonstration of the capacity of electric energy to meet any demand for train transportation, freight or passenger, will inevitably be followed by the beginnings of the cleo trificaton of the Great Northern.
 Then, too, some public-service under takings of a magnitude not realized In the east are under way which involve the country west of the Rocky mountain slope. For instance, capital has been found in large amounts for utilizing water power so as to convert 1t into electric energy to furnish light and power for some of the larger communities of Utah, Colorado and Nevada. So, also, in some of the southern states much progress has been made in the capture of water power energy and the conversion of It into electric energy which may be carried withG. economy sover long distances and fill large demand for copper.
 THE THREE GREAT FORCES
 The three individual forces now prom inently identified with the industry who represent powerful groups of capital and are themselves numbered among these men of capital are Dr. James Douglas, who identifies the Phelps Dodge interest both in the copper industry and with their supplementary transportation in- dustry; D. c. Jackling, whose achieve ments not only in the copper industry. but in other fields of large endeavor, now cause him to be numbered among the leading industrial forces of the United States, his name identifying, in a general way the Guggenheim interests, and John D. Ryan, whom many esteem the leader of them all and who is presumed to be identified with the so-called Standard Oil interests. These three are masters of various phases of the industry, scientific, financial, transportation and the markets. Dr. Douglas, who is now ill, although, happily convalescing, possesses another quality of the kind which distinguishes James J. Hill. He Is a master hand in the preparation and delivery of addresses. No monograph has ever been written that so concisely and yet completely tells the history of the transcontinental railroads as the one Dr. Douglas prepared and de- livered to the American Institute of Min ing Engineers at the San Francisco meet ing in 1899. He also, in an address de- livered before the Stevens Engineering society four years ago, competed into some 30 pages not a dry compendium with weary statistics, but instead a very interesting and vet popular story of the development of the railroads of America and their control by the state.
 MT. Jacllling has been, perhaps, too busy a man to have the time to prepare addresses. His thoughts have been ex- pressed in deeds exclusively. Some of those who are familiar with his achieve ments speak of them as illustrating the highest development of science and of economies in the mining industry So successful have his endeavors of this kind proved to be that he has had the compliment of imitation by some of those who were in the copper industry when he was an instructor in a technical institute in Missouri. He has shown science, la Dor saving apparatus and the expenditure of large sums in an expedient way have combined greatly to reduce the cost of mining copper ore.
 
 plete mastery of every phase of the cop per industry. He is understood to have as complete a knowledge of the industry even from the days when in New Jersey and Connecticut copper was mined in a crude manner up to the day of it's present development as did the late John Stan ton whose knowledge of the industry was regarded as encyclopedia.
 These are the three men who with others perhaps little less prominent dominate the copper industry of the United States. They are the men who are looked upon as sure to meet, so far as American mines can do it,, whatever de- mands may hereafter come for this metal. All of them are persuaded, if they are correctly reported, to believe that in com parison with the future of the industry it is today in its youth. No one can tell how great the supply of copper from Alaska is to be after transportation is perfected. But no one who is well in- formed appears to doubt that the Alaska peninsula will be found in the course kof few years adding vast amounts of cop per ore to the worlds supply. The Amer ican hemisphere from Alaska-through the wilds of British North America, where copper is yet to be highly devel- oped-through the United States, in parts of Mexico, in Peru and in Chile is to he in the future the worlds chief source of copper and in the extent and ma gnitude of the mines will surpass those which. are now yielding iron.
 Fair En0nmh