El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1915-02-06
SILVER, COPPER, GOLD AND LEAD
ADDTOT HEPRE5TIGE Of FL PA5O
Rich Mines Throughout Great Mining District Send
Their Ores to FL Paso and Are Often Financed Here
and Get Their Supplies Through This City;
Some of the Big Producers.

TEXT to cattle. the industry upon
nj which Ell Paso is most dependent
Il for her prosperity is that of min
ing and chiefly copper mining. North
ern Mexico, all of New Mexico, as Wen
as Arizona and Texas, west OF the re
COS river. are honeycombed with mines
of all kinds, from salt and sulphur 10
gold and silver, and supplies Ior these
mines including machinery, very lar .
" come from FL Paso. adding greatly
thereby to FL PasO's commercial pres
tige Many of those mines, TOO; are
financed through FL PasO banks, lend
inc 10 the commercial strength and
standing of Ell Paso's fiduciary instltu-
New Markets Found.
The setting in of the Revolutionary
era OF Mexico and the consequent sh
ting down of many mines, mills, con
centretors ard smelters, which, up 70
that time, had spent annually hundreGs
Of thousands Of dollars with FL Paso
machinery and supply houses. gave
the latter a black eye but1l old not
knock them out. The owners and pro
prietors, instead of going into Dank-
ruptcy or closing down until the MeNl-
can situation cleared up. began hunt-
ing for new business, and found It,
American Mines opened.
The closing of the Mexican mines
was followed by the opening Of many
old and new properties on the Amerl-
can side OF the International line, anu
within u months after the bottom had
been reached in Mexican mine aIIalrs'
FL Paso machinery and supply houses
were running with full force and on
full time and doing as much business
as ever.
of course the advancement in the
price Of copper, from nine cents TO 10
cents a pound was a considerable rae
70 find no -
ness in Arizona and New Mexico
through the opening up Of new proper
ties which were worth operating under
the new scale of prices for the product
European War Disastrous.
When Europe was plunged into war,
on August 1, last, the price Of copper
lowered aboutIthe . cent mark. thanks
to the enormous sales TO European pur-
chasers during the first seven months
of the year but the sudden cutting OIL
Of the European market caused
slump in the price which Immediately
brought about a curtailment of output,
which was followed by depression
which is still felt by the machinery and
supply houses. This depression con-
tinued until the opening of the present
year, but since that time there has been
a more or less steady advance until to-
day copper is again selling around IA
cents and there is a general disposition
on the part of the producers to go back
TO the old DaSlS OF operation
Not So Bad in Southwest
During the depression incident to the
cutting off of the European market for
copper, the southwest was fortunate I'M
that, while there was a curtailnent OF
so percent in the output of refined cop
per. the PheIps-DOdge company, Calu-
met & Arizona and others Of the big 1
producers of the southwest made a cut /
Of but Is percent in their mine prOduc- I
talon. While the cutting off of 25 per
cent of the miners at Bisbee. Globe, MI
ami Clifton, Morenci and other copper
producing centers of the southwest was
bad enough, and was seriously reflect (
ed in business circles in FL Paso, the J
southwest was not nearly in such bad (
shape as were the copper producing |
centers of Utah. Idaho and Montana I
where so percent cut all around was /
the general order of the day.
Good Times Coming.
There is a general disposition on the !
part of the copper producers to get Z
back to the ante-beIlUm basis. More /
and more men are being put at work [
and there is being a general resump- /
-ion of good times all along the line. /
cl Paso will be one of the chief bene-
iiciaries of the restoration of the old /
order of things.
Lead Producers More Fortunate.
While copper producers, from mag b
lates to miners, were. seriously injured (
~ the war, producers of lead were