The Birmingham age-herald., 1916-05-08
MICHIGAN COPPER ONE OF MARVELSOF MINING INDUSTRY HeIped to Make Peninsula One of Richest Places
 in America ARIZONA, HOWEVER,
 IS STILL PREMIER Michigan Plans to Celebrate Fiftleth Anniversary of Development by
 Breaking the Production
 Records
Ey HOLLAND

New York, May 7.-(Special.) Al most exactly a year after the ending of the civil war. shaft was sunk in that part of the upper peninsula of Michigan which has since become one of the worlds greatest producers of copper
 It was in the spring of 1865 that Agassiz, with Boston friends, caused the first shaft of what became the Calumet and Hecla mines to be dug. Some years later there began the eX- ploitation upon a large scale Of the iron deposits in upper Michigan and these two industries. combined with the timber industry-now almost ex- tinct--converted that upper peninsula from a region which was deemed of lit tie value into one of the richest in the United States.
 It may be that in order to cele- brate the fiftieth anniversary of the first exploitation of the Calumet and Hecla mines it was decided that at tempts should be made to produce not only the largest amount of copper ever mined in a single year there, but, Eur thermore, so large an amount as would lSJ MlCHl6dn LulIu dtuOli5 lHC SoPPSt producing states of the union. Ten or Is years after the Calumet and Hecla mines were put in operation there were a good many men in Boston and it's vicinity who complained bitterly of their lack of foresight, for they had opportunity to invest in the capital stock of this company, but, having no confidence ill it, refused to make in vestment. The late Charles Francis A do of fheGe and he DIIh- licly stated that one of the great blunders of his business life was his refusal to accept the opportunity to invest in this Michigan copper prop erty, for, instead of doing that he put his money into some new railroad companies which met with disaster.
 NOT OvERPRODUCTION
 If the opinion of the most highly qualified experts is accepted as sound then this Michigan copper property has not made the mistake of overproduc- tion, although it's aggregate output of 1915 was 23S,000,000 pounds Montana and Arizona alone produced in excess of this, Arizona's product being near ly 200000.000 pounds greater than that of Michigan
 Stephen Birch, whose name identi- fies the Kennecott Copper company; William B. Thompson, whose name identifies the Inspiration Copper com pany of Arizona, and also the railroad which he built to facilitate transpor- tation of the ore; D. c. Jackling, whose name will always remain the great tradition of the Utah copper proper ties, and John D. Ryan, whose name is a synonym for the copper industry of Montana, which last year produced 268,000,000 pounds, have at one time or another within a few months clearly intimated that even though the output of the copper mines of the United States for 1916 should be as much as 2,000,000,000 pounds that would be found to be not in excess of the de- mand and possibly less.
 President Birch looks for greatly ex- tended market demand for copper after the European war is ended At the re- cent meeting of his company, he stated that, in his view, after the European war is ended manufacturers, builders and others in Europe will be found for some years in the American market placing orders for copper. He is persuaded also that Germany after the war will be a heavy consumer of American copper.
 MT. Thohpson said the other day that there was more likelihood of an inability to meet the demand for copper after the war is ended than of overproduction. In his view, copper will enter more largely than ever before into industries of all kinds It may be that copper producers are hoping that they will have so far perfected the industry that it will be pos sible by and by to market copper at 12 cents at a reasonable profit. If this can be done, copper will enter into com petition with steel in certain departments of industry.
 THE RECORD OE 1o15