The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1917-07-05

Engineering and Mining JournaD

The governments-both our owl
and those of our allies-are going t
need large quantities of metals of al
kinds. Uncertainty respecting tn,
quantities of metals needed, the terms
of the supply and delay in making the
arrangements has been naturally ar
unsettling influence in the markets
The advisory council of national de-
Tense assigned one of its members tc
the attention of raw materials. That
member who has many things Other
than metals to consider, appointed
assisting committees among the pro-
ducers in the several industries. Thus
there is a copper committee, lead
committee, and so on. These COM
mittees have been in conference with
/ the government. Terms have been
discussed, but no decisions have been
reached. There is no use in mincins
words as to where the responsibility
rests.
1t is with Secretary Baker and Sec
rotary Daniels.
Nor is there any reason for hag-
Cling about the question that is at is
sue.
1t is cheeseparing policy and mis-
understanding of the conditions of
business and economics.
Let the copper producers say that
they will supply all the copper re-
CURED by the government at 10 or 10
lead and zinc producers make a SIM
liar offer, all arrangements would be
quickly made and Mr.. Baker and Mr.
Daniels would promptly cause them
Gals who had saved the country mil
lions of dollars.
But i'm fact there would be no such
saving to the country. If the govern
ment takes out of the market a large
part of the supply at an arbitrary
price lower than the natural price, 1t
is manifest that the supply remain
ing free is going to be bid up by pri
vate consumers to a price higher than
the natural price. Consequently al
though the books of the government
may reflect fine bargain, the price
forother consumption is enhanced,
and what the people save in one way
they lose in another.
That such would be the effect is nei-
Their hypothetical nor idly speculative.
We have during the last year had
precisely analogous example of what
will happen. In copper our normal
transactions average about so million
pounds per week and the relatively
small fluctuations in demand and
supply above and below that figure
determine the natural market price
Last fall the allied governments in "a
series of purchases removed from the
market about one third of the expect
ed supply in the first half of 1917,
contracting for the bulk of it at about
rs cents per pound. The market be-
ing thus denuded of supplies, rose
sharply to 80 cents and higher and
has been maintained at such levels
on transactions not averaging more
than 10 million pounds per week, we
Judge, during the. eight months since
the large special transactions were
made. This condition was reflected
in the actual averages received by
copper producers in 1916, being ma
terially less than the EDUCATIONAL av-
erage. During the first half of 1917
the difference will be larger
Similarly in lead. A large proper
ton of our production, perhaps as
for consumption on the basis of av-
erage ,prices-partlA on the average
quoted by the American Smelling &
Refining company, partly on the av-
erage of the Engineering and Mining
Journal. These averages differ, for
the former reflect only a single bust
ness while the latter reflect the whole
market, although in the long run they
come to about the some thing. How
ever, that is not the point in the pres
ent argument, which is that recently
the owners of uncontrolled lead were
able to get II cents per pound for it,
while the A. S. & r. company was
supplying lead on its contracts at II
cents, only because such contracts
were in existence and to such an ex-
tent.