Bisbee daily review., 1918-12-29
COPPER QUEEN
 NOW IN MARKET
 FOR CUSTOMS ORE
Douglas Smelter Announces That It Will in Immediate Future Receive Copper Bearing Ores at Is Cents

OOOGLAS. AllL-- JeG- Ao.-- ne NOp- per Queen shelter has sent out the following letter bearing on ore pur- chases which is of interest to all per sons having copper ore to sell. The circular follows:
 As the New York Engineering and Mining Journal. whose quotations have always been used by us as a
 basis for payments. have suspended quotations for copper We now have no quotations upon which 10 base our set dement's.
 In the Journals issue of December 14th on pag~ ~1O57 they make the fol- lowing explanation:
 COPPER: - In making our report last week we indicated a change in the situation in copper and reserved the right to correct our representa- tion of the market from the end of November onward. The facts of the situation are these: The government never fixed the price of copper in the sense of establishing it. What it did by the pronunciamentO of September -As 49AAs Nd0 AO AAA q hAdAlAAAA4AA VAllC beyond which sellers might not go and sellers being unwilling to take any less, the price was substantially fixed, first at 23 1-2e, and then at 26c, and those prices were unquestionably the market prices, all of the copper being sold at them. The price of 26c, first made on July ?. 1918, was to prevail to August 15, being subsequently ex- tended by agreement to November l, and then to January l. On Novem- ber 15, after the armistice, when it appeared that government orders would soon terminate, the producers entered into a new agreement with the war industries board, whereby they promised to maintain production and wages until January l. and in re- turn they received assurances respect ing government control of the market, which amounted to agreement that the government would pay 26c for any further copper it might order and would sanction the producers asking that price from other buyers and acting unitedly. Since that time such copper as has been sold has been booked at 26c. but the quantity has been trifling (only few thousand tons) and since the end of NOvem- Der there has been none sold, and there have been no buyers. and there has been no market. In the absence of either transaction or bids, We can do nothing but report mo market" and give no other represen- tation of the situation than "26c asked by all producers with government sanction, and governmental control against any more" We carry this revised representation back to Decem- Der in accordance with the reserva- tion that we published in our report of last week. This is still a tentative for in the event that signi- ficant sales of copper should be made at 26c (nothing higher is permissible while the control of the war indus tries board continues), after a period of reporting mo market we should consider that for statistical purposes that figure should be recorded as the daily price in the interval. But if a market develops at a lower price, there will be a statistical gap, which cannot reasonably be filled in.
 With a view of enabling our ship pers to continue operations and thus prevent Reorganization of their forces during the period of readjustment, We will continue purchases of copper ores and make provisional settlements on the basis of an arbitrary quotation of Is cents per pound, from which the usual deducations will be made for freight. refining. etc
 While We feel that Is cents is a conservative basis for provisional settlement it is not to be understood from this that we are venturing any prediction as to the trend of future prices.
 Should weekly quotations be revised by the Engineering and Mining Jour nal we will settle on the basis of such quotations for copper due for settle ment that week, if no quotations are published for any week in which set clement is due. final settlement will be made on the basis of the price which we receive for your copper when finally sold
 We will keep you advised of any new developments in the situation and desire to ask that you notify us promptly whether you expect to con tinue shipments under present con iitions and if SO approximately what tonnage you will have for sale.
 It is said that cotton growing in the barred zone will be permitted next