The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-07-04
c. T. KELLY OPPOSES
THE WAR MINERALS BILL
VICE PRESIDENT OF ANACONDA
COMPANY MAKES STRONG
ARGUMENT AGAINST 1T


most comprehensive argument agains
the war minerals bill was made a few
days ago iby Cornelius F. Kelly, OF
Butte. vice president of the Anaconda
Copper Mining company, before the
senate committee on Mines and Min.
ing. Mr.. Kelly said in party:
Unsound Policy.
II believe" said Mr.. Kelley "it is
sound business, it is good economies
it is safe governmental policy, to per-
nit, as far as possible. the industries
of the United States, by the natural
inherent development and enterprise
OF the American people to, meet the
situation, and l think you will do it
great deal more effectively and a
great deal more satisfactorily and a
great deal more rapidly than if you
attempt to violate every natural law
that enters into the production,
growth and development of industry.
$50 far as any personal interests
may have are concerned, they would
be greatly augmented, and the inter-
ests Of the corporations that repre-
sent would be augmented by the pass
age of the bill. l am opposing it alb
solutely upon the basis that do not
think 1t is sound business; I do not
think 1t is sound economics.
"As the bill stands, there is not
single copper smelter or lead smelter
in the United States that would not
be guilty of violating this law every
time 1t operated. For instance, in the
plant at Anaconda there are thousands
of tons of sulphur being emitted daily
as waste gases. There are tons of
arsenic emitted, and large quantities
of antimony and other substances. Do
you mean to tell me that it is going
to stimulate production of metals to
make it felony for you to engage in
a business where, irrespective of eco
nomic or market conditions, you are
obliged to operate at what may be
laid down in regulation as 100 per
cent efficiency? Would you, as tusi-
ness men, consider going into bust
ness that was filled with as many pit
falls for the unwary as the present
act?
Il say, gentlemen, without the
slightest equivocation, as a matter of
business judgment, that I do not be-
lieve you could get men to invest a
dollar and take the hazard of commit
ting a violation of the obligations of
the bill as it is drafted.
'The minimum price is going to be
the price some day at which the min
erals should sell, regulated by supply
and demand The maximum price is
purely theoretical proposition for the
reason that it can not be scientific
price. When you fix a maximum price,
unless you fix every factor Of cost
that goes into the production, and the
other elements of expense IN order to
maintain fixed margin of profit, you
disturb the mathematical equation.
You have supply and you have de-
mand and they are related, one to the
other, and they fix by the third factor,
the price, and this third factor is var
liable. The moment you take one fac
tor and make it constant, leaving the
other two factors variable, you have
got the situation that can only main
tain as long as the maximum price is
so far in advance of the cost of pro-
duction that it does not crowd to the
point of diminishing reasonable prof
It, That means that in nine cases out
Of ten the maximum price is already
high and is never reached. We have
had maximum prices for lead and zinc
established by the war industries
board. They are paper prices, and
they do not apply to the business.
with copper 1t is not a maximum
price; it is a fixed price at 23k cents.
That fixed price can be maintained at
23h cents as long as there is a de-
ficit in production.
1.-THE capacity for making sulphuric
acid is unlimited, practically, in this
country. There is practically an I'M.
limited amount of gas that is now be-
ing wasted and going out in the air.
"There is no difficulty about the
operation of an acid plant; there is
no difficulty about manufacturing and
laying the acid down at the plant.
The utilization of the acid, however,
requires transportation for long dis
tances. We had the matter up in con-
nection with the bureau of mines and
war industries board and the bureau
OF ordnance For some reason or other
the proposition was turned down,
am advised. and I think it was because
of the transportation factor. 1t was
purely q tank car proposition, as
understood 1t. / suggest this alterna-
tive to the situation. You need the
munitions factories in the east. The
proposition Of building munition fac
tories in the west, on account OF the
labor supply and one thing and an
other, was not attractive. If we could
bring about a condition, by regulation
of the industry, or otherwise, whereby
the sulphuric acid that is now used
in the fertilizer business in the east
could be released for munition pur-
poses in the east--and you know we