The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-04-16
EXPECTING HEAVY
 DEMAND FOR COPPER
Nv HOLLAND

By HOLLAND
 l New York April l5.-(Special 1-Leaders { in the copper industry who went some
 weeks ago to Europe so that they might | be well informed respecting the outlook for that industry have returned. saying | little about their experience. Yet those who have been in touch with them are persuaded that they learned enough while abroad to justify them in believing that soon after peace is established and eer- l tain important financing is arranged for
 and also when establishments in the great
 mining districts, especially of the labor scale of wages are completed, there will | be renewed the extraordinary activity
 and prosperity which was the lot of the
 industry during the days of the war. | It is understood that ex-Senator Will i liam A. Clark is persuaded that the de- pression in the industry at this time is
 only temporary. He expects to attend
 the meeting of the copper leaders which | is to be held in the far west in a short
 time. Senator Clark is vigorous and &C., | tive, taking deep interest in readjust-
 ment progress and having abiding faith
 in the future of American prosperity in
 which he is sure the copper industry will share.
 Copper is now esteemed one of the four great American commodities upon the
 production and marketing of which is to l be based much of our prosperity. These
 four are steel, wheat, copper and cotton | If prosperity is maintained and increased
 with these four then it will also be dis | tributed so that every industry and every vocation throughout the United States
 will share in the good fortune
 | Some years ago Charles F. Brooker,
 president of the American Brass company. spoke at a dinner given in his honor by the copper producers of North Amer | ica. It was upon the occasion of the .A&1. z l. with the copper industry. Notwithstand- 1 ing these 50 years of consecutive service | in the development of this industry Mir. | Brooker is today in vigorous health and l is as keenly concerned about the future l of the copper industry as he was when he replied to the toast given in his honor
 at the banquet by the copper producers.
 MIR. BROOkER'S PREDICTIONS When MT. Brooker spoke the European war had not begun. The menace of it was perceived and the bankers of Eu- rope were taking in sail that they l might be prepared for the day when war should begin. He might if he were now to address the copper producers call their attention to interesting and important fact namely the relation of the American copper industry to the recent war. It was not the first time that the United States furnished Europe with vast amounts of war material because of our ability to produce copper and copper alloys in ade- quate amount and quality for war pur- poses. Shortly before the close of the Civil war American ingenuity perfected fixed ammunition and preached loading rifles. The first metal used for making metallic cartridges and delivered to a company in Springfield, Mass, which had already become prominently identified with the manufacture of rifle and re- volvers Copper entered chiefly into the manufacture of metallic cartridges. So successful were these American ventures in improved arms and munitions of war that there came to the United States chiefly from the great nations across the sea many commissions who were sent here to inspect these American improve ments in war serving appliances.
 They took keen heed of the Berdan centre-fire cartridge and of the Berdan bolt gun and also of the Remington rifle as we'll as the Martini-Henry rifle and cartridges. All of these American inven- tions which were stimulated by our civil war Almost all of them were adopted by one or another of the European gov ernments. They were purchased by the Russians, by the French, Spanish, Turks and Italians
 A GREAT WAR PRECEDENT
 So it was as long ago as the time Of the civil war that the United States be-
 
 arms and munitions of war as this coun- try did during the recent European war serve our allies with an almost incredible amount of war-serving material of this kind In fact it was American arms and fixed ammunition which were first used in the Russo-Turkish war at the battle of Plevna in 1S7S
 Not at that earlier time had there come the wonderful development of the cop per mining industry in the far west ex cepting in the Lake Superior region. Lake copper with an alloy of zinc from the mines of New Jersey and Pennsylvania was used in the manufacture of these raw materials and has been used ever since
 Today the largest single item is cop per wire. It IS one of the interesting and almost mystic condolences of our industrial growth that in the years when there began the extension of the tele aph and the commercial utilization of the telephone together with electric light ing and the conservation or our great water powers, there began to be developed the great copper deposits of the far west.
 In 1861 the consumption of copper in the United States was about 25,000,0 900 pounds year. It had increased by only 5,O00,00O pounds in 1870. but in 1913 the domestic deliveries in the United States dRSTeSdleO WV,vVO POuuuS Ol COppei. In the early days of the copper indus. try the purchase of 500,000 pounds was looked upon as an enormous transac- tion. Today it would be regarded as a comparatively trivial one. The total of the copper output of the United States at the close of the civil war was +, 000, GOO pounds so that we were compelled to im- port some copper. How great was the stimulus occasioned by the use of elec tricity for lighting. power, rapid com munication of intelligence to the copper industry coincident with the discovery and development of the vast mines of copper in the far west is shown bS the fact that just before the beginning of the European war the copper output was 1 800 GOO coo pounds. This for the United States alone. The total increase in the world from 1870 to 1914 was 2,204, 900 900 pounds.
 In view, therefore of the amazing growth of the copper industry due to the vast and sudden demand for it, it is certain that as soon as readjustment is complete, the peace treaty signed, financial arrangements perfected, this in dustry must again respond to the inn