Arizona republican., 1919-02-15


 II. s. McClusky, one of the repre- entatives from Arizona at the recent onference in Washington on the cop yer mining situation in the west with he department of labor and other in erests, has recently returned, believing hat the situation is not an immedi- .tely promising one. He is more loosely concerned now, however, with he conditions that have developed at erome and are ending in other min ng camps in the state.
 MT. McClusky yesterday issued the ollOwing statement relating to the onference and what he found on his eturn A delegation of 34 men from the 'opper camps of Arizona, Utah and Montana on January 25, met with Sec etary of Labor Wilson and four other representatives of the department of abor, Eugene Meyer. Jr., chairman of he war finance corporation: William Ryan, representing the U. s. bureau )f mines, and James Lord, president of he mining department of the A. F. of L., and John Ryan, president of the copper export corporation. to discuss the very grave and critical conditions the industry.
 "The conference was informative, rather than legislative, and was called by the department of labor. as it was believed an exchange of views was needed so that everyone might have all the facts in trying to meet the prob lems now before us. How best to safe guard the industry and insure con tinued operations at living wage.
 Almost no Market
 There is almost no market for cop per, less than two days production having been sold since the signing oi the armistice on November II. Pri- vate concerns are now carrying over a billion pounds of copper in stock that cost them on an average of l7h cents to produce. MT Ryan informed us that there was no company now op- erating that was strong enough finan- cially to 1ntinue operations for more than three months unless there was a big change in the conditions of the market
 ''Walter Douglas of Phelps Dodge, NIT. Kelly of the Anaconda; Mfr. Gug- genhsim of the Guggenheim compan- ies. and Mfr. A~~azZy of the Michigan companies are now in Europe trying to book some orders, but there does not seem to be any immediate prospect 10, any business on a large scale from that direction, as all the allied coun- tries have large stocks with the addi- tIonal scrap copper. While Germany and the northern neutrals are stil under the embargo. We also have tc meet the competition of South Ameri- can countries for what market ther, is now.
 Situation Serious
 "The delegation called upon Mir Burleson of the postoffice department telegraph and telephcse companies, tn senators and congressman from tn states producing the copper, seekin, relief. but all that we could get wa an agreement from Secretary Bake and @ecretary Daniels that they woul not dump the copper they now own ol the market.
 We urged congress to support tn bill introduced this week that wa prepared by the treasury departmen providing for extending credit to for eign countries so that thev may pur chase our raw materials and manu factured products. There is some hop for relief in that direction.
 ''The seriousness of the situatio cannot be over stated and it will prob ably remain serious for several month at least. The total suspension of som of the smaller companies is to b looked for and possible further re duction in working forces of severs of the larger companies may be ex pected.
 Men Should Have Waited There can be no question that tn 1 policy being adopted at Jerome is sui cidal to the best interests of the worh CTS at a time like this. especially a the were operating under the term of the presidents mediation commis sion's agreement established there b | Judge Lewis of Phoenix. My opinio | is that the company violated the agree ment bv reducing waves in the fir, place as the scale in -peration theI had been put in effect by the admir- istration of the department of lab< under the terms of the agreement. b, | the men should have waited until M Davies arrived before going on strik
 There are some rumors of possib 1 trouble in some of the other distric and we are going to do what we can ! make the men realize that at this tin it is going to be difficult Dropositic | to obtain work and that it is not goir to take much effort 10 put themselv, out of work. We are going to insis however, that the men have the rigl to quit work if they so desire, and al. to induce others to do sO and lb; right should not be interfered wit But we are going to do all in our pow to keep the men at work and settle the present situation in a res sonable and just way"
 Speaking further of the conferen, at Washington, Mir. McClusky said tn; a great mass of data was presentt there, some of it gathered by the d, partment of labor and a part of it l Eugene Meyer. Jr.. former chairms i of the metal section of the war indu tries board and now of the treasul department. The following digest
 the data shows the present copp
 situation:
 Situation is Outlined
 On the signing of the s.rmistice, tl
 following conditions existed:
 The copper producers had very lit
 copper sold ahead, as the needs of O
 government and of the allies, whi
 were taking close to 90 per cent of t
 entire production, were being suppli
 monthly as required
 At the request of the war industri
 board the mines continued to run fro
 the middle of November until the el
 of the year at a fairly high producti
 in order to keep the labor employ awaiting developments.
 There now exists an unsold stock copper-in process from the mine the refinery or in finished form at t refinery-of approximately 1000 0.000, C pounds. This copper. it must be bor in mind, has been produced on a scs for wages of 26-cent price, and no
 of it has been marketed or can be ma
 keted at that price or anywhere near A stock of copper is found to be | hand in France. England and liz