Bisbee daily review., 1922-01-11
PROMINENT MINING MAN SAYS
COPPER WILL COME BACK WITH
DEMAND GREATER THAN BEFORE
Agassz Declares Use Of Substitutes For Brass and Coppe
Seems to Be Disappearing; Predicts New Advances in
Electricity Will Mean Much to Red Metal

The following article by r. l..
Agassiz, president of the Calumet
& Hecla Mining company and
| president of the Copper & Brass
! Research association, is reprinted
from the New York Tribune OF
January l, 1922.
All American industries have had
! problems more or less grave to face
since the termination of the world
war. Naturally those dealing in the
essentials of our national life are re-
covering more quickly. Those whose
re-Trn to normal and whose contin-
| ued development depend in some
measure on the resumption of healthy
economic conditions abroad still have
struggles ahead of them. On the
whole, however, | think our country
has never in its entire history wit
| messed finer exhibition or ;nuustr.aI
courage than that presented by Amer
lean business men since the day of
the armistice, when they faced sad
! IL flattened-out world, in the rehabili-
tation of which they knew they had
to play leading part
The experience of copper and il
products during these trying year.
may be said to be typical of the sort
OF battles our American leaders OF
industry have had to fight. Copper
and its chief alloys, brass and bronze,
actually are essentials, yet their de-
velOpment over the 25-year period, be-
ginning with 1895, brought about an
investment of capital in mining prop
critics that could not possibly earn a
decent living for itself without a
steady maintenance Of foreign de-
mand
Must Have Steady Market
Even if domestic consumption had
speedily returned to normal, which it
did not, there still would have been
grave problems to face, because it
must be kept in mind that you can
not work great mining properties on
q fragmentary basis without so great.
ly increasing the cost of production
that it is not possible to market your
metal at a profit.
The copper industry is not a char
liable institution. Neither is it a men,
dicant. Having plenty of copper IN
a refined state for any domestic or
foreign demand that was likely to
materialiZe, it closed most of the
mines, and today only a few proper
ties actually are operating. How soon
the mines will again open is a ques-
ton l shall not attempt to answer.
1t is matter that must be carefully
studied, keeping in mind the thought
that if reopening of the vast pro-
ducing properties anticipates oe-
mand, which later fails to manifest
itself, the industry is in danger OF
again creating the very condition that
it has been wrestling with for the
last three years.
Not Overproduction
This condition has been referred to
from time to time as one of over
production. Actually it is a condition
OF under-consumption, in part brought
about in this country by the substi-
tuition of cheaper metals and mate
rials during the war period, when cop
per, brass and bronze were not TO be
had for commercial purposes, and in
Europe, by a lack OF funds wherewith
to buy our metals.
Domestically the situation is stead
lily improving. Slow.y put surely
copper, brass, bronze and copper
products generally are coming back
into their own. Europe will buy when
Europe has money. Meanwhile, as IS
we'll known, the copper-producing in
terestS, through the agency of the
Copper Export association, have done
all that they could to help out the
stricken nations across the water with
the raw materials to start some of
their industries moving.
In building enterprises copper and
brass have place that cannot profit
ably be taken by substitutes, just as
other metals and materials have
places in common-SenSe construction
work that copper and it's products
would not expect to fill. This is grad
ually coming to be understood by
those who put their money into build
ing enterprises, and it is one of many
encouraging developments of the last
eighteen months.
The orgy of cheap substitution
seems to be disappearing, and
not only in building but in other
forms of investment our people
are realizing that there is no real
economy in short-lived materials
which require constant upkeep
and replacement charges, no mat
the slightly lower initial cost may
be.
The electrical industry is regard
ed today by experts as being in its
infancy, however marvellous the de
velopments of the last two decades
may seem to most of us. Copper has
run side by side with American in
ventive genius in bringing this great
industry where it is at present.
Large Absorption Likely
The two are inseparable, and we
may expect continued large ABSORB
ton of copper, as present electrical
enterprises expand and new ventures
in this field are started. Not only
in this country but in South America
and Europe we hear with great IRE
quency nowadays of new projects
having electrical power for their has
being undertaken.
Within n month NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. a.