The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1923-02-01
]. D. RYAN, COPPER KING
OF ANACONDA
INTERVIEWED BY A FINANCIAL
WRITER ON SIGNIFICANCE
OF CHILE COPPER DEAL.

property by the Anaconda company,
says:
Had not John d. Ryan Napoleonic
head of Anaconda Copper. arranged to
acquire control of the greatest foreign
copper property in tie world, Chile
Copper.it would have fallen into the
hands Of British interests, and given
Britain a tremendous advantage in
competing for world markets. not only
for copper. but for machinery inple-
ments. building materials and a thou
sond other articles wholly or partly
made of brass.
when l talked to Ryan on this sub
lJect he said:
Best the British.
'Supposing British capital had ac-
quired control of this great property,
and instead of bringing this extremely
low priced copper to America for
manufacture, they had taken it across
the Atlantic to British workshops
what would it have meant to the Am
erican people?
with the exception of our own
country, the British are the greatest
metal working people in the world
"What chance would there haYS
been for America to compete in for
eign countries with products manufac-
tured in Britain from this low priced
copper?
1--WE are perhaps the only people
in America who have the facilities to
buy control of this huge Chilean pro-
perty and to use it's output advan-
tageously.
This heavy Chilean production
that has come along in the last few
years came at time when copper
metal markets were glutted with war
stocks, war scrap, etc. What effect
this had upon the price of copper will
be realized when it is noted that II
copper were today selling on the av-
erage price level of the 10 principal
entering into building
its price would be q
cents a pound according to the sta
tistics of the Harvard economic SER
vice.
AS it is. it is now 20 per cent be-
low it's pre-war price, whereas the
other principal commodities entering
into building construction-brick, ce-
ment, lumber, steel. etc.-are rs per
cent above pre-war prices.
with the distribution of the I'M
wieldy and burdensome stock of cop
per accumulated as an aftermath of
the war; I look for much better mar
ket
Increased Copper Consumption.
business already is of tremendous
In fact, we never experience
I'd anything equal to it in pre-war
times The volume of copper going
INTO consumption today exceeds the
of any war in history ex-
,ept the war boom years of 1916
.917-191S
"T look for not only a very salts
actory volume of business, but for
considerable improvement in the mat
er of price
Ryan sees the coming of unprece-
ented development growth and ex-
ansion of coppers' role in the scheme
f things in the future
also he has very pronounced ideas,
he fruit of exhaustive thought, or the
ocial as well as economic value of
Industrial consultations. powerful
nough to exercise a stabilizing In
uence upon production prices, en-
loyment, etc, an influence similar to
hat exercised by a United States
teel Corporation in it's sphere.
Copper King of America.
q hope some other day to tell you
hat Ryan said to me on both these
objects.
IF it is permissible to refer to
sfer to Rockefeller as the oil king;
luke as the tobacco king. and Ford
3 the automobile king of America,
len it is permissible to describe John
. Ryan as the copper king of Amer
a.
mo other man approaches him in
over, in influence, or it might even
2 said, ability in the copper world,
; for that matter, the brass world.
Tt is only a little over a year ago
lat he acquired for Anaconda, con-
oil of the American Brass company.
? far the largest enterprise Of its
nd in the world, with a copper con-
ming capacity of 0O,0OO.0O0 pounds
year and a zinc consuming capacity
1O0,OOOOOO pounds a year That
al involved something like s45.00O.
10.
And now he has secured control Of
silly the largest known bodies of de-
,loped and undeveloped copper ore
the world. The deal is said to in
live s77,OOO,OOO, and the total financ-
g planned by Anaconda is put at
$4,000, OOO."