Show 9 0 0 9 azbe leab bleab katiff atoff prices aab supply 9 9 0 9 the ups and downs of the lead market are so frequent and confusing as to make it difficult of understanding recent fluctuations showing a difference in current rates of nearly 20 per ton much has been said on this important subject and the multitude of the interest it involves justifies continued mention A statement of previous and existing facts from an independent standpoint is of present interest every one directly or indirectly interested in this subject is presumably acquainted with most of the general facts in connection with the present situation probably no part of the metal mining productive world presents so complex an appearance as the present condition of the lead market in the united states where the trusts the fand the law of supply and demand are the principal factors in the price each trending back many years anticipating r and creating present conditions in 1861 the morrill tariff bill admitted gold and silver into this country free the desire then being to get specie to meet government obligations A shipment of silver lead ore arriving occasioned a treasury department part ment ruling that under that tariff if the value of the silver or gold combined in the ores exceeded the value of the lead therein the whole product should come in free this western half of america was sparsely s settled in in those days mines of any kind were few outside of california and lead mines fewer still ant in the early lead became a prominent production east of the sierras and an ore producing association was organized in utah which among other things fought against tree free w lead they protested and petitioned congress for an import duty in about the same fashion that the california miners association has fought for a mineral lands bill ill and an d their representatives at washington found many of their protests protest s and letters pigeonholed pigeon holed but they kept the fight up and nally finally got notification from the treasury de part apartment lart ment that they should be granted a hearing the first of the kind which was given them in may 1889 the smelter men of kansas city and other places wanted the mexican lead ores to come in free which was good business from their standpoint th though ough injurious to the lead producers of the west from their standpoint the latter won their point and the government ruled that thereafter the lead in the ores should be taxed and appointed an officer to be stationed at el paso to io sample the lead ores from mexico on the border the utah lead producers started to get out lead at a better price and the smelters shelters sm elters started to fill cars nearly full with heavy lead ores and to p le ie upon the top of the ores very rich silver ores with a little lad get that ore sampled the cars run across the rio grande the rich ores saved and sent back the heavy lead ores unloaded the former thus convey conveying iDO the latter until john tiernan was sent by the utah lead ore producing t association to investigate going as an ostensible buyer of hides and after unearthing ir the subterfuge succeeded in having it stopped the next movement on the part of the smelters shelters sm elters was to secure a government ruling that from the samples assayed 10 per cent should e si stricken ricken off as a smelter loss and 10 per cent more as a loss in refining the utah ore producers association made demonstration by their el paso representative that the total loss in the smelting smelling sm elting did not exceed 4 per cen centano cent tand and that the loss in in the refining M did not exceed 1 per cent after that was blocked the smelters shelters sm elters got a ruling f from rom the treasury department permitting ores to be run into bonded warehouses and held six months how this worked in their behalf can be estimated from the fact that tha t the chairman of the bureau of statistics for the united states treasury department in 1898 made official report that pounds of lead had been entered that could not b be 0 a counted accounted c for in 1898 the smelters shelters sm elters secured another ruling which permitted them to account for only 90 per cent of the ore received and another ruling permitting lead ore to come in free in the slag in that way slag coming in carrying 85 per cent metallic lead this was ruled out by the treasury department but just two years ago the smelters shelters sm elters secured another government ruling permitting lead in copper matte where the copper was worth more than the lead to come in free this the utah ore producing association fought to final appeal none oi of the above applies to pacific coast smelters shelters sm elters all this is merely instanced as a m matter atter of record to illustrate that while a tariff is a very simple thing it is sometimes difficult to enforce it according to its spirit and intent the duty on lead in the ore is li 11 cents per pound at 4 p per er pound there is not much profit in lead mining there would be still less but f for or the tariff of per pounds with that tha t tariff off lead would sell at about the same price in the united states as abroad except for fluctuations due to variable local demand it would sell at the present price less per pounds at that price nearly every lead mine in idaho montana utah and colorado would be compelled to idleness the shutting Z down of those mines would mean ruin to many it is probably an underestimate rather than an exaggeration to say that the tariff on lead has harf given to the miners of the one state of utah in a year one million dollars more than they would have received without that tariff on the lead in the ores and that t that hat amount represents but a part of what the tariff is worth to them or to the miners of montana idaho nevada colorado or anywhere else where lead is mined in the states stata producing gold and silver for much of this gold and silver comes as part of the product the grea great t production of lead increasing the amount of the latter utah is particularly mentioned as it produces about fifty thousand tons of lead annually though idaho montana and colorado are almost equally interested so that the cry against the tariff on lead in the ore is suicidal it will be seen that in one sense it would be to the interest of the smelters shelters sm elters to have lead free while it is equally manifest that if they canso can so manipulate the tariff on lead as to make it inure both ways to their advantage it would be particularly gratify gratifying iDO in a pecuniary sense to them the situation is a complex one the smelters shelters sm elters having failed in their effort to have the tariff so construed the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining co has been formed which as a business proposition is precisely in the line of modern advance and is i just what any other industry so situated would do it is manifest that this latest consolidation of the lead manipulators has entire control of the price and can raise or depress it as best determined by their immediate or transient interests all this is entirely from the unbiased and impartial standpoint of this paper having nothing to do with private interests nor politics the matter being discussed from a thoroughly independent standpoint the recent effort of the principal lead producers to aid in the maintenance of good prices for the raw product seems stultified by the fact that they appear to be necessarily operative cooperative co with the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining co who aern to have in every way the best of it as probably it is only by increasing their export trade that the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining co can set get better prices at home and thus pay the producers mo more moe e for the their r ore the duty on lead being 21 cents per pound precludes any importation and cuts little figure in the case there is little justly bearing upon the subject in the statements made and the hurried conclusions drawn in some discussions of this subject regarding lower prices of lead in the foreign market as compared with the domestic markets the fact being clear that were it not for the tariff on lead even its present price in this country could not be maintained in the light of the events of the past few weeks and the extraordinary fluctuations of the lead market it is difficult to predicate how any operative cooperative co efforts by part of the miners and the andrican smelting smelling Sm elting refining co can be successful this brings us to the discussion of the last factor in the situation usually the most important namely the law of supply and demand a law which does not have full force and effect in this case being interfered with by the position posidio n capable of being maintained by the american smelling smelting Sm elting refining co with who whom by reason of all these facts re rests ats the responsibility n lity for results the producers have for some time been endeavoring to make a combi combination nat on that would set some stable quat quotations actions some figure that could be held to and several me meetings tings gave color to the belief that progress was being made in that direction T the h e difficulties I 1 in the way were so obvious throughout that little hope was generally entertained that the effort would result sue successfully cess fully A sort of minor agreement was had with the american smelting smelling Sm elting refining co conditioned on the ability to have general agreement and about the first dinst it looked as though such general operation cooperation co were possible but the missouri lead producers have declined to go into any combine thus deferring in what from the start did not look like a hopeful project of course in the long run the producers have the strength I 1 of the game that is were it to come to a final trial of strength between those who produce the ore and those who handle and sell it if the former unanimously declined to furnish the product it would leave the latter without anything to do business with the difficulty of making and maintaining a combination among the producers is manifest the situation is an untoward one and affects all alike though existing conditions on the pacific coast do not include any smelter west of the sierras in the monopoly of the trust it looks as though tb there ere would be a fight and a desperate one and that meanwhile lead has not reached its lowest point when it does the purchasers will be heard from in more unanimous vigor than before the present situation is this the trust proposes to buy up surplus lead and export it to keep the surplus down and the home price up if the producers meanwhile will ahl stand the loss missouri lead producers decline to become a party to such om impact pact san francisco mining and scientific press |