Show ADVANCE IN METAL MARKET since the first of the year there has been an appreciable advance in the metal market mark acet and before the end of the month there is reason to believe prices will range still higher it would be incredible were quotations to remain where they were during the th e last week in december and for the reason that the output of the metals has been largely curtailed during the past two months while the visible supply on hand is not sufficient cien t for market requirements one thing is certain and that is that nearly all of the large producing companies will absolutely ab refuse to sacrifice copper on a twelve cent market or con dinue the production of lead at this abl z condition is known in the commercial and manufacturing world and in the future it will ill simply be a higher price for these I 1 nodi ties or production will practically cease ase and this would put a crimp into tile the I 1 industrial pursuits of the country which have a more paralyzing effect upon all al classes of business that was caused by 1 the recent and even present stringency in ithe the money market admies advices from the east state that colsum V I 1 1 1 I 1 erg s are coming to the belief that we shall 1 soon see e higher prices in copper and that every man who knows anything about the metal situation agrees that it has never been in a stronger position technically than at the present time indeed it is the prevailing impression that copper will touch the seventeen cent mark before the end of january and thomas W cole predicts that copper will be selling at twenty cents before the end of the year there are phases connected with the outlook for the th e metal market which should cheer the hearts of the mine owners and those who are now dependent upon the mining industry for the necessaries of life no man will remain long hungry with food offered him on every hand and the industries of the country will not long remain at a standstill because of an apparent scarcity of lead and copper to do so would be suicidal to almost every enterprise the leading metals the country must have and when the time of scarcity comes owing to the closing of the mines and mills because of prohibitively low prices the metal quotations are going to be raised and they will be lifted to a point where the producer can eliminate the red on liis ledger and make a showing on the profit malting making side the present smelter situation in this western country is more imitable imi cable to the interest of the mine owner and the producer than has been the slump in the metal market and time the healer of all diseases will surely settle this problem to the satisfaction if not increased benefit ot of the mining industry |