Show BATTLE OF THE MARXET English Buyers Skeptical American Ameri-can Facts Finally Convince IVoni the Xow t sow York StmmmJ The signs multiply that the contest waged the so long end bitterly between English manufacturers of refined copper and the American producers thereof Js closing The struggle has not been dissimilar to that over raw coitpn already fully explained in the Sun anti lime fact thai two such battles have been precipitated has afforded no small colroboua Ion of the opinion held by many competent observers that tho successive failures In sagacity shoun by English merchants and manufnclur ors raise the question the commercial whether or no prosperity of country has thej passed Its zenith The British qualities of conservatism and obstinacy possible seem lo have mado Jt Im for these menbants to adapt themselves lo the conditions of modern competitive cnterprise and lo have left them I In and studious the race behind lhe t persistent German and the Inventive and energetic American As In the case uf cotton there 1 was a scarcity of copper due however nut as In cotton to reduced pioduetion but lo greatly enlarged consumption English manufacturers declared that the rise In the value of copper as in the case of cotton was ttd not due to normal andproper causes but to speculation and lo American manipulation ad corners Now they have fess themselves had to con mistaken and to ac cept the error natural punishment of their S S > Time rIse In time copper market has p progressed with various fluctuations over Iuicj JSOJ Up io Dial lime for many years produellon had greatly oitl run m consumption amid a largo quantity I I of the niPlal stored In reserve exercised a constantly depressing effect on prices I At tins St period named the use of ns the base of the modern copper Industrial j development of electrical heat and I power l began to dawn upon the I mining and manufacturing world The huge i Smu massof reserve supplies of Slowly diminished 1 I while the price copper of tho t 0t article as slowly and as steadily rose i All tie copperusing Interests were skeptical about the advance at first but In the course of two or three years people who looked at the matter with their understanding and not with their t prejudices became convinced of two great facts First that the now USD of copper was not of an experi i mental and uncertain unlure but meant a vast permanent Increase in tho I consumption of the article and secondly that HIP sources of copper were comparatively speaking limited 0 v A great development of tire copper mining business began in time United States as soon ns the new Use of tie metal became appuiertt and Hi ISIS we were exporting considerable more than half of the raw copper usod In the world giving us control nf the worlds imiLkcls I The manufacturers of France and i ermauy gave up tho light after a brief struggle and began to buy enormously But the English manu facturers wAuldnl buy In England unlike the United Slates raw copper Is an article of speculation The cash ai tlclc and options for future delivery of 11 l are dealt In in much the same man netS that t grain cotton and similar commodities com-modities are In our own country The English manufacturers still asserted that the rise In price was due to a fcltrantlc American corner exactly similar to that which M l Sccretnn at lempled to form In France some years ago and they held that the same col lapse would In a little while come on It They therefore entered Into extensive i speculative operations for the decline I In the price of options in copper More 1 over 0 lucy refusd to buy the actual metal at the prevailing prices and al lowed time business of manufacturing it to go tu other lands chiefly to our own country The charge that the rise In copper was due ID a corner was of course preposterous but time Englishmen en lerlalneiXl with all stubbornness It is hard for Americans to understand how such an Idea could have lodged In business mens mind when the figures showing the actual enoi mous Increase in time worlds consumption of copper were before them and It was undisputed undis-puted that In 1S9S the exports of American Ameri-can copper were 200000000 pounds almost al-most four times those of the year before be-fore The Englishmen declared that American copper concerns had bought enormously In rIle English markettak ing copper bark to America and then ivshlpplng It I t to England again for the inirnoso of confusing the statistics of copper manufacture and Imports I It t Is true that largo American purchases of copper were made iti the English markets mar-kets but this wa chiefly because of the development of American business and Jie dceav of English enterprise It i mcanl I simply llnt so tremendous had been the advance in the Improvements Improve-ments of copper smelting and refining in America that taut refIners were able to buy the crude copper brought to England rout < Chile bring It to thud refineries re-fineries of Perth Ainboy and send it tuck to England Ut alarge net profit on time transaction There in little wonder won-der that the farfamed refiners of Swansea were troubled at the progress i of American rnelallurglsls 0 Thfr EnglJKh manufacturers nssertOd finally that the iugh prices command cd for copper wonJU cause an Increase I In urodtiotlbn whteh would defeat the ends of the Imaginary American J manipulators Jt should be observed thin these noculled high prices whljuf I they have been rapidly attained are atlll much below those which prevailed J In years gone by In 1J5SS time standard brand of copper sold for 101 per ton in iln I ICnylliMi tnarknt The rIse In the t piIre oftho ijrst six years lmnti 6nly roi suited iu an InrrrRJo of ibout 10 PAr cent annually in tfa nerlds ro1uc I lion and of this the greater propor 0 tion has been In our own country S S a 6 a Bltler and determinud even If deluded t ° de-luded was ihe resistance made by lhe i English buyers lo the American pro dueers of copper In the last half of 1 1SOS and throughout 1MW Our exports of copper In iSim wele 110000000 pounds lens than t In liOS yet it llic close of the year our stocks of copper were less a than at the Fame time the year pi ° vl I ous though our production had In time meantime greatly increased showing I that i UP Instead of lhe EiiRllshmnn I were doing the I manufacturing The 1 prlc e of copper which In May of last vear was Elk JIPI Ion in the English J I market fell to 70 per top In Decpni I her The first weeks of January of 1900 1 found the English rehouses I lleally I d SlHulf < of copper and Its nina prac i ufaclurers and speculators burdened by I contract for time dicllne which they saw no hope of fulfilling Meanwhile i the market for the article kept cx imndlng Owing to lhe tremendous tie I maud fur it I by lhe t shipbuilding plans of nil the great nallons for telephone and trolley wires which nre being I I slrung around the world n constantly multiplying lines li was evident lhat J I time use of copper in the coming spring season and throughout the year would a 1 be elm a scale larger than ever known before The Enprllsih manufacturers and speculators gave up the struggle During the last two months they have II I been heavy and constant buyers of copper I cop-per The exports of American copper for January and February of the prdH i cat year are nearly 25000000 pounds I Picuter m ban for the same two months i In lW so that the deficiency In the exports which 2SM showed over 1SU8 has been almost made good Copper on Monday rose to ISO per ton In the London 1 Lon-don market and so far as any indication indica-tion is apparent it will rise higher before be-fore it greatly falls |