OCR Text |
Show I MINING AND FINANCIAL H J Instead of inaugurating a period of lower B ! priced copper the beginning of production at the H Ray, Chino and other "porphyry" mines is marked H by an advance in the price of the red metal such H as has not been seen for years. The red metal H now is at the figure which the copper magnates H themselves have named as a fair and remuner- H ative price. Complaints are heard no more and H the only apprehension expressed is that the price H of the metal will become so high as to discourage H its UBe. Tho advance of copper in concert with H the debut of the new "porphyries" is, of course, H coincidental. The part played by tho youngsters H is psychological. Consumers heard so much of H the flood of copper that was to follow the opening H of the new mines that they put off from month m to month the replenishment of their supplies. By H the time the 'porphyries" were ready to do busi- 1 ness the consumers were down almost to the last H spoonful of their stocks and they had to buy. The porphyries added something to the supply of metal in market, but not enough to balance the enforced demand. The natural result has been the marking mark-ing up of copper to 15 cents a pound and more. If you were making copper wash boilers and did not have more than a bar or two of copper left in the shop what would you do? You would go into the market and buy some copper. Even if you felt sure in your own mind that the price would be lower the next week or the next month you would make the purchase so as not to get be hind with your orders for boilers. Then if the next lot of copper cost you more you would raise the price of your boilers. If copper kept on advancing ad-vancing you would advance boilers until your customers cus-tomers began to quit buying them. When your trade began to fall off you would cancel the contract con-tract for an addition to your shop and begin looking look-ing about for some other material to make boilers boil-ers of. Perhaps you would get to using aluminum. alumi-num. Then you would not have nay further use for copper and the copper dealers would lose you permanently as a customer. That is why the copper cop-per men do not view with unmixed pleasure the quick advance in the value of their commodity. But for the uncertainties of the anti-trus there would be a congress of copper magnates to prevent extraordinary spurts and abnormal declines de-clines in copper prices. When demand was lively the copper mines would be encouraged to get out all the ore possible. When the consumption fell off the' outputs would be restricted in equal proportion pro-portion at all the mines. It was for this purpose that the Amalgamated Copper company was designed de-signed by the late H. H. Rogers. Such an arrangement ar-rangement has been the idea of the mine owners ever since the collapse of the copper boom of the early nineties. Its execution has been held in abeyance pending the elucidation of the anti-trust law. From the manner in which that law is being be-ing elucidated by decisions in the packers' cases, the shoe machinery cases, the sugar trust cases and even the Standard Oil and tobacco cases it may be assumed that the copper interests soon will find a way out that does not end in the penitentiary. pen-itentiary. Conditions in the copper metal market may have something to do with the startling increase in the price of Ohio Copper shares. And again, they may not. Anyone with a theory as to why Ohio, which was weak two months ago at 97 cents a share, is strong at $1.17 now can And an audience. The company, to all appearances, is in the same state and predicaments it was in January. If there are good and sufficient reasons for its great advance those reasons are buried deep in the grey matter of F. August Heinze and such persons as he may have induced to take part in the rehabilitation of the company. The one substantial fact that stands out in the fog is that those who had the nerve to buy Ohio when it was selling below a dollar can show a fancy profit on the investment. Bingham Coppei, the copperless copper company, com-pany, is taking the bankruptcy route toward reorganization re-organization according to dispatches from Boston. Although it has produced no copper the Bingham Copper is provided so well with lead and silver that the necessity for going under a receivership because of a little nineteen thousand dollar debt is difficult to explain, or would be difficult to explain ex-plain if it were not known that there are wide divergences di-vergences of views among the stockholders. Since the company ran out of money for operating expenses ex-penses and closed its tunnel down several efforts have been made to secure agreement on a plan of reorganization. The last plan of which mention men-tion was made was to increase the capital stock from 800,000 to 1,200,000 shares and allot the new stock to shareholders. This plan evidently fared no better than its predecessors. At the time it was shut down the Bingham Copper was driving on a vein streaked with rich seams of silver, gold and lead which appeared to be leading to an important im-portant ore deposit. The broadening tendency of the local stock market has been emphasized this week by the increasing attention paid to the Wasatch issues. Alta Consolidated reached the highest figure in its history, Thompson-Quincy recovered a good share of the loss that ensued when the management confessed that the ore found in the upraise was not a permanent resource and Sliver King Consolidated Con-solidated found many buyers around a dollar, lude to an advance in prices and there are indications indi-cations that the market is getting ready for a bull movement. Dear silver has something to do with it; dearer copper is a contributor; dividend prospects pros-pects help, but the main factor is that the public has been out of the mining game just about as long as it can withstand the lure of the metal hunt. |