OCR Text |
Show s ' AMERICAN COPPER DESERVES CONSIDERATION. Owing to the accumulation in this country of large stocks of copper and to the low rate of consumption, the imposition recently of a tariff of four cents a pound on the metal, is not likely to cause any early appreciable increase in the price of copper, according ac-cording to Walter Lyman Brown, mining min-ing engineer. While the new import levies have been criticized by economists as marking mark-ing a step backward, it seems as if there is justification for some duty to protect a home industry such as our copper mining. Apparently none I of our American mines can operate ; at a profit at recent prices and only a few could make any real profit if the whole four-cent tariff were added to the present price. This virtually means that our mines could not exist in the face of unrestricted unres-tricted competition from foreign producers pro-ducers operating with cheaper labor, in view of the over-production and over-supply which seems ahead of our own industry for a few years at least. |