THE CORDOVA DAILY TIMES
Entered at the Postoffice at Cordova
Alaska, as second-class matter.
H. G. STEEL
EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR
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TUESDAY, MARCH 4, 1919.
DEVELOPMENTS IN COPPER.
The official statement about copper
that was published in Washington last
week was received by the public as
the revelation of a bad situation, but
there was nothing in it that the read
ers of the Journal had not already
had, and there was one slight mis
statement, viz. with respect to the
fixed price for copper. We may ap
propriately review the main events of
the last three months.
In the first place, let it be clearly
established in the mind that the gov
ernment never fixed the price for cop;
per in the sense that it named a price
at which all business should be done.
What it did was to fix a maximum,
first 23% cents, and later 26 cents,
above which producers might not go.
Producers being unwilling on any day
up to December 1, 1!»18, to sell for
any less, the prices of 23% cents,
and later 26 cents, prevailed as
the market prices. But if at
any time producers had had more cop
per than they could sell at the stip
ulated maxima, and had desired to
sell, the market price would no longer
have been at the maxima, but would
have been something less. We re
peatedly drew attention to this dur
ing 1918, urging that the maintenance
of the market at the restrictive maxi
mum indicated that there was not
copper enough.
A precisely parallel situation as to
high-grade zinc illuminates this. There
was a fixed maximum price of 12
cents, which prevailed as the market
price so long as the supply was short,
hut. upon a liberalizing of the speci
fications. letting in a new supply of
high-grade zinc, the market fell below
12 cents overnight, and subsequently
the maximum price ceased to be a fac
tro, though it. was always a threat.
Manifestly the condition as to cop
per and zinc was quite different from
that of silver, in which case the gov
ernment agreed to buy the metal at a
certain price, and subsequently estab
lished conditions equivalent to a
maximum of $1.01% and a minimum
of S9% cents. To have had'real fix
ing of the price for copper, something
similar would have had to be done.
On November 1, :918, a previous
agreement between the war industries
board and the copper producers was
renewed for two mouths, without any
change of terms. On November 15,
1918, a new agreement was arranged,
cancelling the previous one. The
agreement of November 15 merely
meajit that if the government needed
to buy any more copper (which no
body anticipated it would) it would
pay 26 cents for it up to December
31, and up to that time the producers
iWere authorized to enter into an
agreement among themselves “to ask
28 cents from the public and get it it
they could. The producers promptly
entered into such an agreement, but
promptly, also, found that they could
not get the price.
A few thousand tons of copper was
sold during the second half of Novem
ber to the government and its allies,
on doubtless what were belated ord
ers, and thus established a market
price. Prom December 1 to Decem
ber 31, however, no copper was sold
to anybody, and with the conditions
existing, viz. the producers being
hound to each other not to sell at less
than 26 cents and nobody being will
ing to pay anything like that, there
was neither any market nor could
there be said to he any market price.
With the advent of January the
newly formed export association
named a price of 23 cents for export.
Some of the small producers made
sales at 21 @20 cents, and later in the
month as low at 18% cents. These
sales were sporadic and but email in
the aggregate, the total for the month
being only about 25,000,000 pounds.
There was a good deal of vagueness
about them, and it was impossible tc
1 determine just what they represented
The big producers did not cell any
thing, and with them out of the market
there could hardly he said to he any
market. There was no way of telling
what the mrrket would have been il
copper had boon freely offered by ‘
big producer or if the small producers
1 in their fishing, had hooked into a real
demand.
Among tlie big producers there was
neither collusion nor Illusion, ai
least there was no illusion after thr
first week or tv.o. The gravity of the
situation, especially as to the aecuinu
luted stocks both here and abroad
oral Hie probability that Europe would
[not. buy any- copper for a long lime
j was scarcely appreciated oven in liigti
1 quarters. Washington had contribut
led to dulling the perception:-, by male
i ing official si 'temenls of big orders
' to come from Europe, which our read
ers will recall we characterized as
moonshine at the time they were
made, and persuading the producers
to maintain production until Decern
her 31. Our discernment of the situa
tion here, and our advices from Eu
rope front an early date, were con
trary to all optimistic ideas, and ever
since November we had been unswerv
j ingly declaring the situation and Indi
cating to weak producers that, they
| ought to shut down as quickly as they
| could.
However, as conditions became
(dear to the big producers during Jan
uary, the shock that there would he
to labor with restoration of the slid
ing scale of wages and a drop over
night from the basis cf 26 cents,
which had been used up to December
31, to something less than 20 cents,
became a paramount consideration.
It was necessary to talk things over
with the labor leaders and make some
arrangements. In this both parties
—the companies and the representa
tives of the miners—were clear-eyed
and generous. The department of la
bor and other branches of the gov
ernment were intelligently helpful.
During these negotiations the big pro
ducers had to avoid making a market
and forcing the issue. But with the
beginning of February the situation
changed, and one after another ap
peared as a seller of copper ready to
meet the market or to make a market.
Thus were natural market conditions
restored, and this was the most hope
ful first step for the remedy cf a bad
situation.
I me cut* uuuuicnuiuc imvn aucau,
and they may last for a long time.
We must expect a convulsive market
for a while, and also we must look for
lower prices being made, perhaps so
low that they will be a jolt. We have
a situation now in copper, as well as
in lead and zinc, wherein cost of pro
ductipn does not mean anything in
the market. Many producors will lind
it necessary to cease producing. The
more iis production curtailed, the. bet
ter will it be for correction of the sur
feited condition. In this connection
let. us point out, however, to those
companies whose treasuries are in a
good state—and fortunately that can
be said of many—that this is a good
time to resume development work,
which had to be neglected during the
high pressure of 1915-18. Copper pro
ducors must now be cool, patient, and
philosophical, and we trust that they
will accept our confident assurance
that in letting nature take its course
the restoration of normal, he. lthy con
ditions will come quickest.—Engineer
ing and Mining Journal.
■-0
VOICE OF THE ALASKA PRESS
Whiskey at $10 the bottle, and hard
to got, and yet some pro-tepers decry
prohibition.— Fairbanks Citizen.
wonaer wnen tne navy department
is going to spend that million dollar
appropriation for the development of
naval eoal in the Matanuska field—
Anchorage Times.
Those familiar with the past activ
ities of John Bull-aine can readily un
derstand why he is now at Washing
ton opposing the Alaska railroad. He
has a lot of town property at Seward
which has not increased in value so
rapidly as ho desired it should, and he
is sore at the Alaskan nnginecr'ng
commission because of the lack of in
terest displayed by the railroad build
ers in the Bullaine holdings—Nenana
News.
The proposal made at the draft
board convention held recently that
aliens who renounced their citizen
ship in order to avoid mill',.at y service
should be deported, was the right
move and should apply w’th equal
force and diligence to those aliens
who tried to work up hatred enough to
threaten to overthrow our govern
ment. The principal of selection
which worked so well with t'.e draft
should be applied to the foreigners
who are permitted to live in this
country and to those who may hore
after seek admission. They should he
sent back to try thoir experiments on
their home governments.—Ketchikan
Miner.
START HIM RIGHT
*""~~**l~*******"*,7*!—
PREPARING TO
TAKE CENSUS
NEXUEAR
WASHINGTON, March 4.- With
hostilities at an end, the government
is now laying the basis for one of the
greater of its peace-time tasks'—the
decennial inventory of the United
States, its people, lands, industry and
livestock that is called the census.
Secretary of Commerce lied field the
other day signed the order that trans
ferred one of the largest temporary
war buildings put up in Washington,
that formerly housing the army’s de
partment of aeronautics, to Director
of the Census Rogers and his stall'.
Actually, the government began tlie
jo!) some months ago, assembling its
plans and forces. By law, ti e begin
ning of the census period of 192o is
July 1, 1:919, though it will not be until
a year from April that the enumerat
ors will be set at work. It is then
that every individual in America, or
some one acting for the individual,
will be asked the series of questions
that must be .answered.
There will be twenty-nine of these
questions in the 1920 census, accord
ing to the present design of Director
Roger’s dummy cards, which now a~e
being given the exhaustive study of
statisticians. The more complex ques
tionnaires that go to industrial estab
lishments, schools, farms, and every
other permanent institution of the
country are likewise in the develop
ment stage, undergoingfi critical ex
amination in the light of experience
the government has gained in conduct
ing tmrteen inventories or me Kina.
Chiefly the bureau is engaged in
preparing for the classification and
tabulation of the vast quantity of ma
terial which will be assembled. The
1920 census tabulation will bo for the
first time almost completely a ma
chine operation, conducted by means
of devices useful oury to the census
bureau of the United States which
have been invented and arc now be'r.g
built by men in its employ. Electric
machines will first transfer the writ
ten information coining in on the
enumerator's sheets to cards, not by
writing, but by punching holes at
proper points. Then the punched
cards will be handed in their millions
to another battery of machines, the
tabulators, an amazing product of hu
man ingenuity. E. M. Boiteuux, who
devised them, has been with the
census bureau for eighteen years, and
is nowr superintending the construc
tion of twonty-five machines, the op
eration of which he will direct.
These tabulators, working with
smooth and silent perfection, take in
400 cars a minute, Count them, reject
all that are imperfect or improperly
punched in any fashion, and take off
the totals of punch marks, assembling
the final result in printed < figures on
handy sheets. One of them the other
day in eight hours handled 150,000
cards, compiling information that
would represent the population sta
tistics of a very sizable American city.
Their experimental use was com
menced after the 1910 census, but Mr.
Boiteaus has since devoted most of
his time to their improvement, and to
the extension of their abilities.
The machine resemble in outward
aspect a piece of office furniture.
Cards go into a metallic magazine at
their top, travel a few inches on metal
glides, come out neatly stacked with
the mistakes of tho punching una
chines—which have merely human
operators pointed out. The printed
records of the eighteen or twenty
totals that the punch marks indicate
come out from another slot, and the
instrument stands ready to repeat.
With these machines, there is a
practical assurance that the publica
tions of the census, usually coming |
out a long time after the enumeration,
may he more quickly at hand to guide
the estimates of governmental and in
dustrial leaders, and generally guide
and demonstrate the progress of na
tional civilization. They are being
produced largely by the work of
youthful apprentices from Washing
ton schools, which have vocational
courses.
-•—
SON OF NOTED MEXICAN
MEETS DEATH IN BATTLE
MEXICO CITY, March 4.—Luis Ter
raza III, rebel “general” ar.d adventur
ous grandson of the former multi-mil
lionaire Chihuahua ranchman of the
same name, has been killed in the
state of Tlacala, while serving with
the bandits of Marcelo Caraveo, ac
cording to reports received here from
Puebla.
Terrazas, who was about 25 years
old, is credited with being the leader
in numerous sanguinary chapters of
the history of modern Mexican re
volts. Daring to foolhardiness, he
had, on numerous occasions, been in
imminent peril of death and. when his
body was recovered, it is said to have
borne the scars of fifteen wounds.
His fatal escapade was venturing
alone ■ into the village of Cholula,
where he was set upon by nearly a
score of the inhabitants. He killed
three before succumbing to a machete
blow.
—-♦
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well equipped for all classe of com
mercial printing.
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— ■■ ■ - -
“Help make the world safe for men who
are trying to make reverence for law the polit
ical religion of the nations.”
Ponder on this utterance and let it ho a "iiide to vour
action in the reforms that should rcsolvo from the pres
ent social unrest.
The variety of our industries Insures a wonderful
future for us, hut without a bank account you will be
handicapped.
Don't he afraid to come in and talk your affairs
over, so that you can open an account now with the
BANK OF ALASKA
Capital $170,000.00
ALASKA'S BRANCH BANKING SY STKM
Cordova Skagway Wrangell Anchorage
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WEEKLY TRIPS BETWEEN
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Carrying Passengers and Freight from
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MODERN LAUNDRY
F. A. JONES, Proprietor
PHONE 66
First Avenue, Below Alaskan Hotel
ARE YOU GOING OUT THIS FALL?
Visit San Francisco and Stop with
Mark C. Thompson
at liis new hotel in the heart of the city between
Powell and Mason Streets.
The Dale-Tallac Hotel
140 ELLIS STREET
Special Rates and Headquarters for Alaskans.
Manhattan Hotel
R. W. FERRELL, Prop.
Electric Lighted. Hot Water. Turkish and Tub
Baths.
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PHONE 99
JUST ARRIVED
DETMER’S New Spring Styles of the
latest patterns in light and heavy
weights for ladies' and men’s Suits,
Tailored in Up-to-Date Styles.
TOM HUBBERT
Tailor and Cleaner
(
**•**•••••*•••***
! largain'Stor
JUST RECEIVED
A LINE OF SHIRTS, PANTS, WOOL BLANKETS
QUILTS, ETC. FROM F. A. PATRICK AND CO.
We also handle the Hirsch-Weis and Co. “Rose City”
brand of Mackinaws, Loggers’ Shirts, Rainset and Au
apelle Clothing.
Black Bear brand of union made Overalls and Jackets.
A complete line of Wool and Cotton Blankets, Quilts of all kinds,
Bed Spreads, Sheets and Pillow Slips, Wool Sox and Insoles.
Parkees, Gloves and Mittens, Shoe Pacs and Rubber Overshoes.
Tents, Bed Sheets, Pack Sacks and Clothes Bags.
Towers’ Fish Brand Oil Coats.