in the form of brass, bronze, ore, old copper, etc., in fact, other than ingot copper, reduces the copper exploited in refined ingot form to less than about 12 per cent of those other classes.

In other words, the copper available for export in unprotected refined ingot form is less equivalently than that actually exported in protected manufactured form, also in brass and other copper products.

We further note that for the year 1930, 90.72 per cent of the copper mined was consumed domestically, and only 9.28 per cent was available for export. We further find that the exported protected manufactured product had a copper poundage equivalent to 99.8 per cent of the export surplus.

We also note that for the year 1925, the domestic copper manufacturer actually exported 15.5 per cent of his total annual production of 447,218,001 pounds of highly protected copper plates and sheets, rods and bars, and pipes and seamless tubes.

The fact is that the copper manufacturer, rigidly protected as he is, can and does export any manufactured surplus he desires. The domestic copper miner can likewise export any surplus that accumulates after he is again accorded the protection taken away from him 40 years ago.

CHAPTER XV

COPPER PRICES

The copper prices for various years used in this discussion will be found on page 580, "Copper in 1929," United States Bureau of Mines. In compiling Table 3, the writer also ascertained the weighted average copper prices during the three periods, covering 28 years, said periods embracing 82 per cent of the copper produced during

1845-1930.

The weighted average price for copper 1903-1914 equals 14.8 cents, for 1915-1918 equals 24.0 cents, and for 1919-1930 equals 14.9 cents per pound.

It was also found that the weighted average copper price for 19231930 equals 14.4 cents; for 1915-1930 equals 17.5 cents; for 19031930 equals 16.6 cents per pound.

The foregoing denotes that we sold of the total copper production 1845-1930, 27 per cent thereof during 1903-1914, at an average price of 14.8 cents per pound; we sold 16 per cent of the total production during 1915-1918 at an average price of 24 cents per pound, and 39 per cent of the total production during 1919-1930 at 14.9 cents per pound. The average weighted price received for all the copper sold during 1903-1930 equals 16.6 cents per pound.

The outstanding phase of the foregoing factors being that the average price of copper for the two 12-year periods immediately preceding and following the war period, are practically equal. The price for the prior period equals 14.8 cents, and for the later period equals 14.9 cents per pound.

It is well known that practically all domestic commodities produced during the 12-year period subsequent to the war sold at a great deal higher average rate than that prevailing during the prior 12-year period.

It is likewise well known that in the metallic division of our domestic commodities nearly all domestically produced metals such as iron, lead, zinc, etc., sold at higher prices subsequent to the war than 12 years prior thereto.

Scanning the annual production value of metals produced domestically, we note that the value of copper is only exceeded by the annual production value of pig iron. We note 20 years ago, 1910, that the annual production value of copper only equaled 33 per cent of the value of pig iron produced for that year. For 1929 we find that the production value of copper had increased to 48 per cent of the annual value of pig iron. The foregoing emphasizes the present domestic value relationship of copper, its output value equalling about one-half the value output of the colossally important pig iron industry.

The metallic class value of the copper ingot can only be compared to the class embracing the steel ingot or billet. It is needless to go into explanations, but sufficient to state that pig iron metallurgically is comparable to blister copper but not to the refined electrolytic copper ingot, the manufactured finished product, marketed by the domestic-copper miner.

Comparative data of great interest is obtainable by equating the value relationship of the steel billet, electrolytic copper ingot, likewise the refined metals of lead, zinc, and aluminum.

We note, however, that the only metal ingot or billet comparable to the refined copper ingot in gross annual production value is the steel billet. Its unit weight value is only about one-tenth that of copper, yet its relationship is submitted as a matter of interest.

Metals like lead, zinc, and aluminum, which more closely approximate the unit weight value of copper, are worth while comparing.

It is interesting to note that the annual production value of the unprotected manufactured electrolytic copper ingot for 1929 is greater than the combined value for that year of all the following highly protected domestic metallic mineral products: Aluminum, antimony, bauxite, cadmium, dozens of different ferro-alloy combinations, lead, manganese ore, mercury, nickel, tungsten ore, vanadium ore, and zinc. The foregoing list embraces practically all the leading metallic mineral products of the United States except pig iron, gold, and silver.

We find that refined lead within the foregoing protected list has a greater annual production value than any other of the enumerated metals; consequently it will be used in conjunction with the protected Bessemer steel billet for comparison purposes with the unprotected copper ingot.

We shall cover identical year period spans as outlined in Table 3 in comparing the foregoing steel, lead, and copper unit values. Data for Bessemer steel billets and refined lead prices, however, were only available up to 1929, as outlined in the latest publish, d Statistical Abstract of the United States, namely, for 1930.

Outlining and consolidating the data for the steel, lead, and copper units, we find for the war period, 1915-1918, that billets veraged $46.17 per long ton, and lead and copper, 6.93 cents and 24 cents per pound respectively. For the 12-year period prior to the war we find that billets averaged $24.74 per ton, and lead and copper respectively, 4.60 cents and 14.8 cents per pound. During the 11-year period subsequent to the war, we find that billets averaged

$37.88 per ton, and lead and copper, respectively, 6.97 cents and 15 cents per pound.

We also ascertained that for the seven years following the passage of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff Act, namely, 1923-1929, billets averaged $35.93 per ton, and lead and copper, respectively, 7.53 cents and 14.5 cents per pound.

Comparing the average value of steel billets for the period 19231929, we find same to be 45.3 per cent greater than the average value

for 1903-1914.

We likewise find that the value of refined lead for 1923-1929 was 63.7 per cent greater than the value for 1903-1914.

It was likewise ascertained that the value of refined copper for the period 1923-1929 was 2.1 per cent less than the average copper value price for the period 1903-1914.

Consequently, we find that steel billets sold 47.4 per cent higher and lead 65.8 per cent higher proportionately than copper after the passage of the Fordney-McCumber Act, when compared with the average prices for 1903-1914.

We also find that the steel billet under the Fordney-McCumber Act was so rigidly protected that billet imports have been inconsequential, subsequent to the passage of said act.

We further find that refined lead imports only average about 10 per cent of our domestic consumption since the rigid protection accorded lead under the Fordney-McCumber Act.

Refined copper was left on the free list by the Fordney-McCumber Act, and due to that reason alone it was useless and impossible to regulate our domestic production to meet domestic consumption when every peon and slave producing copper area the world over was pouring in an average of 800,000,000 pounds of copper annually, same amounting to about 50 per cent of our average production.

Our legislative history from 1789 to date does not present a parallel to the protective neglect directed against the domestic copper miner's product during all these years.

He has been forced to sell his product at a ruinous commodity rate at the world's free trade price yet forced to pay the high cost commodity factors within our highly protected domestic market.

Let the apologist for this vicious protective discrimination as against the equities of the domestic copper miner explain why copper, the only unprotected domestically produced metal, sells ruinously below all the protected metals.

Likewise, let these disciples of internationalism show that if free trade is such an excellent thing for the copper miner, it should prove beneficial for the copper manufacturer who exports proportionately as much poundage as the miner.

If copper had been rigidly protected during the 1923-1929 period, it would have beyond question sold equivalently as high as the rigidly protected steel billet and refined lead.

Copper should have sold about 50 per cent higher during the 1923-1929 period than it did, or at a price approximating 22 cents per pound in order to enable the domestic copper-mining industry to pay the adequate wage, supply, transportation, and tax items that are necessary to maintain our domestic citizenship and institutions. Furthermore, this price would not alone have compensated for the

loss of the 12.5 per cent of copper exported, but likewise would have placed in sight incalculable copper ore reserve poundages, and maintained communities that have had to be abandoned.

All that the domestic copper miner demands is the restoration of the protective equities that he was deprived of in 1890 through the machinations of foreign copper producers and domestic internationalists.

When these protective equities are restored, as they must be in order to accord justice universally and without special favor throughout our domestic area, then the price of copper will approach and equal the commodity rate of all the protected metals.

CHAPTER XVI

DOMESTIC COPPER COSTS

It is quite evident from the data already submitted showing the destructive nature of the free-trade competition that has forced the domestic copper miner to take whatever price he could get for his product within his home market, that such a forced selling of product greatly below paralleling metallic commodity rates, has necessarily prevented the payment of domestic commodity rates for labor and

taxes.

Such selling of product at forced competitive prices during the past decade has not alone curtailed domestic exploratory efforts to place additional copper poundages within our vitally essential domestic ore reserves, but has likewise resulted in the virtual abandonment of development effort within 80 per cent of our domestic copper-mining districts.

Under such free-trade competitive conditions, it is readily understood that the domestic copper mining companies, for years past, have had to hammer their costs down; have been forced to pay minimum labor and tax details; likewise compelled to virtually abandon exploratory activities within new and promising ore areas; they have also had to mine their higher grade ore reserves in order to exist at all.

Under the foregoing statement of fact, it must necessarily follow that the cost data for years past, within the domestic copper mining industry, is much below what it would have been had the companies been able to pay a commodity rate for labor and taxes, likewise maintain essential ore explorations.

The writer ascertained that the weighted average price for copper during the 8-year period, 1923-1930, equals 14.4 cents per pound.

In scanning the list of annual average copper prices for said period, we find that for the year 1928 copper sold at the average price of 14.4 cents per pound. Consequently the cost data for said year should give a close approximation of the average annual cost factors for said 8-year period.

We find in the June 8, 1929, issue of the Engineering and Mining Journal an article by Mr. A. B. Parsons, analyzing the cost of producing copper, by certain domestic companies, for the year 1928.

Selecting the domestic cost data from Table 5 in said article, which gives the domestic cost per pound after depreciation and sundry credits, but before depletion, we submit the following tabulation:

TABLE 7.-Cost factors of certain domestic copper mines

The cost factors for only 12 domestic copper producing companies were submitted in the article aforementioned. These 12 companies only accounted for 69 per cent of the domestic copper production for 1928. The remainder of the annual production, amounting to 31 per cent, aggregating about 564,100,000 pounds of copper, came from 16 different States and Alaska.

We note in Table 7 that 23 per cent of the annual production for 1928 cost an average of 7.75 cents per pound, and 26 per cent thereof cost 9.80 cents per pound. The combined cost of this 49 per cent equals 8.84 cents per pound.

We further note that 20 per cent of the annual production cost 11.63 cents per pound.

It is difficult to even approximate what the average annual cost per pound for the remaining 31 per cent amounted to for the year 1928. This remainder was scattered through 16 different States and most of this cost production was high, higher on the average than any of the 12 company cost factors submitted in Table 7. The writer deems it fair, after carefully considering that Anaconda's very high cost Butte output accounts for nearly one-half of this balance, to assume an average cost of 12 cents per pound for this remainder. This 12-cent assumed cost about equals the known cost for the production embraced in Group 3.

Consequently we ascertain that the total average cost per pound of copper produced for 1928 equals about 10.37 cents.

We further note that 49 per cent of the 1928 output had a cost of about 9 cents per pound, and the remaining 51 per cent, a cost of about 12 cents per pound. The difference between the low and high domestic costs amounts to about 6 cents per pound.