Copper Tariff

Ever since the unusual stimulation provided by the World War, the deep-shaft, low grade copper mines of this country have found the going hard, with production costs close to market quotations for the red metal. Discouraged producers, especially in Michigan, are now turning to tariff legislation as the only visible means of running their properties at a profit. The movement has resulted in a bill introduced by Representative W. Frank James of Michigan, to place a tariff on imported copper of 6-c- a pound.

This import, by withdrawing the cheap copper imported from South America from the domestic markets, would favor home production at high operating costs. Yet it would also hamper the prosperity of many U. S. companies, like Anaconda, which have provided themselves with cheap foreign sources of supply. On the other hand, certain high-grade U. S. copper mines, like Kennecott in Alaska, would make astonishing profits.

The copper industry just now is carefully considering the future in the light of the remarkable Katanga copper properties in Africa. In two years, the latter expect to complete railroad lines to the coast, and will then be ready to flood the world's markets with the cheapest copper known. Meanwhile, the aluminum industry is furnishing the copper trade with stiff competition in several fields wherein the latter has previously had things much its own way. By weight, aluminum is much cheaper than copper, and is being used to an increasing extent in electric transmission, as a heavy saver of electric current.