Ansonia

"The management of the company and its predecessors has been in the hands of the same interests for over three generations. The stock which is now offered, represents the first public offering of any sizeable amount of stock. . . ." This announcement, probably unique in the records of the copper industry, was made last week by Phelps Dodge Corp. when a syndicate offered the public 200,000 new shares (10% of authorized and issued capital stock) which had been bought from British holders. Outstanding points of the Phelps Dodge record:

Ownership. The Phelps Dodge combination had its origin in Anson Greene Phelps who was born at Simsbury, Conn., in 1781. He was a saddler by trade but came to New York and set up in the tin plate and metal business. One of his six children, Melissa, married William Earle Dodge who was a dry goods merchant. In the 1830's Phelps persuaded his son-in-law to join him in establishing Phelps, Dodge & Co. This latter company was extinguished only in 1917 when it merged with its subsidiary, the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. to become the Phelps Dodge Corp. During all this time it has remained under the management of Anson G. Phelps' descendants: William Earle Dodge (junior), his grandson, Cleveland Hoadley Dodge, his great-grandson, and Cleveland E. Dodge, his great-great-grandson.

What was more, the stock was kept so much at home in this old Presbyterian family that until recently Phelps Dodge has remained practically a closed corporation. Few copper stocks have had the advantage of such respectable and exclusive upbringing. Cleveland Hoadley Dodge (Princeton classmate of Woodrow Wilson), was interested not only in copper; he became president of the board of trustees of Robert College, Constantinople. His twin sons have divided between them his interests in copper and oriental education: Cleveland E. is vice-president of Phelp? Dodge; Bayard is president of the American University of Beirut, Syria./- Executive Cleveland E. Dodge is neither the Professional Executive nor the onetime factory hand. He is the Dynastic Executive, bred to his position. The Dynastic Executive is a U.S. rarity; rare also is the inherited ability of Cleveland E. Dodge.

Recent Policy. Phelps Dodge owns the Copper Queen mines near Bisbee and other mines at Morenci, both in Arizona; a slightly developed property at Burro Mountain at Tyrone, N. Mex.; the Montezuma Copper Co. of Sonora; smelters at Douglas, Ariz. About a year ago Phelps Dodge joined with other copper companies including Calumet & Arizona Mining Co. (another Bisbee producer) to buy a substantial interest in Nichols Copper Co., which owns a copper refinery on Long Island. Nichols Co. is to build a refinery at El Paso especially to handle their product.

Last fall Phelps Dodge Sales Co. was formed to market the products of the same group amounting to approximately 500,000,000 lbs. a year. In January Phelps Dodge made overtures looking forward to acquisition of a group of brass foundries and copper and wire and tube works in Connecticut and New Jersey.* Thus in one year Phelps Dodge has added to its mining and smelting business, the refining of its own products as well as a comprehensive sales organization, and is reaching out to acquire an interest in the copper fabricating industries. In short, it is setting out to integrate a great vertical combination similar to that of Anaconda.

Its new policy seems to be aimed, however, not only in the direction of production but also to secure a wider market for its shares. The first step in this direction was a decision taken four weeks ago to divide its stock from $100 shares into $25 shares, increasing the number proportionately from 500,000 to 2,000,000. The old stock is quoted in the neighborhood of $340; the new at about $85. In the recent purchase of 200,000 of the new shares from British holders and their offer to the public in the U.S., the company was careful to point out that it was not seeking new capital and that the traditional U. S. holders were not selling out.

Earnings. In connection with the offering to the public of the former British stock the figures on production and earnings in recent years showed that from 1924 to 1927 with production ranging from 175,000,000 to 207,000,000 Ibs. of copper a year its earnings ranged from $2,000,000 to $5,000,000. In 1928, however, with estimated production of 208,000,000 Ibs., its estimated earnings were $10,000,000. This disproportionate increase is a result of recent rises in the price of copper. The average price received for its product in 1928 was 14.76-c- a pound. At the same rate of production, for every one-cent rise in copper prices earnings should increase $2,000,000. Now copper is in the neighborhood of 20-c- a pound. If the average for 1929 should be 19-c-, the earnings of Phelps Dodge would be $18,000,000. In proportion to the increased earnings dividend declarations have been stepped up from $3,500,000 in 1928 to a rate amounting to $5,000,000 in 1929.

/-Other Anson G. Phelps descendants include: Anson Phelps Stokes, former Secretary of Vale University; Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes, architect of the firm of Howells & Stokes; James Graham Phelps Stokes, who was a presidential elector on the Populist ticket in 1904, married to and divorced from Rose Pastor, social worker: Harold Phelps Stokes, newspaper man and former secretary to Herbert Hoover. Ansonia, Connecticut, is a namesake of family's founder.

*Bridgeport Brass Co., Bristol Brass Co., American Copper Products Co.