No Subsidy

After kicking around Congress for weeks, the Administration's metals subsidy plan (TIME, May 19) finally died last week at the hands of the House of Representatives. Originally put forward to bolster prices in five depressed industries (copper, lead, zinc, tungsten, fluorspar) --and incidentally win support for the President's reciprocal trade program from mining-state Congressmen--the $458 million support program ran into rough going after passing the Senate. Chief reason: many Congressmen felt that the bill would aid mainly those big international producers who are making money anyway and are doing most of the importing that has helped depress domestic prices. Another point not lost on a Congress increasingly mindful of the problems of inflation: copper, at least, appears on the road to recovery by itself. Though copper stocks of 242,781 tons are still high, No. 1 producer Kennecott Copper Corp. brought its U.S. miners back to a six-day week, announced it was boosting production 15% due to "strong European demand" and the promise of a general pickup at home.

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