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K The Market and The Mines
hH I Directors of the May Day at TIntic liave do-
1H i I elded that Horace Greeley was right when he de-
IS j clarod that "the way to resume Is to resume."
H " The May Day has rosumed. It resumed on Mon-
JH'j ? day with two shifts. Seven faces of ore present
9B1' themselves to the minors and the product will go
flB j to the American smelting plant with which the
H : I May Day has an unexpired contract. It all seems
mKt I so delightfully simple and easy that one wonders
9H i at the delay in the resumption of other silver-lead
H I mines at Tintic and in other parts of Utah. Low
H f an it is the price of silver and lead does not e
9B plain the prolonged Inactivity of the Utah camps.
H ,;, j The two metals bring no more now than they
flfl!j did when the May Day suspended production.
JH ' The reiteration of the statement that our richest
flB I mines cannot afford to produce load for $4 and
'-JB silver for 55 cents is a libel upon their resources
"'H I, and anything but a compliment to their manage-
H 1 ' ment. It is self-evident that the producers could
jH I make more money with lead at ?6 and silver at
'ijH 70 cents than they can make under present con-
"H dltlons, but there is a wide difference between
H production at a diminished profit and production
B at a loss. Utah should servo notice on the world
jH S that it can thrive on $4 lead and 55 cent silver
H (minus smelter charges) if a higher price is un-
H obtainable.
. H & & j:
-H The closing of the May Day last fall and its
H recent reopening are due to other causes than
H the fluctuation of the metals. Low prices were
jB among the minor ailments of the metal market
H last November. The chief trouble with the mar-
H ket was that there wasn't any. The newspapers
H went through the form of printing daily quota-
H tions, but their fingers wore crossed when they
H did it.
H You could sell your ore if you could find
B I anyone who would buy It, and you could get the
H I published price if you could find anyone who
H J would pay it. All the ordinary outlets were
H closed. It was not a question of selling the ore
H for lees than the cost of production, but of sell-
Hl , ing it at all. Again, there has been a decrease
jH 4 in the cost of labor and an increase in the supply
Hl I of skilled workmen. Last fall competent miners
HI ' were hardly to be had at any price. Indifferent
H ' labor commanded the best remuneration. This
Hl ' ifem added immensely to the production cost of
!m and every ton of ore from Tintic. The
adoption of a lower scale of wages widened the
margin between profitable and unprofitable min-
HH ' ing and went far toward offsetting the lowered
H price of the metals. While lead and silver are
H1 as cheap apparently as they wore at the time
R J of the general suspension other conditions have
9HH vastly improved. Talk as they may of unro-
munoratlve prices the owners of idle mines will
confess that there is a little profit left in the
business when thoy become convinced that the
metals are not going up right away.
(jv w
The copper mines have already adapted them
selves to the level of adversity prices. May Day
has set the pace for the silver-lead mines. As
the smelting situation adjusts itself the rest of
the old standbys will fall in line behind May Day
and Utah will soon resume its enviable position
in the mining world. This is clearly foreseen by
the patrons of the Mining Exchange and it ex
plains the strength of the local market, especially
in the Tintic division. The boys do not look for
the early restoration of the old dividends some
concession must be made to the relaxation of in
dustrial activity but they do anticipate a fair re
turn on capital invested at the prevailing quota
tions. 8 t
The manner in which the Utah companies have
withstood the pressure of slump and panic has
recommended to the world at large. The head
of a prominent New York brokerage firm, who is
now In the city, announces that he will advise his
clients to choose Utah mining investments in
preference to all others. He will do this because
he is satisfied that our methods are more con
servative, our capitalizations more reasonable,
our operations more businesslike and our mines
more stable than those. of any other section in
the United States or Canada. He adds that the
achievements of the Utah Copper company have
made a great impression in the east and have
given Bingham a better standing in the opinion
of investors than it ever before enjoyed. Butte,
this gentleman predicts, will never again figure
prominently in the copper world. Ho ventures the
prophecy that copper will not in a generation go
above 15 or 16 cents, that the high cost producers
like Butte and the Lake region will be eliminated
while Utah, Nevada and Arizona will furnish the
bulk of the world's supply, and that the output
will be controled eventually by the financial group
known as the Standard Oil.
fffi i
Ever sine Jesse Knight started his new smel
ter at Tintic the wise ones have been speculating
as to his chances for refining and selling his bul
lion after It is extracted. These have not been
idle speculations for, since the slackening of de
mand, the smelting of ore has been child's play
compared with tlie marketing of the metallic pro
duct. Mr. Knight has refrained from gratifying
public curiosity on this point, but he has intimat
ed that the selling feature was not overlooked
when he elaborated the plans for the smelter. A
HB f Pabst Blue Ribbon beer and every other health
I product ttat comes from the brewery of Pabst by
the bottle cv barrel. We are the agents.
RUJGBR & LINDLEY,
"The Whijjkey Merchants."
mm
-
HI - ii
Df I'll I '
pint f
local daily hints that there is a'n understanding
between Mr. Knight and the United States Min
ing, Smelting & Refining company to the effect
that the United States shall look after the re
fining and selling end of the business. This seems
to be a mere guess, although it sounds good.
Mr. Knight has frequently demonstrated that he
is not an easy mark and it may be taken for
granted that he has made arrangements, if not
with the United States, with some other concern,
to protect the most vulnerable part of his enter
prise. yV tv tv
Utah did not realize the dire nature of the
yellow peril until someone tipped off the fact
that the slump In copper was instigated by the
Chinese. It seems that the cunning Mongolian,
incensed because the secretary of the Emma Cop
per company patronizes the Irish washerwoman,
has discontinued the coinage of the rod metal
and cancelled several orders for copper ship
ments. It is up to Secretary Root and President
Roosevelt to demonstrate the superiority of Occi
dental culture over Oriental guile. They should
instruct the fleet to pause long enough in Asia
to establish a two-cent newspaper and a penny
arcade In every city of consequence.
jfi & &
Incidentally it might improve the situation
to inform China through diplomatic channels that
there is no connection between the Emma Copper
company and copper production. The attempted
reprisals have missed their mark.
': j J I
The sale of the gi eater part of the Lower Mam- I
moth's new stock Issue to an Idaho Investor in- I
sures the immediate resumption of work at the
Lower Mammoth and insures the Idaho investor
against the now gold district that has been start
ed in Idaho as the legitimate successor of Buffalo
Hump and Thunder Mountain. It is not often
that a mining deal is so beneficial to all concerned.
A GREAT HELP.
"I don't care particularly whether you know
how to flggor out the exact weight of the moon,
or how long it will take to dip Lake Tiddycorker
dry with a common teaspoon," a bit grimly said
the Old Codger, addressing his callow nephew,
who was just percolating through the village
academy, "nor whether you understand how to
glue together a split infinitive, if such a thing
ever became necessary, or what the little 'a' in the
name of Thomas a Becket really stood for, or
what killed the Dead Sea, or whether the ancient
Greeks painted their statues, or how Messrs. A, B
and C can mathematically hornswoggle Mr. D out
of his rightful share of a given grindstone, or
what causes the aurora borealls, or of what in
terest Pepy's diary over was to anybody but
Pepys, just so's you emerge from the academy
with this one great and unalterable fact fixed
in your understanding with hooks of steel: That
the gun is always loaded whether it is or not.
If you know and retain that one great truth, and
will refrain from wearing fancy socks and rolling
up your trousers legs to show 'em, no matter how
empty you are of the usual flummydadles taught
in the average school, I'll consider that 'there Is
hope for you and that the money I have spent on
your education hasn't been wholly wasted."
Smart Set.
Knicker Think women should smoke? Bocker
'Think what awful cigars the dear things would
give each other. New York Sun.
