Africa Speaks

In 1905 an explorer named Collier was pitching his tent in northern Rhodesia. Down a wide lane through the forest he spied a roan antelope, shot it. U. S. copper producers wish he had dropped a rabbit instead. For in its death struggle the antelope kicked up the ground, revealed that the forest lane was caused by a rich vein of copper ore, 200 ft. wide, 10 mi. long, 3,000 ft. deep at the centre. Now owner of the vein is Roan Antelope Copper Mines, Ltd. Six years ago Roan had not been formed. Two years ago it was not producing commercially. When last spring the coppermen of the world decided to curtail production to 20% of capacity, Roan Antelope meekly agreed to a quota of 23,000 tons. Last week when the coppermen were meeting in Manhattan to renew their pact, Roan Antelope's representatives arrived bristling with demands and challenges. African copper has long been considered a potential threat to the copper supremacy of the U. S. Roan Antelope's attitude last week transformed the threat into appalling reality. The demands were made at first through Dr. Otto Sussman, engineer president of American Metal Co. which has invested some $30,000,000 of its $90,000,000 in assets in Roan Antelope and affiliated Rhodesian mines. At the conference table were the lords of copperdom: Cornelius Francis Kelley of Anaconda, which has 60% of its production outside the U. S.; Louis Shattuck Gates of Phelps Dodge whose strategies saved the conference a year ago; Stephen Birch of Morgan-linked Kennecott; James Y. Murdoch of gold & copper producing Noranda; Felicien Cattier of Africa's Katanga; Robert Crooks Stanley of Canada's International Nickel, in line for the first time; Sir Auckland Geddes of Rio Tinto and Rhokana, one-time British Ambassador at Washington. A stony silence greeted Dr. Sussman's statements that Roan's production capacity is up from a year ago, that Roan should be allowed to produce 41,000 tons, 80% more than this year. Questioned as to why Roan had already upped its production to that basis, Dr. Sussman said Roan "was among the producers that adhered faithfully to the 1932 understanding until after that understanding had been repeatedly breached." Then Felicien Cattier did what the brusque Belgians always do when the outlook of a copper conference becomes beclouded: sailed for home. Alarmed at this omen, Roan Antelope quickly dispatched its personable young Managing Director Arthur D. Storke from London to Manhattan. But the other producers did not bulge from their stand. Politely--for much as coppermen may bellow at each other over a desk or dining room table, a conference room always freezes them into formality--they suggested that Roan's stand was hurting hundreds of thousands of investors in the industry to whom a : increase in prices would mean $20,000,000 more in earnings. The managing director parried that the U. S. tariff had hurt Roan, that U. S. companies should not sell copper abroad, that Roan had to up its production to pay bond interest and was entitled to 10% more copper than Rhokana, its neighbor and rival for the Empire trade.

When Katanga's Cattier sailed, he left behind him his two inseparable agents, Messrs. Fernand Pisart and Camille Gutt. When they saw the conference getting no place they announced they had booked reservations for Europe. When it became clear that Director Storke would accede to nothing, Messrs. Pisart & Gutt sailed and the conference was officially ended, all copper companies were free to grab for all they could. Roan's Storke remained alone on the battlefield, told the U. S. Press his company was not alone to blame.

U. S. producers waited to see what jungle law would do to copper prices. U. S. consumption and production are about balanced now at 300,000 tons and it was felt U. S. prices would sink no lower than last week's 5-c-. But a fierce war for the other markets of the world was in sight, a war that would end either with the high-cost producers driven off or with a whipped Roan Antelope creeping into the corral. Running at full blast Roan can supply only 14% of the copper needed outside the U. S. But Roan can lay copper down in Liverpool for under 4-c-, which not even Katanga can meet, and 3-c- under most U. S. companies. With no new public utilities construction and no good war in sight, stocks of copper above ground have mounted to 850,000 tons, enough to last the world 18 months. U. S. coppermen felt that much of this may be pounded on the world's markets in competition with Roan. knocking prices down & down, forcing Roan to see the value of cooperation. Copper in Europe dropped last week to 4.9-c-, 1/2-c- above the summer's low.

Whatever Roan does will not be decided by Director Storke. When he arrived in Manhattan ready to buck the U. S. producers, who used to be supreme with 60% of the world's production, the conference knew he was speaking not for himself but for his master, the company's chairman and the true villain of the scene in the eyes of his competitors. This man is Alfred Chester Beatty, a U. S. expatriate who lives in London, was 23 when graduated from the Columbia School of Mines in 1898. Since then he has traveled the world, turning up whenever a big mining development was starting, usually leaving with a fat wad of shares in his portfolio. Once consulting engineer for Utah Copper, he has been affiliated with the Guggenheim Brothers and John Hays Hammond. In 1911 he was associated with Herbert Clark Hoover in the successful flotation of unsuccessful Granville Mining Co., formed in London to acquire Yukon placer claims. Two years ago his mining work in Jugoslavia secured him the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Sava. A buckaroo in business, his chief hobby is the collection of old illuminated manuscripts.

Alfred Chester Beatty was one of the first capitalists to see the future of African copper. He was a major stockholder in Roan Antelope when it was formed in 1927 and created its 1928 alliance with American Metal. He was behind the launching of Rhodesian Selection Trust, which owns other Rhodesian mines. Under his guidance Roan grew quickly. It took properties that cost it $1,700,000 (most of the land is leased from British South Africa Co.) and spent $23,000,000 in making a mining business out of it. Mills and smelters were constructed, a village laid out. The labor is "recruited" from the natives, hence cheap and plentiful although unskilled and shiftless. Native bachelors are housed in great dormitories, families in rows of little round houses. In 1931 the company's "compound strength" was 5,800, "European payroll" 1,000. A hospital has been built and the company boasts: "Today there is no serious risk for anyone living here provided he can take care of himself." U. S. producers, viewing their loss of control of the world situation in red metal, last week felt that was precisely the attitude of Alfred Chester Beatty towards the industry.

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