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The Missouri and Kansas Zinc Miners' Association, 1899–1905

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2012

James D. Norris
James D. Norris
Affiliation:
Associate Professor of History, University of Missouri, St. Louis
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Abstract

The origins of an American zinc-miners' trade association and its experiments with cooperative price controls illustrate several of the supply and demand problems of an industry characterized by many sellers and few buyers.

Type
Articles
Information
Business History Review , Volume 40 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1966 , pp. 321 - 334
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1966

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References

1 Shaner, Dolph, The Story of Joplin (New York, 1948), 1–40Google Scholar; and Tyler, Paul M., From the Ground Up (New York, 1948), 139–141Google Scholar.

2 Martin, A. J., Summarized Statistics of the Production of Lead and Zinc in the Tri-State Mining District, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Information Circular No. 7383 (Washington, 1946)Google Scholar. Zinc ore as it is mined is far too impure for smelting and is referred to as dirt. After concentration and removal of waste rock the zinc content is approximately 60 per cent. The concentrates are then sold to smelters for reduction to metal.

3 Interview with Daniel Steward, American Zinc, Lead, and Smelting Company, Joplin, Missouri.

4 U.S. Department of Interior, Mineral Resources 1899 (Washington, 1901), 251–53.Google Scholar

5 “The Joplin Zinc and Lead District in 1898,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 68 (January 7, 1899), 20.

6 Missouri Bureau of Mines, Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Lead and Zinc Mine Inspector, State of Missouri, 1901 (Jefferson City, 1902), 84Google Scholar.

7 “The Joplin Zinc and Lead District in 1898,” 20; Joplin Daily Globe, June 30, August 17, 1899.

8 Organizations of the Joplin-area mine operators to promote markets, stabilize prices, and exchange statistical data started as early as 1891 with the Southwest Missouri and Southeast Kansas Lead and Zinc Mining Association and continued in succeeding organizations to the present day. However, none of the previous or subsequent organizations so stubbornly and openly attempted to fix prices as the Missouri and Kansas Zinc Miners' Association.

9 “The Joplin Zinc and Lead District in 1898,” 20.

10 Martin, Summarized Statistics; Mote, Richard H. and Bishop, O. M., “Economics and Statistics,” in Mathewson, W. H. (ed.), Zinc: The Metal, its Alloys and Compounds (New York, 1959).Google Scholar

11 Ingalls, Walter R., Lead and Zinc in the United States (New York, 1908), 345–46.Google Scholar

12 Joplin Daily Globe, January 13, 20, July 21, 1899.

13 Waring, L. W., “The Purchasing of Zinc Ore in the Joplin District,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 70 (July 14, 1900), 38Google Scholar; Evans W. Buskett, “Sampling and Ore Buying in the Joplin District,” ibid., 86 (July 25, 1908), 190.

14 “Ore Exportation Plan Promising,” Lead and Zinc News, 1 (June 17, 1901), 9.

15 “Ore Shipment Records Broken,” Lead and Zinc News, 3 (May 12, 1902), 17–18.

16 “Joplin District in 1902,” Lead and Zinc News, 5 (January 12, 1903), 11.

17 Joplin Daily Globe, April 21, June 16, 30, 1899.

18 Ibid., January 20, 29, 1901, February 16, 1902; “Zinc Combine Figures,” Lead and Zinc News, 30 (February 7, 1902), 10; “Editorial,” ibid., 3 (May 12, 1902), 3; “Ore Pool Holding Out at Joplin,” ibid., 3 (April 28, 1902), 16.

19 “Exportation of Ore,” Lead and Zinc News, 1 (August, 1901), 9.

20 Joplin Daily Globe, May 24, 1901.

21 “Production Comparison Table,” Lead and Zinc News, 1 (July 1, 1901), 11.

22 Joplin Daily Globe, June 30, August 17, 1899, December 2, 1900, January 20, 1901.

23 “The Missouri and Kansas Zinc Miners' Association,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 72 (September 14, 1901), 326.

24 Joplin Daily Globe, March 2, 1901.

25 Ibid., January 20, 1901.

26 “Ore Exportation Plan Promising,” Lead and Zinc News, 1 (June 17, 1901), 9.

27 “Decrease in the Demand for Zinc,” ibid., 1 (August 12, 1901), 10; “Export Plan Being Pushed at Joplin,” ibid., 1 (September 2, 1901), 5; “Another Big Rise in Ore,” ibid., 3 (December 30, 1901), 11; “Smelter Combine Not Alarming,” ibid., 2 (December 2, 1901), 9; “Joplin District's Highest Output,” ibid., 3 (December 30, 1901), 11.

28 Bureau of Mines, Mineral Resources of the United States, 1910, Part I, Metals (Washington, 1911), 265; “Ore Market Soaring,” Lead and Zinc News, 3 (March 31, 1902), 15.

29 Joplin Daily Globe, October 31, November 26, 1899, November 19, December 10, 17, 1903; “The Joplin Ore Market in 1899,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 69 (January 6, 1900), 18; “Editorial,” ibid., 71 (November 7, 1903), 686; “Progress of the Zinc Industry in Missouri during 1903,” ibid., 77 (January 14, 1904), 80; “Zinc Production Heavily Reduced,” Lead and Zinc News, 6 (November 7, 1903), 253; “Producers' Shutdown Over,” ibid., 7 (December 14, 1903), 15.

30 Joplin Daily Globe, August 17, 1899, February 5, 1901.

31 Ibid., July 3, 1904; “Shutdown Lasted Four Days,” Lead and Zinc News, 7 (July 25, 1904), 88.

32 Zook, Jesse A., “Conditions in the Joplin District,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 79 (January 12, 1905), 86Google Scholar; Joplin Daily Globe, July 3, 1904.

33 Zook, “Conditions in the Joplin District,” 86; U.S. Bureau of Mines, Mineral Resources of the United States, 1904 (Washington, 1905), 273–83Google Scholar; “Zinc Industry in 1905,” Lead and Zinc News, 9 (January 16, 1906), 13.

34 Missouri Bureau of Mines, Fifteenth Annual Report of the State Lead and Zinc Mine Inspector State of Missouri, 1901 (Jefferson City, 1902), 84Google Scholar; and Missouri Bureau of Mines and Mine Inspection, Twentieth Annual Report for Year ending December 31, 1906 (Jefferson City, nd), 9–18Google Scholar.

35 “Lead and Zinc Ore Markets,” Lead and Zinc News, 10 (June 18, 1906), 15; “Missouri Ore Market,” Engineering and Mining Journal, 80 (May 5, 1906), 935.

36 Burns, Arthur R., The Decline of Competition: A Study of the Evolution of American Industry (New York, 1936), 43.Google Scholar See also Mason, Edward S., Economic Concentration and the Monopoly Problem (Cambridge, Mass. 1957), 73–74Google Scholar, for a discussion of the effect of the Webb-Pomerene Law.

37 “Powder and Coal Cause Trouble,” Lead and Zinc News, 6 (September 7, 1903), 158.

38 Hoover, Theodore Jesse, The Economics of Mining (Stanford, 1933), 190Google Scholar.