The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1876-01-08
Coal and Iron.
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From the New York SunJ


From the New York Sun,l
The future, Peel said, belongs to the
nation which shall produce most coal.
Novel applications Of steam are daily
narrowing the field OF rude manual
labor and coal seems certain to remain
for centuries the most available calor-
illc agent. A country whose employ
ment of this mineral is checked by
dwindling supplies and expanding cost
of extraction, Is doubtless doomed to
eventual exclusion from the marts of
the world; and in recent compare
tive statement of amounts and pro-
gressive rates of coal production, the
English statesman would probably
have recognized the handwriting on
the wall. The total yield Of the mine
ral throughout the world Including
bituminous, anthracite and Ignite va
rieties), was estimated for the year 1872
at two hundred and fifty-fve millions
of tons, of which England was credit
ed with about one-half, or in exact fig
ures, one hundred and twenty-five
millions. The United States ranked
second in the list, having extracted
over forty-one millions, of which the
single State ofPennsylvania furnished
about thirty, an amount exceeding the
united quotas Of France, Austria and
Russia, and constituting almost an
eighth of the whole production of the
globe.
Still more significant are the figures
which exhibit the comparative rates
of progression in the development of
different coal fields. During the last
half century the yield of Pennsylvania
has successfully doubled with each de-
cade, while England's production, al
though expanding with curious regu-
larity, requires q period of fifteen years
to show an equivalent gain. 1t is prob
able that the rate of production in
Pennsylvania will be rather acaeler-
ated than diminished, since a possible
falling oft in the delivery of anthercite
mines (whose area is limited) must be
more,than compensated from those ex-
haustless bituminOus deposits which
lie west of the Alleghanies. On the
other hand, it appears from the report
of the Parliamentary Commission that
while the English coal fields are in no
immediate danger of depletion, a
sensible increase in the expense OF
mining may be expected at an early
day. In this case, therefore, we are
Justified in drawing an inference from
statistics; and simple calculation
demonstrates that Pennsylvania should
outstrip England in the production of
this mineral within sixty years from
the present time. In other words the
men are already born who may see q
State, which now clamors for protec
tion, controlling with paramount au-
thority the most essential adjunct of
human history, and SO far qualified to
undersell competitors in every free
market throughout the world.
Among the decisive factors of mod
ern factors, iron ranks next to coal.
BY an odd coincidence, a parallel in
stituted between Pennsylvania and
England In regard to the reduction of
iron ores conducts to identical results.
The total production of iron and steel
in the year 1872 is computed at four
teen millions of tons, nearly half OF
which was furnished by Great Britain.
The United States followed with q
quota of 100000 tons, of which Penn
sylvnnia contributed one-half, or a
tenth of all the iron smelted on the
globe. 1t is, however, the different
rates of progression in the respective
yields of the two countries to which
we would direct attention, the pro-
ductlon of Pennsylvania mines being
observed to double once in ten years,
and that of Englann once in fifteen.
Just now the American iron interest
shares the universal depression of bust
ness, but such disturbances have oc-
Cured before without impairing the
general correctness of the rate assigned
to its development. From the data
before us we are led to conclude that
within rather more than half CEN
tury-that is prior to A. D. 1935-the
world-compelling iron lever of Brit
ish industry may be transferred to
Pennsylvania. fE8#