The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1889-03-04
SALT IN EUROPE.

Enormous Monopoly of tho BIg Foreign
TruSt-ThO Question OF Labor.
london Standard,
In Continental Europe the great salt
producing districts are those Of the Car
pathians, Of the Austrian and BaYariap
Alps, Of West Germany, OF the yosges,
Of the Jura, OF the Swiss Alps, and OF the
Pyrenees, not to mention the scattered
springs and deposits in Russia, Turkey,
Italy, and other countries. The deposits
in MoldavlS, Pennsylvania, Galicia, and
Hungary are so extensive and rich that
the whole Continent can be for centuries
supplied from these fields, Even at the
present day millions OF gallons OF rich
brine, derived from the action OF the un-
tiltrated rainfall on the rock salt beneath,
run TO waste In Pennsylvania and Wal.
lachia, because the prices which so long
ruled were too low TO reader the manu-
iaCture profitable, Yet the salt is so
pure that, merely crushed into powder,
1t Is 81 for use without undergoing any
refining process,
The vast mines OF GaliCia have long
been among the show places ut Well
iczka and Bochnia, Here, Tor centuries,
mining has been going on, and thirty
miles Of galleries have been exCavated,
to supply tho 5000 tons which, 1t Is
calculated, are every year brought TO the
surface. This output Is, however,
mere trihe compared with the extent OF
the deposits, These, it is reckoned by
the Austrian biologists, arc twelve hum
dred feet thick, and extend In one d.
rection for five hundred miles, and in
another for twenty, At Salzkammergut,
in Austria, the brine Is conveyed in
pipes fifteen miles long, and ut other
places in the empire business is so brisk
that the trade, which is q Government
yields a revenue OF nearly
two and a half millions sterling. The
German, Swiss and French districts are
all more or less rich, and capable Of al |
most indefinite development. In Spain,
where wo have no market, but from
which weare likely soon to have plenty
Of competition, there Is, some forty miles
from Barcelona, an actual mountain OF
very pure salt, which Is hewn out in the
open air, like stone from quarry.
Atone time nearly all OF our salt was
got by the evaporation OF salt water
other than that impregnated by the solu.
lion OF the rock deposits inland. To
This day Portugal obtains about 100000
IONS from this source. Spain makes
even a greater quantity, In the Bay OF
Cadiz aud at the Balearic Isles; and at
Naples aud other places on the Coast Of
Italy large amounts are produced by
simple evaporation. The "Nlarais salants
1u Midi" In France, yield nearly S0O,-
BOO tons; and at various spots in the
Adriatic about 10000 tons are obtained
from tho not very saline waters at that
sea. In Scotland, especially at JOppa,
On the Firth OF Forth, quantities. were
made at one time, and TO this day, at
North Shields and at Maldon in Essex,
here Is still trade In the evaporation
II sea brine. We may, therefore, take it
hat when Lord Thurlow disClaimed his
owe OF a monopoly, he was protesting a
virtue which was really q necessity. The
Salt Union is as much monopoly as the
can make 1t. Twelve months
hence, 1t may have learned that the
value OF anything is just what the buyer
will give for it, and with salt deposits
within n few days OF the English coast,
worked much more Cheaply than those
II Cheshire, it will be hard to keep
prices at their present present figures, to
ay nothing Of raising them.