Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-07-21
ALL THROUGH TEXAS.
The Red River Proposition and Some
of Its Possibilities.
OBJECT LESSONS IN THE WOODS.
: lano Ore and Krebs Coke and the Output
of Manganese.
-,ONEY IN GRAYSON COUNTY COTTON

East Tennessee and Alabama development
~evolutionized the iron-making industry.
.'erhsps North Texas and the Indian Terri
f,ry present the conditions for another rev
,ution. There are men with money who
; ,lieve it They put you on motor car,
;eam you out Woodlawn avenue two ol
nree miles through natural park to 9
$4,000 exposition building, in which there
are several large object lessons
Indian Territory coal stands in blocks So
feet high. The blocks are segments of the
coking vein. They do not take into account
the overlying stratum of slack coal, which
sells in Denison for 81 a ton for steam put-
poses In the 5000 square miles of the
Choctaw coal field this 6-toot vein of coal
lies at all dips and depths. Not satisfied
with a straight vein of average depth, nature
in the upheaval crowded the coal measures
for the Indian until they outcropped and
twisted and almost doubled on themselves.
West of Coalgate white men have leased
tract from which they can take out 2, ,000, 600
tons of this magnificent coal supply by
stripping. They can put it on board the
cars at the cost of 81 so ton. That in
cludes the royalty to the Indians as we'll as
operation There may be more economical
coal mining somewhere else, but it is
doubtful.
Beside the segments from the vein, which
are as high as the average man, stands a
pyramid of coke reaching almost to the
roof of the building. This coke is manu-
tactured at Krebs. Every pound in the
vein of 5k feet cokes. And this coke can
be laid down on Red river at a cost of about
s. a ton.
Immense Chunks of Bessemer Ore.
Flanking the coke pyramids are the coal
blocks on one side, and on the other the
1,1O0-pound chunks of Bessemer ore from
the great Llano vein of Texas This ore
weighs only little less than metal of the
same dimensions 1t is Il per cent metal.
That is better than Lake Superior. The
vein is most pronounced in the Llano
country, but it extends northwest under
Red river into the Indian Territory.
Wherever the vein may be worked for the
Red river proposition, the ore can be laid
down at the place of appointed meeting with
the coke at 50 so a ton. The iuxing crops out
of the hills everywhere. With the allow
auce of 81 a ton for labor and the interest
on the capital the Red river proposition
promises Bessemer pig iron at a cost of
SO so a ton. That same pig is now worth
S19 so ton. Coke and ore cost somewhere
nearly double the figures which will put
them down on Red river.
Such are the terms of the proposition in
which North Texas has great faith. The
coal is lust north of the river. Its coklng
quality is being proven in the zinc smelters
of Missouri The ore is on this side of
the river. 1t is found in vein 800 feet
thick at Llano, and of less thickness
from this north. 1t is 10 per cent higher
in pure metal than Lake Superior
ore. 1t contains less than three
fourths of per cent of impurities. Those
who have seen it tried say a horseshoe can
be turned on block of this ore the same as
on an anvil Whether the coke will go
from the Territory to Llano or whether the
ore will go from Llano to the Territory is
only SHE question of the most economic
transportation. Perhaps the meeting place
will be near Red river; that seems most
plausible. If Texas ore and Indian Terri
tory coke can turn out Bessemer steel at
SO so q ton, or anything like it, the dec
laration of steel independence may as we'll
be written now for the whole Southwest
Fine Steel Bridges Everywhere,
Among the side tracks through the Indian
Territory are strewn steel girders and trusses
and arches. Every clumsy. old, wooden
bridge on the Missouri, Kansas and Texas is
being replaced by symmetrical steel Last
year the United States made l, 500, 600 tons
of steel and sold it to consumers for an
average OF S31 a ton. In 1884 this same
kind of steel cost the people of this
country over 500 ton. 1t came from
Germany and Great Britain at the
rate of 600, 900 tons of billets in year
A duty of $50 was put upon steel i'm
portation. This was the special clause
in the tariff which President Cleveland
cited in his famous message.
There went into the manufacture of steel
in this country s22, ,0O0, 900 in capital. 1t
made possible steel bridges all of the way to
Texas. 1t gave Texas barbed wire at 23z
cents pound in place of II cents in 1884.
1t paved the way for a test of the Red river
proposition. This is no argument on the
tariff. 1t is just little history with the
figures back of it, in which Texas has a tre-
mendous interest Economy in production
is the problem of the American manufact-
urer. 1t will send capital to the Red
river within five years to prove just what
there is in the object lessons of the Denison
ore and coal collection.
Robert 7. Hill, the geologist, told the
Government scientists in Washington few
months ago that they would soon awake to
the fact that some of tine richest mineral in
the country lies in the Indian Territory.
The prophesy is coming true. J. H. Ralston,
of Denison, is North now showing to a rail-
road management the expediency of run
ming a line to the greatest deposit of man.
ganese in the United States The ore lies
in the Indian Territory, just west of the
great Choctaw coal field Ralston is the
He has uncovered and has in sight 209, 900
tons of manganese. But the body is 20
miles from the nearest railroad Between
600 and 700 tons of this manganese have
been wagoned to the railroad and shipped
to the Joliet Steel Works. The transaction
yielded a snug profit, and the steel people
were so we'll pleased with the sample that
they tried to buy an interest in Mr. Raj
ston's lease.
Production on a Grand Scale,
Nature has grouped together in North
Texas and the Indian Territory all of the
elements for metal production on a grand
scale. She has heaped up the fuel, the ore
and the fuxing. She has done all but apply
ing the match. She has done even that on
q small scale. Mineralogists may say that
there is no such thing as natural pig iron.
North Texas knows better. Leaning up
against the wall, behind the coke and ore,
are two natural pigs of iron. They are not
unlike, in shape, the slabs which form in
the sand molds of the furnace, but they are
just as nature ran them away back in the
days of commissions These natural pigs
were plowed up awhile ago on the farm of
A. r. Collins. They are ready to be turned
into stove plates Natures iron is found
about in the high strip of sandy
country along the south side of Red river,
where peaches thrive as they do nowhere
Else away from the Delaware peninsula
There are thousands of tons of natures iron,
but the pigs are not grouped together SO as