, 1896-07-02
AMERICAN

This is the last day of the fiscal year.
Many Of the annual reports of the gov
eminent, most of them, in fact. are for
the fiscal year. One of the exceptions
to this rule is h report made from
year to year on the mineral production
OF the country. That is for the calen-
dar year, and it takes just about six
months to get the facts together and
into print. The report for 1896 was
published Monday. 1t is an interesting
and suggestive public document.
The term mineral is broad enough 10
take in all the underground resources
petroleum., natural gas, the natural
waters Of commerce, as well as coal
and metals proper. The value of the
years output was $611. 795, $50. Meas
ured by the value stanard this is a fall
ing off from the high-water mark OF
1892, but in volume 1895 excells all pre-
vious years. AS a general thing prices
have gone down. A notable exception
to this rule is furnished by petroleum,
OF which there were over so, 000. 900
barrels produced last year. The Stand
ard Oil company is a monopoly so pow
erful that 1t can dictate prices for both
the raw material and the manufac-
tured articles. The value of the petro-
leum Of the year is put down as $751;
691, 279.
Coal leads all the minerals. The BIZ
luminous alone amounted to 135.11S..
1913 tons, and $115.7 49. III. The lead,
ing state in this kind of article is
Pennsylvania. which has an absolute
monopoly of anthracite. Of which 81.
1856. 1872 tons were mined, valued at $S2,,
019,272. Here we have, in round num-
bers, 5000, 900, 900 worth of coal mined
in one year. Coal is not only a domes-
tic necessity, but it is the bottom fac,
tor in our industrial development. II
this country were dependent for fuel
upon wood and imported coal it could
lever have developed any considerable
manufacturing interests. except as
water supplied the power. In the line
Of metals iron leads all the rest, the
output of this metal being worth al
most as much as gold and silver com
bined. 1t is really intellectually more
valuable than the money metals. 1t
may be set down as second only to
coal in its Importance to general manu-
features. With either dropped out our
industrial prosperity, such as we had
in 1892 and may expect again in 1897,
would be impossible. Iron enters into
more kinds of manufactures than even
wood, wool. or cotton. The quantity
mined was 9.446, 3OS tons. valued at
sos, 1875, $50.
There are, besides iron, silver and
gold, eight domestic metals. eleven in
all. OF these eight four go in the value
OF the output to the million figure. and
the other four combined would not
reach seven figures. The four minor
products in the last are platinum, 5000:
nickel, 1901: antimony. SOS 1000. and
aluminium 1854. 500, all told. 1886, 591,
just a little over a half a million, or less
than half the next lowest, quicksilver,
$1,337,1 1871. Zinc comes next, $6,27S,020.
Lead, which is mainly found in con-
nection with silver. foots up $f0.665,-
O40. Copper makes a very consider
able showing, $3s. 6S2, 346. This
try has only just begun to work its cop
per mines. At least, the rich deposits
known to exist far exceed the mines
now in operation. Much of this unde-
veloped copper is remote from trans
portration.
The gold amounts to SAT, 900, 900 in
value, 2,273,629 ounces in quantity;
the silver, $50, 766, 800 in value and A..
600, 900 ounces in quantity. 1t is graft
flying to know that this country is
keeping pace with South Africa and
Australia in the increase in the guam
tity of gold production, thanks mainly
to Colorado especially the Cripple
Creek district. The silver production
fell over $500, 900 ounces, as compared
with 1894. In estimating the value OF
silver the coinage value is given. This
follows the old form. AS a matter OF
fact the value Of the output to pro-
ducers was about 10000, 900. In other
words. If the market value OF silver
could be restored the value of the pro-
duct would be doubled. The real value
q any product. silver no less than iron.
10 what it.Ettl bring in the market.
Now i7s1168Aessrass bullion value
- 49, 6ellaE1 ~ 81 csnts. usane
1a6 easU1ide. and Asaiing n