The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1901-01-02

- VI tHe iron ana copper Tf11n-
ing industries of the Lake
Superior district, says the Philadel-
phia Record, is one of the most mar
velous and momentous industrial
events of the century which has just
ended-marvelous because of the
vast extent of the mineral deposits
and the amazing rapidity with which
their development has proceeded, and
momentous because i'm the iron ranges
around the great lake may already
be dimly discerned the seat of indus
trial empire for many years yet to
come. 1t is the existence of these rich
deposits of Bessemer ores and their
practical concentration OF iron and
steel producing interests that have
given American machinery and
American inventive genius full play
i'm the markets of the world, until now
it is admitted on all sides that in the
not distant future, the undisputed
leadership in iron and steel produc-
ton, with the mastery over allied
industries which the term implies,
will be vested in the United States.
The figures of iron ore output from
the Lake Superior ranges con-
vey, Notwithstanding their magni-
tude, only partial and incom-
plete idea of the volume and sig
nificance of production in that quar-
ter. The true meaning of a yearly
output of over 100000 tons of Besse-
mer ores, following upon an average
for the past ten years of over 10000, 900
tons annually, is almost beyond COM
prchension. But it is clear enough
that such capacity for adding to the
material resources of civilization is
without precedent in history, and of
enormous weight and value in the ac.
count current of the American people
with the beneficent genius of progress.
The age of steel has dawned fully
with the new century, and it's trl-
umphs will be won most easily by the
purveyors and providers of steel for
all nations.
1t should be noted, in connection with
any survey of this vast iron mining
industry, that the rich deposits on the
Canadian side of the lake have scarce
ly been touched as yet. The enormous
strides of the giant combinations in
this country which have heretofore
practically monopolized the output OF
the district have rendered Canadian
capitalists averse to entrance upon
field of industrial effort which seems
n ba tn
empted by exclusive right. But this
sentiment of incapability will sooner
or later pass away, and then, unques-
tionably, will begin Canadian competi-
ton with this country in the iron and
steel making industry. AS the years
come accustomed to reliance upon
transatlantic sources for supplies of
metallic raw material the play of in.
dustrial forces on either side of the
chain of great lakes and the st. Law
renee river will constitute a spectac Gle
of absorbing interest to American
statesmen and students of national
economics.
In View Of the enormous annual re-
quirements everywhere for steel Of
various grades the prospect of an early
exhaustion of high grade ores in the
Lake Superior field is matter of gem
eral economic concern. Under existing
conditions of human activity the de-
mand for steel-and, hence, for high
grade iron ores-must constantly in
crease in even greater ratio than the
increase of population. The world OF
invention is almost feverishly seeking
new uses for steel, and every success
full device in a large field of human in
genulty is contingent and dependent
upon a never failing supply of this
product Should the oft-repeated fore
casts of early exhaustion of the Mes
aba Bessemer ores be realized it might
become necessary to recast the entire
industrial horoscope of the iron and
steel industry in America during the
twentieth century.