New-York tribune., 1902-10-23
UNITED STATES MINERAL WEALTH
THE PRODUCTION LAST YEAR WAS WORTH
MORE THAN slcocpacD

Washington oct. % CSpeciaD.-The volume OF
Mineral Resources OF the United States" compiled
0y Dr. David 7. Day. OF the Geological Survey, and
soon to be published from the Government Printing
ofice, presents interesting and valuable sum
mary of the production Of 1901 compared with the
corrected statistics for other recent years.
In 1901 for the second time the total value Of our
mineral production exceeded the enormous sum OF
NGoO oocOo the exact figures being S,os6.52s52l' as
compared with 81 slc369o5iS in 1900, and with Ss72-
l522oS in 1895 gain OF 1901 1900 of Se2Sls.SS
or 215 per cent. and gain Of 1901 over 1899 Of
Sl4 .Sl3 or III per cent.
The notable gains and losses OF the last two de-
cades are follows:
The largest actual gain that OF 1899 over
1895 Sgs SO 39I7 per cent: next that OF lSoO
over 1922 sol SIS $50 or S per cent: then the gain
Of 1885 over 1884, which $s4 2l5 s22. 17Ss per
cent and the gain ot 1857 over 1856. 3is21Sso. or
1851 per cent In other years than those mentioned
between 1880 and 1885 the gains not note
worthy and In some of the years. notably IN 1884.
the production decreased $40 459ss. nearly per
cent. During the industrial depression Of 1892 50
the production would have been expected TO decline,
as Il did going Seas 0l In 1892 to s54 46i 124
in 1893 S27O79.225 in 1894 and then rising 10
ss2l es5Og7 in 1856. and not reschng the output OF
1899 until 1895
As heretofore. iron and coal the most i'm
portant Of mineral products. The value OF iron
in 1891 was s242I54.9oo compared with s2J99i4 OoO
IN 1890 and the value OF coal was S3is 9l0, 4G9 as
D
II Is TO be noted that the total amount Of time
lost from strikes In the coal industry In l@l was
only 753 working days. compared with ISIS l02
working days lost from strikes in 1859 with 2l24 l54
ia ys thus lost in lSSq, and with something like
100000 working days thus far lost in 1902 from
the same cause.
All OF the important metals decreased in both
output and value. with the exception OF the produc
tion OF pig iron ard zinc. and among the less i'm
pOrtant metals the most remarkable increase both
IN quantity and value made in platinum. 4Is
ounces valued at S27,52s as compared with 400
ounces valued s2,JOp IN 1890 a gain OF lO0l per
in value The fuels increased from si05 35s 35i
In 1907 $40 30 in 1901 gain OF So 03J 953.
So per cent. Every variety OF fuel increased in
value except petroleum. which showed increase
IN quantity Of 5.76s 665 barrels, but a decline of
s,5s7s, due largely the less valuable character
OF the increased product of the petroleum
coal increased s02l.D' long tons In output and
S26 74G 6S In value The average price OF anthracite
coal at the mine was s. %. the highest figure
and 81 So IN lS99; the average price a ton for
bituminOus coal at the mine was s. o5 about one
The gain SO COS. .s72 is due entirely to the in
crease ia the non-netalic products. since the
talhc products showed decline from 500 .2S6 in
100 S5ls 2S 377 in 1901 loss Of $32 l5s 500 whereas
the metallic products increased from s5l2 1876 262
IL so 10 So, PSI lia IN 1901 gain Of s55o65SS2 To
fed products including the rare minerals Iithium.
tungsten, vanadium. uranium. etc, bsmuth and
crystalline quartz. valued 81 .0D6eo ma king the
total mineral production for 1901 tl-OS6529 81.
For the Arst time since 1885 the production Of
biSmuth the United States IS noted in this report
The manufacture OF arseniOus oxide was taken up
FOR the first time in the United States in 1901 by
Wash. when an output of 300 short tons placed
on the market. For the fTst time also. 1901 the
,b OF ge 6 on Naso1 5g GSe was reaed
output amounted to about 1000 pounds