The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-01-06
PIG IRON AND STEEL
A WORLD SURVEY OF A GIGANTIC
 INDUSTRY.
Secretary of the British Iron Trade Association Contributes Notable Article to The Manufacturer's
 Record of Baltimore.

Baltimore, Jan. 5-(Speclal.)-J stephen Jeans, Secretary of the Brit ish Iron Trade Association, and one of the worlds most noted authorities on iron and steel, contributes to The Manu- lecturers Record of this week an elaborate article giving "a world sur vey or iron and steel"
 Reviewing the wonderful develop ment of the iron and steel industry. of recent years. Mir. Jeans says. that the United States has about one-half of the total iron-producing capacity of the whole world to-day The worlds output of iron ore is given by him as 55.500.000 tons in 1890 and 92,300, 000 tons in 1904. showing a gain of 36.s00.- 900 tons. or 70 per cent, while the cor responding increase in the output of pig iron was 17.470,oo0 tons
 These figures" Mir. Jeans states. seem to show that in the period that has intervened since 1890 feaner ores have been used, since there has been an increase in the average consumption of additional ore per ton of Iron pro- duced. The output of pig iron in the countries that are included in this statement of ore production increas- ed by figure that Is greatly in excess of any corresponding period.
 "The production of steel in the lead ing countries of the world has advanc- ed from 11.900,000 tons in 1890 to 35.- s00.000 tons in 1904 Within the last fourteen years we have witnessed an advance in the steel output of nearly 24000.000 tons. or more than twenty times the output of the whole world only half a century ago. One natural iy wonders where is this extraordi- progress to end. Is it to be continued on the same scale or on an even lar- ger scale in the future and, if so. what is the larger scale likely to be. and by what cauntry is it likely to be met?
 No one who has carefully studied the matter can fail to see that the United States must contribute for the next half century, at any rate. the greater part of any future advance, alike in pig iron and in steel. No other country has the same supplies of cheap and rich raw material. No other country has such collossal home demand. No other country can to the same extent enjoy the great benefits attendant on production on a large scale. No other country is better pro- tected from outside competition. AL though there arc many countries Tn the world, less than twenty of them are pig-iron producers, and not more than four or five produce iron and steel for export. The manifest desti- ny of the United States. with their vast resources. appears to me to pro- duce more and more largely for ex- port. and If 1t is found more profitable to export the finished forms of the material rather than the cruder forms so much the better for those engaged in the business"
 Discussing the question as to whether the present activity is likely to last. Mir. Jeans takes the ground that the boom In the iron and stecl trade is not likely to soon come to an end. On this point he says:
 The average annual steel product ion of the United States rose from 4s millions tons in the five years ended 1894 to 72 million tons in each of the five years ended 1899 and 1894 million tons in each of the five years ended in 1904. In the five years ending with 1909 the average is not unlikely to he over 1s,O00.0 900 tons, and I should anticipate that by 1920 1t may reach well on to, if it does not quite attain, 5O,0OO,0O0 tons. These are conservative figures if the progress made in the five years ended in 1904 is taken as a meas ure of the probabilities of the future. In all this there Is surely Justification of the progress that has been made by American firms in improving and ex- tending their plants"
 It 1t, however. when Mir. Jeans comes to the question Of discussing the worlds ore supply that his statements are likely to command the widest att tention. On this he says:
 'In the United States, as we all know, the cost of producing Bessemer pig iron between 1890 and 1895. with s1 and s3 ore. was a very different matter to what it is today. when everybody has appreciated the increas- ing value of raw materials. which are liable to exhaustion and not over abundant, and when the bulk of the supplies Is in comparatively few hands that may practically within wide limits make their values what they please. It will not be overlooked in this con nection that when the Steel Corpora tion was founded the value of the ores at it's disposal was computed at S7O0.- 000,000. which worked out, ] think, to about $1 per ton of the total quantity computed to be then available, and that, too, before any provision had been made for working or transportation.
 Probably this was not over stated. On the contrary, l should be surprised if the directors of the Steel Corpora tion, in view of the fuller knowledge that they now possess as to the limited volume of ores at command in rela- tion to the increased and increasing output of iron, would not place the value of their unworked ores at more than they did in 1901. In that year the total output of American iron ores was under 29,00O.O00 tons for an output of I5S million tons of pig iron. To- day the output of American iron ores is probably at the rate of over 40.000.- 900 tons a year, which is only 4,500,000 greater than the ascertained output of 1902, and it may be nearer 45.000.O00 tons, which would be 16.0OO,O00 tons over the output of 1901, the year pre- ceding the formation of the Steel Trust. am not just in a position to say what proportion of this output tho Southern States can be relied on to supply. but 1t will surprise me if they do not in 1905-19O6 do much better than they have hitherto done in any