The Delta independent., 1907-03-01
COAL AND IRON.

Indispensable to human coHIort anu
growth. are coal and iron. Our inherit
ance of these was princely. The most
wonderful achievement of this age is
the incredible activity with which we
are exhausting them. The coal areas
and measures of the United States are
describable only in somewhat general
terms. But the fact of the future is
not doubtful. No dependable authority
gives more than a century of life to our
main available coal supply. 1t will not
be all gone by that time, but the re-
mainder will have to be obtained from
deposits of low grade or at great depths,
or from points remote from where it IS
most needed. 1t will be poor in quality.
or high in price, or both. SO that its
economic employment on existing terms
will be very difficult. A generous esti-
mate of competent geologists for the
iii e OF tne OeIteT COdi iledSuA Go VA AoAofe~
as whole is less than one hundred
wears. The output of the United States
is more than $50. OOO. 600 tons annually.
1t doubled within the decade from 1895.
II now amounts to between forty and
6fty Der cent of the worlds entire
supply. The estimated life of the
Pennsylvania anthracite fields, whose
narrow area has permitted closer ap-
Proclamation. is put at little more than
fifty years. The larger supply Of soft
coal has TO answer a demand many
times as great. ...
1t is certainly a moderate statement
to say that. by the middle of the present
century. when our population shall have
rsaehsd the two hundred million mark
our best and most convenient coal will
have been so far consumed that the
remainder can only be applied to pres
ent uses at an enhanced cost which
would probably compel the entire rear
rangcment of industries and revolution
izc the common lot and common life.
This is not mere possibility but a
probability which our country must
face.
IRON GOING FAST.
The prospect of the mighty iron in
tcrest is even more threatening and
more sure. Our available iron deposit S
have been carefully catalogued. All
the fields of national Importance have
been known for at least twenty years.
Within that time their boundari es and
probable capacity have been estimat ed.
and the whole country has been pros
pected for this king of minerals. The
most reasonable computation of scienti-
fic authority affirms that existing pro-
duction cannot be maintained for fifty
years. assuming that all the available
iron ore known to us is mined. In fact.
the limitation is likely to be less than
that period.
In 1870 the United States produced a
little more than 100000 tons of iron
ore. 1t increased by about one hundred
and fifty per cent. for each decade to
1890. AS late as 1895 it was a trifle
short Of l6.OOo.OOO tons. In 1902 and
1903 it was, in round numbers, 35, ,OOO, 90
tons. and. last year it rose to about
~. 0OO. 600 tons. At this rate, as all the
trade statistics indicate. and as our
present policy and growth in population
require. It will reach $1,000. 600 tons
almost immediately. BY every possible
means we are stimulating consumption;
especially by tariff that places bounty
on the exhaustion of the home supply.
of both coal and iron. thus prohibiting
recourse to outside supplies and COM
pclling the exhaustion of our own re-
serve.
Now, the main irun deposits in this
country are those in the Lake Superior
region. These furnish nearly or quite
three quarters of the entire product of
the United States. Deprived of these,
our output would shrink to beggarly
ten million tons or so a year. And these
deposits are not veins of unknown depth
and richness. but moles or pockets of
asccrtainablc volume. There il within