The White Pine news. [volume] (Ely, Nev.) 1906-1910, 1907-11-23
WASTE OF NATIONAL RESOURCES

and other great departments are
aware of the extent of this loss of
National wealth.
That the present prodigious waste
of the Nations natural resources
must stop at once If we are to con-
tinue to prosper is the warning given
to the people of the United States by
], A. Holiness chief of the technologic
branch of the United States Geologi-
cal Survey, who has just returned to
Washington after three months
inspection trip through the West
Holmes, who is an expert on fuels,
and one of the best known scientists
in the country, toured the entire
West at the instance of the Govern
ment to learn just how serious the
conditions are.
He returns with the statement that
in the mining operations of the pres
ent nearly half of the total coal
supply is being left under ground;
that water, the most valuable of all
mineral resources, as a source of
power is being wasted day after day
and year after year to the extent of
millions of horsepower, and that
forest fires have burned more lumber
than has been used in the building
of homes or in the industries.
lone of the great national prob
lens is the conserving of the fuel
resources, says Holmes. AT the
present rate of increase in con-
sumption. the better part of the fuel
supply of the country will be gone
by the end of the present century
unless the proper steps are taken.
The future ascendancy of Ameri-
can industries will depend largely on
our manufacturers being able to Sc
cure cheap fuel. The value and cost
of labor VII never be reduced in the
United States to what they are in
| foreign countries; but this fact rem
ders all the more essential in the
struggle for industrial and CONNER
cial supremacy that the manufac-
| turers of this country be able to
obtain fuel supplies cheaper than
| they are to be had in other countries.
THE world recognizes Americans
as the most wasteful of peoples in the
utilization of their resources. Ger
tainly no nation received so rich an
| inheritance as did the United States
| in its combination of soil, forest,
climate, streams and mineral re-
sources The nation has literally
grown up in luxury. Out of the
very abundance of these resources
we have developed an Indifference to
economy and the habit af waste. We
have destroyed our game for its hides
and horns: our forests for their tan
| bark or pittance of the lumber
they would yield; and meanwhile
with thoughtless Indifference we
| have allowed forest fires to burn
more lumber than we have used in
| the building of homes or in the in
dustries.
Great Forest Destruction.
Meanwhile, through the destruc-
ton of the forests about the sources
of important streams and the i'm
| proper cultivation of these sloping
| lands, the fertile soils are washed
away from the fields where they are
needed and deposited in the streams
and harbors of the country, from
which their continued removal will
cost an enormous sum. We are thus
gradually but surely destroying the
| value of our great water resources
| for power for irrigation and for navi-
| CATION purposes. This fertile soil
and genial climate have furnished
| food enough for the nation and to
spare; and so luxurious are the
habits developed by this overproduc-
| ton of food that it is sometimes said
we waste food enough to supply an
other nation as large as our own
water, the most valuable of all
our mineral resources as a source of
of power, is being wasted day after
day and year after year to the extent
of millions of horsepower. AS the
| essential factor in all irrigation work,
| it is being wasted by use to excess
in many instances; but on a much
| larger scale and to the value of
| hundreds of millions of dollars it is
being allowed to go to waste year
after year by not being used at all,
and in many localities the limited
supply of artesian water available
| for irrigation and other purposes Is
being wasted on a considerable scale
by being allowed to flow continuous
ly when not needed or in excess of
actual need.
"Other mineral resources are be-
ing wasted on as large a scale as is
true of water, but their waste is even
more serious matter, for the reason
that the supplies are not reproduced
as in the case of water, but when
once exhausted are exhausted per-
manently. No better illustration of
this fact can be found than can be
seen in the deserted mining camps,
deserted after the mines have become
exhausted. In connection with the
metallurgical processes there is often
waste of materials, which also
prove injurious, such as the large
quantities of sulphur and arsenic
yapors that are turned loose from the
chimneys of the modern smelters.
This waste is preventable and should
be prevented for the double reason
that these materials have com
mercial and economic value and they
are destructive to adjacent vegeta-
ton. This destruction of yegeta-
ton allows the rains to erode the
dare land surfaces and deposit the
transported soil into the adjacent
stream.
"The waste in metal mining and
treatment of gold, silver, "copper"
lead, zinc, iron and other metallic
substances under old time practices
was frequently as high as from pol
to so per cent, but the modern
mining, milling and smelling pro-
cesseshave of late been developed
along the lines of increased Efficiency
Under these more modern practices !
waste is now being reduced to from
to usually less than 25 per cent |
Modern chemistry and metallurgy
are also developing processes for the
treatment of low grade ores which
formerly were left in the mines or