The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-09-08
ANDREW CARNEGIE
ON NATIONAL ECONOMY

Editor Advertiser: Andrew Car
negie, at the recent Governors con-
ference at Washington, D. c., in a
speech concernehg the national supply
of coal and iron, presented some very
striking facts. He said:
"The thoughtful man is forced to
realize, first, that our production and
consumption of minerals are increasing
mueh more rapidly than our popula-
ton, and, second, that our methods are
so faulty and extravagant that the
average waste is very great, and in
coal almost as. great as the amount
consumed. The actual total consump-
tion of coal has been over 100000, 900
tons; the waste and destruction in the
neighborhood of 1900, 100000 tons.
''Of all the coal burned in the power
plants of the country, not more than
from five per cent. to ten per cent. of
the potential energy is actually used
indeed. in the ordinary electric-light
plants hardly one fve-hundredth part
actually
utilized. There is at present no known
remedy for this
Mr.. Carnegie discusses methods of
reducing the present appallingly large
use of coal and IRON He shows that
there is required, to move 1000 tons of
heavy freight by rail, an equal amount
of iron in the form of locomotive, cars,
rails, etc. The same 1000 tons of
freight if moved by water require only
100 to $50 tons of iron, so that the
substitution of water-carriage for rail
carriage would reduce the consumption
of iron by three-fourths to seven
eighths in this department. At the
same time the consumption of coal for
motive power would be reduced so per
cent. to rs per cent, with CORE
spending reduction in the coal required
for smelling.
mo single step open to us today
Would do more to check the drain an
iron and coal than the substitution of
water-earriage for rail-carriage wher
ever practicable, and the careful ad
iustment of the one to the other
throughout the country.
He also shows how the consumption
of iron is being reduced by the use of
concrete building material instead o.
structural steel; by the diminishing ne
cessity for iron battleships and ord
nance, and by the extensive develop
ment of alloys.
In regard to coal, Mr.. Carnegie states
that greater economy will be secured,
first, by more perfect combustion IN
furnace and frebox, future inventions
doing away with the enormous present |
waste; secondly, by improved methods
of mining; thirdly, the most promising
check N coal consumption is the sub
stitution of other power, notably, d. |
rect solar energy. He cites the re-
markable case of the Portuguese !
priest s heliophore at the st. Louis |
Exposition, with its temperature of !
5000 degrees Fahrenheit, in which a |
cube of iron evaporated like a snow
ball in a blast-furnaee.
Some day our streams and rivers will |
yield us 3O,OOO,O0O horsepower-more
than all now produced from fuel by |
all our engines combined.
DR.. Pritchett is responsible for the |
statement that on a clear day, when
well above the horizon, the sun dellv- |
ers upon each square acre of the |
earth IS surface exposed to its rays me |
equivalent of 1900 horsepower, work |
ing continuously. Thus there IS an |
abundance of power lying around us, II
we only knew how to harness 1T.
In concluding, Mr.. Carnegie stated
three great channels of national econ |
omy-preservation of forests, systema-
tization of water transportation, and |
of the soil.
VAUGHAN McCAUGHEY,
e1 Territorial Normal School.