The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-05-14


 might mig T bs eonsIdsfsd intending. upp' .'The same spirit of recklessness that leads to waste In mining and in the consumption of s coal lSsds tS rnnsoss. ;s. year 1907 in the United states the kill cd and wounded In coal mining opera tions exceeded 5000. The danger to far more rapidly than production, be- cause gas becomes more abundant and the work of rescue more dificuit as the mines extend deeperss or farther from the Entrance.
 statistics ss ta Trcn.
 "when the Republic was started in IT'S little iron was used. Each fam fly S Tas content on , with q few score sils and weapons, so that the average annual consumption was but a few pounds per capita. Tn 1907 alone the
 Mas Sf son ore sen n the United ,SsS child of our ss, o00, 900 population. And the production Is steadily increasing
 The latest trustworthy estimates of our present stock of iron ore: for the Lake Superior district. about 1.5o0, ,o0o.- 900 tons; for the Southern distFict (in- ciuding Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee ana ana vsirs,nnia1: about ssoo. .ooe. .oeo tons tons 5000, .oOo to 1000. .ooo, ,ooo tons--mak- 00o tons.
 ssds ore bss s tsst 9f geIss tss about four fifths of the current pro auction. In 1905 it's yield was over da ss,o ss;o 100000 tons, in 1906 some ss;ooo. GOO average 50 900 .ooo tons or more. Even without further increase, the known supply will be exhausted before is4o. 1t is true that there are frequent re- ports of new ore bodies in this district; but on the other hand, the old bodies generally run far below the estimates.
 The total production of iron ore Tn the United States up to 1890 was some 275.0o0.o00 tons; in the next ten years it was. nearly 200 o,ooo,o 900: and in the from so to nearly as much as the total for the first century of our history The aggregate production to date, Iso'ooo.oSo tons mated original supply: At the recent rate of increase (doubling each decade) the production in 1918 will exceed i00.- and by 1888 it will be over 400. GOO 900 tons. |. e.. in that single year. which many of us may expect to see, an amount approximating the entire pro close of last year. By that date about half of the original supply will be gone, and only the lower grades of deemed workable will be used long be- fore the end of the present century.
 "Compared with Britain or Germany, our only two important competitors in iron and steel, we were until the last few years in much more favorable con- dition. Britain then was apparently within twenty years of her end as an haustion of her ore supplies Recent discoveries in Northern Sweden have given her a new lease and also benefited Germany. both of which are already ,Iw rt,,e rf nf new mines which are said to be by far the most extensive ever known. The ores are of excellent quality. 1t is not Eastern s States shall be coInpeiled to rely upon these deposits for part of our
 While both waste and risk of life are much less relatively than in coal mining, the advances in price due to progressive exhaustion are large. An Missouri, Missouri which forty-odd years ago was declared, even by experts. to be inexhaustible; the entire deposit is gone--work abandoned. The additional cost of. the ore due to progressive ex- haustion of the bodies of ore can hard ly be estimated at less than 10 per cent; this is already felt, and must in crease as field after held Is exhausted
 Something of Copper.
 Next to iron our most useful metal is copper. It was the only metal used effectively by the natives of North America before Columbus landed: and for over three centuries native copper was mined and wrought by white men chiefly In Indian mines and bx Indian methods The mining and reduction of ,coppers ores has grown up within fifty copper industryshas baan revolutionized through electrical application. AL though production is enormous and in- creasing apace, 1t fails to keep up with the demand. which more than in any other commodity is limited by price. If the current price could be reduced 3S per cent, the demand would be doubled or tripled; if it could be re- duced 50 per cent copper would replace iron for roofing cornices, piping. and other constructional purposes so as to