El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-09-26

/ Home association, organized for the
care of disabled miners, and OF the
widows and orphans of those who have
lost their lives in mining accidents, is
preparing TO erect a home at cost OF
from $4,000 to 100000 Each miner
il the district is to contribute 81 to
the project at the outset, and to pay
81 a year thereafter for the assurance
that if he is permanently injured IN
mine accident he Will be cared for, or
if killed, his family Will be looked
after In addition to this, each com
pany employing miners is to be re
Guested to contribute 81 for each miner
employed, and a like amount during
each succeeding year In addition to
this. it is aimed to establish a pension
fund, by which those who grow old in
the service will be provided for
The Importance of the mining in
duStry in the United States is shown
by the fact that IS per cent of all the
traffic on the railroads of the coun-
try originates in its mines. There are
more than 1000, 600 miners employed
and the total annual product aggre-
gates $1,000, OOO, 900. Steel, coal and
steam have worked hand in hand for
the welfare of humanity and have
made themselves the great triumvirate
which has moved the industry and
commerce of the world. The steel is
used to cOnfine the steam that lifts
the coal that makes the steam, so that
We have in the three a modern House
that Jack Built Some idea Of the i'm
portance of the coal Industry may be
gathered from the recent announce
ment that single coal company has
contracted with a single steel COM
pany to deliver. during a 20year
period, SIC, 0O0,O0 worth of coal at the
steel works This is the largest sim
gle mineral contract ever made.
At a coal-drilling contest in Calu-
met, Mich a few weeks ago a team of
Butte miners won the $1,000 Ryan prize
by drilling q hole in granite SO 1-2
inches deep in Is minutes This sur
passes by IA inches the former
worlds record for dOubIe-hand drill
Value of Coal Deposits.
In the recent BaIIinger- Pinchot in
vestigation it was testified by A. H.
Brooke, of the United States geoIogi-
cal survey, that the important coal
deposits of Alaska were worth one
half cent ton in the ground. Such
a price impreses the uninitiated as
being almost nothing, and many an
editorial writer was constrained to
comment upon the low price put upon
-A4dSAdH COdA IN place Dy the SeOlOgl-
cal survey. As a matter of fact. how
ever, this is a price relatively higher
than is paid for bituminous coal in the
Pennsylvania and West Virginia fields
The calculations of the survey show
that one-half cent a ton means from
$50 to $500 per acre for the land under
laid with coal in Alaska. Land in the
eastern part of the United States re-
Gently was sold for as little as one
of one cent per ton for the
coal underlying it.
During the past year there has been
much discussion among mining engin- !
GERS as to- the ultimate source of the |
deposits of the earth Some |
have believed that minerals are of |
deep-seated origin. gradually working
themselves toward the surface, in the |
evolution wrought by time Others |
have commended that they have come !
from the rocks by a sort of Ieeching
process. Still others have claimed i
that they come directly from the sea. /
The most recent view seems to be that
the majority of minerals are OF ceIes-
tial origin rather than terrestrial 1t |
IS pointed out that the earth is con-
'tantly travelling through great
masses of star dust. which, though in
risible to the humOn eve, is perpetu-
ally falling to the earth. We see the
big meteOrites, but the amount of min
eral brought down by them is small in
to the constant showers of
dust that falls. Sometimes
We are aware of the presence of this
lust when 1t forms the nucleus of hail
stones. 1t is claimed by some author
ties that in every raindrop there is