Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-11-04

3
) which they are taking out ore for the MAX
ing of steel for armor plates, motor trucks,
railway tracks, airplanes and shells and pro-
jecties. The most of the work is done with
dynamite and steel shovels, and the base
metal is hardly touched by mans hand
from the time it comes out of the earth un-
til it has passed through the furnaces and
gone forth in ships, cars and in guns and
other munitions of war.
There is no other place in the world
where iron is mined so efficiently, and none
where it is found in such quantities. Moro
than three-fourths of all the iron ever pro-
duced in the United States has come from
khis Lake Superior region. The amount is
30 great that we cannot comprehend it.
The ore carried down the lakes last year
was 100000 TONS enough to have filled
y train of sixty five-ton cars reaching from
San Francisco to New York, and from there
across the Atlantic to where Our soldiers
are using steel guns made of that ore on
the battlefields of France. Moreover, the
product steadily grows. In the year 1000
it was 100000 tons. By 1906 it had
doubled and by the output this year it will
probably be doubled again. Since the war
in Europe began the demand has leaped,
and our government is now pushing the
miners to do more than ever.
This region contains the most and best
of our iron deposits We know that to be
SO for the scientists Of the geological
vey recently went over the United States
and took account of our resources. They
put all our iron into two classes. One
ali or those AT
that they can be easily and profitably mined
at this time The other was the unavail-
able ores, or those which have smaller
percentage of iron, but which it may pay
to save for use in the future. All of the
available iron of the United States>was then
estimated at little over five billion TONS
and of this three and one-half billions were
shown to be in the Lake Superior region
The remainder, little less than one-third
of the whole, is in the eastern states, the
lower Mississippi valley and in the Rocky
mountains and the Pacific slope.
AS to the lean ores which may be of value
in the future, our reserves of that kind
about seyenty-five billion tons, OF which
seventy-two billions are located in the Lake
Superior region.
The rest Of the globe, so far as is known,
has no beds of iron to compare with those
of Lake Superior Germany has, all told,
something like two billion tons of ore and
the iron in it is SO small that much of it
would be classed as unavailable here. Rus
STA has perhaps a billion and half tons
still in the ground, France has an equal
amount and Austtia-Hungary and Great
Britain have each about one billion tons.
Spain has about five hundred million tons
and Sweden has perhaps billion tons OF
iron ore reserves. The ore of the two lat
ter countries is of excellent quality
AS to the ore reserves of Africa, Asia and
South America, those continents are largely
unprospected, and no definite knowledge
of their iron deposits is to be had There
is considerable iron in Asia, and small de-
posts here and there in Australia. During
my recent visit to South America | was told
that there was something like two billion
tons in central Brazil, and L know that the
Bethlehem Steel company has long lease
on an iron mountain in Chile. None Of
these countries has anything which equals
the resources of the United States and
there is no daubt that we are bound to hold
our supremacy in the steel markets of the
world The indication is that we shall have
TO furnish the bulk of the steel for our allies
in Europe, and that, when the war is over,
that continent will be, for the most part
rehabiitated by products made from Amer
lean ore.
These great iron deposits lie on the south