The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-07-08

1 in the manufacture of machine and rifle | gun barrels, airplanes automobile trucks | and for many other purposes. This steel is used where strength and lightness are important factors. Electric furnaces
 were first used in Germany, but the United States did not follow until about 10 wears ago Today, however, there are a larger number of electric furnaces in the United States than in all of Eu- rore. The earlier furnaces were small, say. two to five-tons, but those now building are in some cases ot 30-tons ca pacity.
 Better nsportation facilities have
 enabled one producer to compete With
 other producers, and one nation to com-
 plete with another, in nearly all parts
 of the world. While these facilities have eliminated to a large extent the struggle for existence, the struggle Tor
 supremacy has also been intensified.
 One nation has by it's initiative, It's
 commercial combinations or its gov
 ernment tried to gain advantage over
 other nations in the commercial fields
 of the world. The result of this de-
 sire for commercial supremacy was
 the preliminary cause of the present
 great world war.
 At a meeting of the American Iron
 and Steel institute last fall, Colonel
 Butler, dean of the steel indstry, said:
 Our government was not ready for
 war, but our steel mills were prepared.
 The biggest thing the Kaiser over
 looked in his calculations was the iron
 and steel industry of the United
 States"
 When peace was concluded after the
 Franco-P Prussian war and France was
 compelled to cede part of it's north
 eastern territory, Germany came into
 possession of part of the large ore
 deposits in northern Lorraine The
 value of these deposits was not fully appeciated by Germany at that time
 but it has since developed that this
 Lorraine iron deposit is of a very high grade, and the quantity is estimated
 at 3.0oO.0o0.00o tons, which is the next largest to the ore deposits in the United States. During the rapid in- dustrial development in Germany which followed the Franco-PrusSian war, these deposits were exploited and became one of it's largest natural re- sources. If Germany had fully appe- ciated the value of these deposits when the peace negotiations were being con ducted, she would have placed the boundary line farther south and west, and nearly all of the valuable iron ore deposits in northern France would now be in German territory. Had this been done, Germany would be master of continental Europe.
 As soon as the present war broke out, the Germans quickly seized the territory in which these iron ore de- posits were located. Furthermore, that part of the conquered territory which contains these deposits has been guarded by the best troops of Ger many under the command of the crown prince. The hardest battles fought in the war have been fought around the fortress of Verdun. just south of this deposit, evidently to make it safe
 within the German lines.
 When peace is again concluded these
 fron-ore deposits will be worth com mercially more than any other terri
 tory fought for, and unless a decisive
 victoy is won by the allies attempts
 will be made by the Germans to retain these iron-ore fields, even if they have to offer in exchange large areas of other territory. It is of the greatest importance to the United States, after the conclusion of peace, that the en- tire area covered by the Lorraine iron ore deposits be inside the boundary o. nation friendly to lis.