The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-08-07
TIN ORE PRICE
 DOLLAR A POUND
By HOLLAND

oiAi' WHICH contained paragraph proVld- Ing Tor protection to American tin plate manufacturers, could have dreamed that the tune would come within 30 years when tin ore would command S1 pound ID the markets of the United States. Yet D% reason of the exigencies of the war and the vast demand for tin commodi- ties, the price has gradually advanced from about l2 cents a pound, which was approximately the quotation when the Mckinley bill became a law, until now there have been quotations in the New York market of S1 pound for tin which is mined just off the coast of Java. This quotation, it is said by the Washington authorities, places tin and iron in the place of honor beside steel, for the raw l materials. iron and tin, are now of greater value to the United States, and i probably to the world, as far as produc- tion of commodities is concerned, than is either of the precious metals, gold or silver. So far as production is concerned, we can get along without gold, but we cannot maintain and increase our pro- ductive capacity unless we have ample supplies of iron and tin.
 Soon after the Mckinley bill became a law, experts were sent by men of cap 1 itai to various parts Of the United Sates so that it could be learned whether there were any tin mines in the United States large enough to supply the tin plate | manufacturers with the raw material Some of the politicians who were prom inent in the party then in power were persuaded that in the far northwest tin deposits had been discovered which prom | ised abundant yield. The expectation was that if sufficient capital were invested in the development of these mines, the | United States would at last have the one important raw mineral which it was SUD- posed she did not possess. The politi- clans did make some investment in these tin mines in the far northwest. but with out avail. There came reports that tin | had been found fn Alaska. but these re- ceived little attention. At the present | tune the United States is producing tin l pl oducts of the money value of $l00 0O0, GOO | a year But it has been found necessary | in order to maintain this manufacture ! that tin be imported from other parts | of the world. Great Britain controlled
  east and it was that control which, until ! Bolivia came to our aid a few years ago, ! prevented the establishment of tin smelt- ins plants in the United States.
 l TURNING TO BOLIVIA
 After the war began and especially as there was increased shortage in shipping, it became difficult to secure. imports of | tin from the far east. The attention of | men of capital of the United States was | turned to the Bolivian tin. In that re- public there are enormous deposits of tin | ore which is of high grade. One of the most romantic of any of the narratives which tell of the rise in recent years | from poverty to enormous wealth of in- | dividuals is based upon the far-seeing ca pacity and the energy of a Bolivian peasant, who, beginning with nothing, at last accumulated one of the world s | great fortunes through his control of the Bolivian tin mines. From the mines which he controls large exports of tin to the smelting works in Great Britain were made and the duty which bolivia placed upon the export of this tin formed a considerable part of the rev. enue of that republic.
 Were it not for the Bolivian mines the tin plate industry in the United States would probably now be seriously impaired Bolivia produces about 20 per
 
 and can produce much more when the almost inexhaustible tin mines in that republic are fully exploited.
 It is a curious fact which the geolo- gistS have sometimes attempted to eX- plain that this interior republic of South America is the only producer of tin, ex- cepting that which is obtained from the Straits Settlement near Java, and from other parts of the orient. Half way around the world from these tin mines Of the far east, in the interior of South America nature has deposited tin which if capital is supplied, will meet much the greater part of the worlds requirements
 From Washington a day or two age came report authorized by Secretary Reofeld, of the department of commerce
 which stated that the imports of Dis tir in the P monhs whtich ended or June 90 last were the largest in the his tor, of the United States. They amount
 ed to nearly 70000 long tons.
 This increase reflects the growth or the tin smelting industry in this country Thirteen per cent of the imports Of UT ore in the past fiscal year came iron
 Bolivia and yet only two years earlier the United States bought no raw tin
 but only the fishined product. Now we
 are smelting more and more Of the LII } ore and notwithstanding the greater i'm
 portation from Bolivia, nevertheless mar ket quotations TOT tln nave luCi EdoO>
 until quotations in the New York marke of $1 a pound for the Banca tin are re
 ported.
 A PRECIOUS METAL
 l It has been repeatedly said since th' | United States became one Of the allie: ' | in the European war that steel has takeI the place of gold as the worlds mos ; precious metal. The time Will neve , come when, steel win in price match th' quotations for gold but it's usefulness II production of almost all kinds in th'
 United States far surpasses the utllit! %l O. gold, excepting that gold IS the basl' Y of our credit and financial system. The United States absorbs about one
 half of the entire tin ouput of the worit
 each year, and the increase in the manu / fracture of tin plate and other commodi , ties in which tin is employed IS Illus
 trated by the fact that in the first yea { osg Mckinleys second administration w ; imported into the United States smeitet ltin of the value of $l9,000,0oO, wherea last year the money value of our i'm
 ports of that kind was S6S,000,O)0 Ina | is partly due to the advance in price From 1892, when the Mckinley law wen , linto effect the increase in the quantt. f of tin plate manufactured in this coun ltry has grown from 42000,0O0 pounds t I l ,, 700 0OO,0 GOO pounds. We are exporting Ill plate to eveSy part of the world and Il l ll,, k.a,,t 4iv,r lot f n