New-York tribune., 1918-03-31

Peat, it must be admitted, will not con-
tinue for a long period to play its
present important part. Therefore, we
should make the most extensive use
of peat as long as long as possible.
German hard coal will definitely con-
troll the European market after one
hundred years, at the latest, when Eng
lish anthracite coal deposits will be
nearly exhausted Then we will obtain
the industrial guardianship of Europe.
Very soon our coal will be more and
more able to compete with English
coal. The very favorable distribution
of our five coal districts throughout
Germany, or, to be more correct,
Prussia-if we don't take into con-
slderation the small but important
Saxonian district-has more than any
thing else contributed to the develop
ment of our industry.
Upper Silesia Exhausted
upper Silesia, where the richest coal
deposits and the most easily exploited
are located, has exhausted her iron
deposits, is deprived Of Austrian and
Hungarian iron ore and places her
hopes on the good Polish red ore. But
at the present time she must defray
the exceedingly high cost of trans
portation of Swedish ore. Slesia
cannot develop the Thomas process, this
most important method Of producing
steel, because she lacks ore containing
phosphor The province (of Silesia),
nevertheless, has big iron industry,
but it is Snly the side show of its
coal mines. On account of the short
age of raw material the iron production
is very much restricted.
because she has all prerequisites
not every one of them to the same ex-
tent, I. is true-the iron industry Of
Western Germany is the leading one,
is the mainstay of all production Of
this KIND, and eXerts deciding lnf1u-
ence upon our whole economic fabric.
The oldest district, the Sicgerland,
which is the very school of our iron
industry, has been outdistanced, after
a short period of leadership, by Rhine
land and Wcstphalia, which we have in
district and which now have q rival
in Lorraine, to which the former dis
trlct of the Saar has been extended.
Between the SaaYLorraine and the
Rhenish- Westphala districts is the
district of Aix-la- Chape1ic, when
stretches into Belgian tcrrrory.'
Mnctte Very Important
The author explains at length thai
competition forced the various dis
tricts to combine in order to obtain
Then the article goes on to say:
Her immense iron ore deposits not
withstanding. Siegerland was unable TO
rcthln her supremacy as an IRON produc-
ing district. 1t was the same with
her as with the Upper Palatinate and
Sweden Charcoal, which could be
had at the forests of Siegerland. could
not any longer protltably be used. AnI
the numerous furnaces, in which coke
was burned. were too small. One after
another they We're abandoned. But the
Importance Of the iron ore increased.
Thanks to cheap freight rates foA
whole trains loaded with iron orr,
Siegerland rushed to the assistance Of
Upper Silesia. which lacks iron ore
and is stranglcd by her abundance OF
coal. 1t was a bold experiment Of
Sallroad rate fixing, but it fully sue
ceeded
"Since that time the iron concerns
Of the Ruhr district bought large
tracts of land and mines in Segerlanu
The railroad rates are more Favorable
to the Ruhr district, where the iron
ore deposits have been exhausted. than
to Upper Sllesia. On the one side OF
the Ruhr district is Sicgerland on the
other side the minette district Of Lor-
ralne (minettc means iron ore or m
ferior grade, but which is fine ma>
tcrlal for the improved Bessemer pro
cess) is not far away; and the Rhine
connects the Ruhr dls,r1c, with all
countries OF the world We find the
largest furnaces on the banks of the
Rhine. Krupps did Il master stroke
when they moved their furnaces to thu
harbor of Rhinehausen on Rhine, op-
posite Dusburg. And for similar rea-
sons the other Rhenish- -Westphalian
iron companies built private harbors.
There, at Walsum, Alsum and Ruhrort
one finds immense staples of iron ore
red Spanish and gray Swedish. Nor
man and Algerian ore. The Rhine
Nerne Canal offers similar advan-
tagc to the iron works more distant
from the Rhine. The ighborhood of
navlgabic water carries with it the
best chance of success TO a blast fur
mace. and the Rhine is becoming the
centre of the European iron industry.
For mncttc Of Lorraine may be trans
ported there without great difficulty or F.,
cost of freight: and the situation in
this regard will be still more favora-
bic after the Moselle River will have
been improved, as we ought to have
done before, as the lessons of the war
arc teaching us
after all, minettc is of the greatest
Importance, and, therefore, the future
of our iron industry depends on Lor-
rainc. Nobody understood the great
Importance of Lorraines minctte when
we annexed part of that iron district
in 1871; otherwise the frontiers would
have been fixed differently. When the
Englishman, Gilchrst Thomas.
adapted the Bcssemcr process, bv
change of the feeding Of the reverbc.
ratory to the smelling of iron ore
containing phosphor. the rise of the
German iron industry began. while the
English iron industry relatively de-
clincd. Our largest furnaces were
erected in Lorraine and Luxembourg,
which had to obtain coal from the
Ruhr district and Belgium and also
better grades Of ore to be mixed with
minettc."