The Irish standard., 1918-03-09


she realized the value of her treasure
trove. But forty-seven years ago met
allurgists generally regarded phos,
phOric ores, which formed the greater
part of the Lorraine strata, as worth
less and unavoidable. The Germans
seized everything that in the then state
of science was known to be profitable
and relinquished the rest to the
French. But less than five years later
the mining industry was revolutions
lied by the discovery of a process
for dephosphorizing ores. Instantly
the value of the ferruginous districts
annexed by the Germans was indefinit-
ly multiplied. But at the same time
the portions of the basin they had con-
temptuously allowed to remain in the
possession of the French were re-
deemed at strike from comparative
worthlessness to rich productivity.
There are reckoned to be $500 mil.
lion tons of iron ore in all Germany.
Of these Lorraine alone is respon-
sible for some 1000 millions or five
seventies of the Empires total sup
ply. When Germany hypothecated the
Lorraine beds they were yielding
about 100000 tons of ore a year. In
1875 they still yielded less than three
quarters of a million. Then came
| Thomas's discovery of the dephos-
phorizing process and the figures shot
up like rocket until in the year be-
| fore the war the Germans were ex-
tracing from Lorraine over 21,OOO,-
900 tons of ore, more than three-fifths
of which was produced by the Thomas
method. Up to 1908 Germany had no
need to import from abroad a single
ton of ore. Lorraine, alone enabled
her to maintain for thirty years an I'M
precedented industrial expansion. But
whether the pace abnormally quick
ened some ten years before the war,
or whether she had commenced to
prepare for it's outbreak, or whether
the Lorraine ores began to deteriorate,
Germany between 1908 and 1918 was
buying ore abroad in increasing guam
| titles. About one-third of her total
consumption was imported from for
eign countries in the year preceding
the war That supply has, of course,
or the most part been cut off, and for
the past three years Germany has de-
pended almost entirely on the Lor-
raine mines for the iron and steel
which are the basis of all modern
warfare. She has got some from the
occupied districts of France and Bel
GUM and Luxembourg, but from three
fifths to fourth-tifths of her output
during the war has come from Lor-
raine.
The general outline of the issue that
the war is shaping and will determine
thus becomes clear. Suppose Germany
were to win and were to annex the
| greater half of the ferruginous basin
that lies on French soil. Territorial
ly, it would be a small acquisition.
Economically, it's value would be in
estimable. 1t would mean that after
the war Germany would be able to
raise some 46,0OO,OOO tons of iron ore
a year while the French output would
be reduced to a bare 100000 TONS
Suppose, on the other hand, that the
| Allied victory is as complete as we all
intend it shall be and that Alsace-Lor.
| raine is restored to France. The sit
! uation in that case would be almost
precisely reversed. France would be
in a position to extract about 100000
tons of ore a year, and Germany would
have to remain satisfied with a maxi.
mum yield of some 100000 tons. No
blow could more effectually cripple
German industrialism, and with it