MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. - 23 



the most cheaply produced ore would crowd the others for a time 

 entirely from the market and would cause a decay of the town sup- 

 ported by their development. I do not think that anyone would con- 

 sider this desirable, and certainly from the point of view of the geolo- 

 gist there would be a waste of resources. 



It is lucky for Michigan that the iron ore of Lake Superior is held 

 by a comparatively few strong corporations, the U. S. Steel Co. hav- 

 ing say a billion tons of the Mesabi range and many million tons of 

 the older range. The Mesabi ore is a mere mass of varicolored dirt. 

 I saw five forties last summer said to contain 200,000,000 tons of ore. 

 All that has to be done is to run in trains of ore cars and load it on 

 by steam shovels, after once the layer of clay till, etc., overhead is 

 removed. The huge, yawning, red chasms thus left, when wreathed in the 

 smoke of puffing locomotives and laboring steam shovels, present a vol- 

 canic and truly infernal picture. In time some of them will be 400 feet 

 deej) and over. The ore, too, is largely of the highest grade. What could 

 any ordinary iron mines do in competition with such, especially those of 

 Michigan where the miners have now all disapi^eared under ground? 



Fortunately, however, it has been found that in the draft of the blast 

 furnace in which these ores are reduced to iron, a good part of this 

 light powdery ore is liable to be blown out if hot held down by some- 

 thing more substantial. Moreover a certain amount of some flux must 

 be added to aid the flow of iron, and the silica of some of our Michigan 

 harder ores poorer in iron is admirably adapted to that end. And as 

 the same interests own properties in both States they prefer rather 

 than to let their Michigan properties go to rack and ruin to use a 

 moderate amount of that ore and save wasting their Mesabi ore, even 

 if thereby it is not produced quite as cheaply at the moment. They fix 

 the price and in the long run it will be doubtless better for the com- 

 munity and corporation. More iron will be made with less work, by 

 mining the high grade and low grade ores together, than there would 

 were the high grade ore first run and wasted and then the low g-rade 

 ore developed. The same thing is true regarding coal. In an era of 

 unrestricted competition only the choicest portions of the best seams 

 would be put on the market provided, as is true, there is a possibility 

 of producing more coal than can be consumed. Customs such as that 

 of paying royalty only on the coal mined may favor wastefulness. If 

 the royalty were per acre foot, it would pay to mine more closely, as 

 I have said in my report on coal. Thus it is for the State's interest 

 that coal royalties should be per ton on coal in the ground, not per 

 ton of coal hoisted. This is practicable and done in some coal fields. 

 In the case of iron ore, too, much propert}^ has changed hands on the 

 basis of the ore in the ground as shown by drilling. In the same way 

 in Indiana it has been found necessary to pass laws restricting the 

 waste of gas or oil because in so many cases it was cheaper for the 

 individual to save the one and waste the other regardless of the effect 

 upon the resources of the State or his neighbor's wells. It would seem 

 therefore that in reh'ing upon competition as a cure for the ills of 

 the body politic or in attempting taxation of the "unearned increment" 

 we should not fail to consider carefully the effect of these remedies 

 upon the development or conservation of the nxitural resources of the 

 State which, once squandered, no financial or political ledgerdemain 

 can restore. 



