1908 



THE GOVERNORS' CONFERENCE 



303 



President stated that he would open 

 each session, remaining until after the 

 reading of the first paper. Governor 

 Noel, of Mississippi, was then called 

 to the chair, the President retiring at 

 the conclusion of the paper read by 

 Mr. Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Carne- 

 gie's address dealt with the country's 

 supplies of iron and related ores, and, 

 being the statement of perhaps the 

 best posted practical authority in the 

 United States on this subject, it was 

 received with careful attention. The 

 address follows : 



You have begun to make history to-day, 

 for never before has the National Gov- 

 ernor called all the state Governors into 

 conference. The President has acted upon 

 the axiom that while it is well to follow 

 good precedents, it is better to make them. 

 Washington in 1785 invited the Commis- 

 sioners of Maryland and Virginia to Mount 

 Vernon, when they conferred at Alexan- 

 dria upon the joint regulation of the Po- 

 tomac. This was the first slight revelation 

 of the important interstate problems which 

 lie imbedded in our Federal system. It is 

 no new question with which you have to 

 deal. My province to-day is to ask your at- 

 tention to the situation as affected by our 

 mineral supplies, chiefly iron and coal. 



But let me first state that for all the data, 

 facts, and much else used in this address I 

 am indebted to Government officials of the 

 Geological Survey and other scientific bu- 

 reaus, the extent and variety of whose knowl- 

 edge have much impressed me, although 

 I have long known that our Government is 

 celebrated for the range and thoroughness 

 of its investigations and the amount of sta- 

 tistical information it has acquired and 

 keeps up to date regarding the Nation and 

 people. I have heard more than one promi- 

 nent public man of other lands express 

 admiration for our governmental reports. 



Of all the world's metals, iron is in our 

 day the most useful. The opening of the 

 Iron Age marked the beginning of real in- 

 dustrial development. The mining of cop- 

 per and tin and the making of bronze im- 

 plements closed the Stone Age in Europe 

 and Asia, but it was not until the smelting 

 of iron started in Africa and spread to 

 Europe that industrial progress began ; in 

 all countries the highest civilization has fol- 

 lowed the use of iron in the arts and crafts. 

 To-day the position of nations may almost 

 be measured by its production and use. 



Iron and coal are the foundation of our 

 industrial prosperity. The value of each 

 depends upon the amount and nearness of 

 the other. In modern times the rnanufac- 

 turing and transportation industries rest 

 upon them, and, given sufficient land area 



and fertile soil, these determine the prog- 

 ress of any people. When the United States 

 entered upon its unexampled career the ex- 

 tent and value of our deposits of iron and 

 ^.oal were unknown. It was only through the 

 growth of population, increase of knowl- 

 edge, and invention, that they gained such 

 value as to render their quantity an impor- 

 tant public question. 



Iron smelting began with charcoal made 

 in neighboring forests. Electrical smelting 

 by means of water power has only recently 

 been tried. To-day the reduction of our 

 ores and the manufacture of iron practi- 

 cally rest upon the extent and availability 

 of our coal. 



When the Republic was founded there 

 were, according to recent expert estimates, 

 approximately 2,000,000,000,000 tons of coal 

 in the territory now forming the United 

 States. Practically none of this supply was 

 used for over a quarter-century ; but during 

 the 75 years from 1820 to 1895 nearly 

 4,000,000,000 tons were mined by methods 

 so wasteful that some 6,000,000,000 tons 

 were either destroyed or allowed to remain 

 in the ground, forever inaccessible. During 

 the ten years from 1896 to 1906 as much 

 was produced as during the preceding 75 

 years ; while more than 3,000,000,000 tons 

 were destroyed or left in the ground be- 

 yond reach of future use. To date the 

 actual consumption of coal has been over 

 7,500,000,000 tons ; the waste and destruc- 

 tion in the neighborhood of 9,000,000,000 

 tons. If mining were perfected from now 

 forward we might reckon that considerably 

 less than i per cent of our original stock 

 has been consumed; but estimating on the 

 basis of the wasteful methods hitherto pur- 

 sued, nearly 2 per cent of our available 

 supply is gone. 



Coal consumption is increasing at an as- 

 tonishing rate. During the period for 

 which statistics have been gathered, it has 

 doubled during each decade; of late it has 

 more than doubled. In 1907 the production 

 was about 450,000,000 tons. At the present 

 rate of increase the production in 191 7 will 

 be 900,000,000 tons, in 1927 1,800,000,000 

 tons, and in 1937 over 3,500,000,000 tons, or 

 an amount in that year alone nearly equal 

 to the production of the 75 years ending in 

 1895 ; and with continuation of the waste- 

 ful methods of mining, the consumption 

 and destruction together during that one 

 year would equal our total useful produc- 

 tion up to the present date. And at that 

 time— which many of us will live to see — 

 more than an eighth of our estimated orig- 

 inal supply will have been consumed or de- 

 stroyed. 



All estimates of future consumption and 

 destruction of coal are liable to error; yet 

 making all reasonable allowance, unless 

 there be careful husbanding, or revolution- 

 izing inventions, or some industrial revolu- 

 tion comes which cannot now be foreseen, 

 the greater part of that estimated 2,000,- 



