KEMP, GEOLOGY AXD ECOyOMICS 381 



difference between the cost of the fuel and the cost of the electric current, 

 provided the latter could be furnished more cheaply than the former. 



The water powers in our own country, or at least in the more thickly 

 settled portions of it, have not failed to attract attention, nor have they 

 ffone altoo-ether unutilized. The more conveniently situated ones are 

 already harnessed to the d}Tiamos. But in countries like !N"orway and 

 Sweden, where there are large water powers still available, where there 

 are rich deposits of ore and where coal fails, the applications of electricity 

 to iron smelting are likely to be first worked out successfully. Data may 

 be furnished in the lifetime of many of us which will cast light upon 

 these improvements in their world-wide relations. 



The only other apparent possibility of reducing costs lies in the labor 

 charges. AYages at present are not unduly high, and unless the increas- 

 ing population of the country brings to pass an inevitable struggle for 

 existence, which will cause the greater subdivision of tasks at lower pro- 

 portionate returns, or unless the general reduction of expenses for subsist- 

 ence makes lower wages possible, there would seem to be slight prospect 

 of change in this item. In any event, the reductions from this cause can 

 not compensate the falling oif in the yield of iron as foretold above. 



Suppose iron goes up in cost — other conditions of our daily life re- 

 maining the same — transportation and all manufacturing based on 

 machinery would become more expensive, and less freely carried on. 

 Undoubtedly an appreciable pressure would be developed to turn our 

 people back to tlie rural districts and to tilling the soil for a livelihood. 

 The tendency under the stimulus of manufacturing development has 

 been the other way. The migration of late years has been toward not 

 from the cities. Shall we perhaps find in the long run, in the increasing 

 cost of iron and steel a partial solution of a much vexed problem? Will 

 the cry "back to the soil" receive support in a way not generally antici- 

 pated? The question is an interesting one for speculation. 



The general inference regarding copper is that the pinch of higher cost 

 of production will be felt sooner than in the case of iron. We have no 

 knowledge of such enduring reserves of copper ores as we have of iron. 

 On the other hand, copper, despite its vast importance, is not the funda- 

 mental necessity that is iron. It is used in less quantity in macliinery, 

 and its increase in cost would less vitally affect manufacturing industries 

 based on machinery. Advancing cost would cut it out of much orna- 

 mental work of inferior esthetic merit. The most serious effect would be 

 found in raising the expenses of service in the applications of electricity. 

 Electrical transportation, telegraphy and telephony would be more expen- 

 sive than to-dav. Unless wireless methods of transmission eliminate 



