that rate the principal supplies, those in the Lake 
Superior region, must be exhausted in about forty 
years. There are nowhere else such large depos- 
its known, and the country has been prospected 
carefully. Perhaps the largest quantity anywhere 
outside of the Appalachian country and the great 
deposits in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan 
is in Southern Utah. It is believed to amount to 
about 75,000,000 tons all told. It would last us, 
at our present rate of consumption, for eighteen 
months; and consumption of iron is increasing 
as steadily as that of coal. In 1897 our pig iron 
product was 9,652,680 tons; in 1907 it was 25,781,- 
361 tons. It costs now about $7 to transform a 
ton of Lake Superior iron ore into pig iron, in- 
cluding the cost of mining, transportation and 
manufacture. With 60 per cent ore, where five 
tons go to the making of three tons of pig, this 
makes the actual cost of the iron $11.66 per ton. 
Fifty per cent ore makes iron costing $14 per ton. 
Forty per cent ore makes iron costing $17.50 per 
ton. Low grade ores, like those of the Southern 
states, can be used commercially because the ore, 
limestone and coal are found in close proximity, 
thus reducing the cost of manufacture. 
But it is impossible for any of our product to 
compete today in the world’s markets. The ay- 
erage selling price in 1907 of the cheapest grades 
of pig iron made in the United States was $21.06 
per ton; of the best, $23.89. In Belgium, where 
10 
