July 20, 19 16] 



NATURE 



429 



wealth so won in the shape of a royalty. This 

 system is often described as a mineral lease, but the 

 term is misleading, because a mineral deposit is a 

 wasting asset, and cannot therefore be leased in the 

 true sense of the word, which implies that the lessee 

 should return his property to the lessor in unimpaired 

 good condition at the expiry of the period of lease. 

 The system may be more correctly described as a 

 sale of the minerals as and when extracted, the 

 purchase consideration taking the form of an annual 

 royalty payment. 



The other principle, adopted by the United States 

 and bv ourselves, is that of out-and-out alienation, 

 from the very commencement, of the mineral dejx)sit. 

 With us this process of alienation has long been 

 completed; in the United States it is still proceeding 

 as fast as mineral deposits are discovered. The mode 

 of tenure of the mineral deposits being, however, 

 essentially the same, the greater part of Mr. Smith's 

 remarks are perfectly applicable to conditions in this 

 country. His point of view is indicated by tw-o apt 

 quotations, one from Gen. Halleck, who wrote in 

 i860, to the effect that mines "are by nature public 

 property, and that they are to be used and regulated 

 in such a way as to conduce most to the general 

 interest of society." He also quotes Dr. R. W. 

 Ravmond, who, it may be remembered, gave evidence 

 as to the American system of dealing with mineral 

 lands before our 1889 Royal Commission on Mining 

 Royalties, in which he showed that the policy which 

 the United States had adopted, as best calculated to 

 promote the national welfare, was " to get its mineral 

 lands as soon as possible into private hands," and 

 the quotation from Dr. Raymond's first report on 

 mineral resources, written in 1868, is so particularly 

 applicable to British conditions, and deserves so well 

 the careful consideration of all interested — and who 

 is not? — in our mineral resources, as to deserve repro- 

 duction here : — 



" In view of these peculiar relations of mining, it 

 is evident that Governments are, in a certain sense, 

 trustees of the wealth stored in the mineral deposits 

 of their realms — trustees for succeeding generations 

 of their own citizens and for the world at large. 

 It is not a matter of indifference to the citizens of 

 this country whether our mining fields be ravaged 

 and exhausted in one or even five centuries, when 

 they might last a score." 



At a moment like this, when w-e stand at the 

 beginning of what promises to be an industrial 

 struggle even more keen and bitter than the actual 

 warfare to which we are now devoting all our 

 national energies, those responsible for the govern- 

 ment of Great Britain would assuredly do well to 

 take some account of the huge wastage of our own 

 national resources that is going on unchecked and 

 almost unheeded, and to ask themselves with what 

 measure of fidelity they are discharging their trustee- 

 ship. 



Mr. Smith lays much stress upon the development 

 that has taken place in every portion of the American 

 mineral industry within the past thirty-three years, 

 and upon the fact that the utilisation of these resources 

 has resulted in a "higher standard of public service" 

 bv " giving all the workers a better opportunity to live 

 a full life," this being, as he justly observes,^ "the 

 ideal of democracy." He is a firm believer in the 

 advantage of the system of alienation of mineral 

 lands ; as he says : " Both the past record and the 

 present status of the mining industry show that the 

 mineral resources of the United States possess largest 

 public value in their indirect contribution to national 

 development. ... In fact, it may be easily shown 

 that the State or nation will not be so much bene- 



NO. 2438, VOL. 97] 



fited through a direc-t royalty as through the indirect 

 revenue gained by the establishment of a new in- 

 dustry, and by its influence on the neighbouring 

 agricultural areas and the transportation systems to 

 w^hich the new traffic is tributary." He points out 

 in some detail that the most equitable, as well as the 

 most conveaient, method of obtaining a direct return 

 for the nation from Jts mineral w-ealth is by means 

 of an income tax upon the profits realised by the 

 miner; yet, as he is careful to add, "the public's 

 direct share of the proceeds from mineral resources 

 must not be so great as to affect unfavourably labor's 

 opportunity or capital's incentive." 



Few short ai'ticles have appeared wjithin recent 

 years that will better repay careful study by legislators 

 and economists than will the article now before us 

 It needs neither justification nor corroboration ; yet 

 were such required, they may be found in most em- 

 phatic form in the statistical summary of the mineral 

 production "of the United States in 1914, issued 

 simultaneously. To take only a few items, the pro- 

 duction of the principal metals was : — 



Pig iron ... ... 22,263,263 tons 



Copper 1,150,137,1921b. 



Lead 512,994 short tons 



Zinc 343i4i8 „ „ 



Nickel 845,331 lb. 



Cold 4,572,976 oz. 



Silver ... ... 72,455,100 ,. 



Amongst non-metallic minerals the mo.st important 

 are coal, of which the total output was 513,525,477 

 short tons, and petroleum, with a production of 

 265,762,535 barrels. The total value of the mineral 

 production of the United States is given as the 

 enormous sum of nearly 2 115 millions of dollars (say 

 about 440,000,000/.), amounting to 21.40 dollars (say 

 4Z. I05.) per head of the population; the latter has 

 practically doubled since 1880, whilst the value of 

 the mineral production has increased nearly sixfold. 

 It would be difficult to show such vast progress in 

 any other similar field of human industry, and, though 

 due in the first place to the wonderful natural 

 resources of the United States, credit must also be 

 given to the enlightened spirit in which these re- 

 sources have been utilised. Our conditions in this 

 country' are, of course, widely different, yet there is 

 no reason why we too should not strive to utilise 

 what we have to the uttermost. Our need in this 

 country is to realise and act upon the counsel which 

 Mr. Smith embodies in one brief sentence: "The 

 governmental duty to the mining industry first of all 

 is to promote use without w^aste." H. L. 



TRE SMOKE NUISANCE IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. 



LIKE ourselves, the industrial centres of the United 

 States are beginning to realise the serious 

 economic and hygienic effects caused by the unscien- 

 tific combustion of coal. In the Journal of the Frank- 

 lin Institute for March, Dr. W. F. M. Goss has con- 

 tributed a paper on " Smoke as a Source of Atmo- 

 spheric Pollution," in which he discusses the results 

 of a very elaborate investigation, extending over six 

 vears, into the consumption of coal and loss in the 

 form of smoke in the city of Chicago, an inquiry 

 undertaken under the auspices of the Chicago Asso- 

 ciation of Commerce. 



He begins by summarising the general results of 

 previous observers in regard to the effect of smoke 

 on health, on vegetation, and on the loss and damage 

 to property, and then proceeds to discuss in detail 

 the sources of industrial smoke in Chicago and the- 

 extent of wastage. 



