exactly one half the total product previously mined in this country. 

 For the year 1906 the output was 414,000,000 tons, an increase of 46 

 per cent on the average annual yield of the ten years preceding. In 

 1907 our production reached 470,000,000 tons. Fifty years ago the 

 annual per capita production was a little more than one quarter of 

 a ton. It is now about five tons. It is but eight years since we took 

 the place of Great Britain as the leading coal-producing nation of the 

 world, and already our product exceeds hers by over 43 per cent, and 

 is 37 per cent of the known production of the world. Estimates of 

 coal deposits still remaining must necessarily be somewhat vague, but 

 they are approximately near the mark. The best authorities do not 

 rate then at much over 2,000,000,000,000 tons. If coal production con- 

 tinues to increase as it has in the last ninety years, the available 

 supply will be greatly reduced by the close of the century. Before 

 that time arrives, however, resort to lower grades and sinking of 

 mines to greater depths will become necessary, making the product 

 inferior in quality and higher in price. Already Great Britain's 

 industries have felt the check from a similar cause, as shown in her 

 higher cost of production. Our turn will begin probably within a 

 generation or two from this time. Yet we still think nothing of con- 

 suming this priceless resource with the greatest possible speed. Our 

 methods of mining are often wasteful ; and we not only prohibit our 

 industries from having recourse to the coal supplies of other roun- 

 tries, but actually pride ourselves upon becoming exporters of a prime 

 necessity of life and an essential of civilization. 



The iron industry tells a similar story. The total of iron ore mined 

 in the United States doubles about once in seven years. It was less 

 than 12,000,000 tons in 1893, over 24,000,000 tons in 1899, 47,740,000 

 tons in 1906, and over 52,000,000 tons in 1907. The rising place of 

 iron in the world's life is the most impressive phenomenon of the last 

 century. In 1 850 the pig iron production of the United States amount- 

 ed to 563,757 tons, or about 50 pounds per capita. Our production 

 now is over 600 pounds per capita. We do not work a mine, build a 

 house, weave a fabric, prepare a meal or cultivate an acre of ground 

 under modern methods without the aid of iron. We turn out over 

 25,000,000 tons of pig iron every year, and the production for the 

 first half of 1907 was at the rate of 27,000,000 tons. This is two and 

 one half times the product of Great Britain. It is nearly half the 

 product of the whole world. And the supply of this most precious 

 of all the metals is so far from inexhaustible that it seems as if iron 

 and coal might be united in their disappearance from common life. 



We now turn to the only remaining resource of man upon this 

 earth, which is the soil itself. How are we caring for that, and what 

 possibilities does it hold out to the people for future support? We 

 are only beginning to feel the pressure upon the land. The whole 

 interior of this continent, aggregating more than 500,000,000 acres, 

 has been occupid by settlers within the last fifty years. What is there 

 left for the next fifty years? Excluding arid and irrigable areas, the 

 latter limited by nature, and barely enough of which could be made 

 habitable in each year to furnish a farm for each immigrant family, 

 the case stands as follows: In 1906 the total unappropriated public 



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