The United States: Her Mineral Resources 



337 



reference to the markets that they are 

 capable of yielding an adequate supply 

 at a cost far below others. These ad- 

 vantages may represent enormous sums, 

 and can therefore be capitalized corre- 

 spondingly. Unless those who control 

 them extort undue returns, measured by 

 earning capacity, the owners of the other 

 less favorably located deposits cannot 

 compete and live. Of course, the risk 

 is always run by those who secure con- 

 trol of the best of the mines that new 

 deposits as valuable may be discovered 

 elsewhere, just as those who utilize 

 monopolies based upon patents take the 

 chance that inventive genius, stimulated 

 by opportunity, made exceptionally arti- 

 ficial, find means to dispute exclusive 

 possession. There may be iron ore de- 

 posits as rich and as great as any on the 

 Lake Superior ranges in the Rocky 

 Mountain region, yet for a generation to 

 come they might as well be non-existent, 

 so far as the controlling position of the 

 United States Steel Corporation is con- 

 cerned. An enormous power for good 

 or for evil may be wielded by groups of 

 capitalists who control the commercially 

 available mineral resources, though they 

 constitute only a small fraction of the 

 total assets of mineral wealth of the 

 country. The fact that in most cases 

 the earning capacity of these consolida- 

 tions has been rated exceedingly high 

 furnishes a premium on the develop- 

 ment of hitherto neglected deposits, and 

 thus constitutes the greatest source of 

 danger to the stability of many of these 

 giant undertakings. What, is perhaps 

 to be most deplored is that these organi- 

 zations, on their present basis, impose 

 upon the industries dependent upon 

 them a burden of fixed charges which 

 must handicap this country in its strug- 

 gle for an increasing share in the world's 

 markets. 



While the record of the achievements 

 in mining, quantitively , has been extra- 

 ordinary in this country during the past 

 fifty years, we may look back with even 



greater satisfaction upon what has been 

 accomplished qualitivcly , if we may so 

 term it. It cannot be stated in an array 

 of figures, but constitutes even a greater 

 glory to the captains of industry and 

 the engineers and inventors who deserve 

 the credit for it. It is expressed in the 

 more complete utilization of the natural 

 resources, as in the increase in the total 

 extraction of the contents of a coal bed. 

 It is in evidence in the capacity to util- 

 ize bodies of ores lower and lower in 

 grade. It is proven by ability to pro- 

 duce from rebellious or impure ores 

 metals nearly chemically pure and com- 

 mercially available for a wider and wider 

 range of consumption. It is measured 

 by an expansion of markets which may 

 be due to the fact that technical prog- 

 ress has proceeded more rapidly in our 

 country than in others. 



While it is true that in these early 

 days our miners and smelters rose to 

 the occasion when they were called 

 upon to meet special conditions, the 

 general fact is apparent from a study of 

 our development that generally we first 

 copied and then adapted the methods 

 approved by experience in Europe. 

 There were some very notable excep- 

 tions. We were forced to and did cre- 

 ate hydraulic mining to collect the gold 

 from alluvial deposits. We developed 

 the preparation of anthracite for the 

 market. We had nothing to guide us 

 in the handling of the native copper 

 rock of Lake Superior. The Washoe 

 process was worked out to treat the 

 silver ores of the Comstock lode. There 

 were no precedents for methods in the 

 petroleum industries, and we had to 

 learn by ourselves how to collect, dis- 

 tribute, and utilize natural gas. We 

 taught the world how to use the steam 

 shovel in mining. We have pushed 

 the development of the rock drill in 

 mining and quarrying, and in more re- 

 cent years have been in advance of all 

 countries in the employment of modern 

 coal-cutting machinery. Still it is a 



