Studies in American History 
337 
Alsace-Lorraine 3,800,000 tons. 
Saar Basin 13,200,000 tons. 
Upper Silesia 43,800,000 tons. 
The Ruhr 130,700,000 tons." 
The most efficient results in the manufacture of iron and 
steel goods are found where large supplies of ore are in close 
proximity to large quantities of coal. If these two great 
natural resources lie in adjacent regions and in addition there 
is an adequate supply of labor, only one other item is needed 
for their exploitation, namely, an organizing genius. Both 
Britain and the United States are blessed in all these ways. 
But Germany has had one item lacking. She has not had 
sufficient mineral ore within her own boundary. It was near 
by, but under the French and Belgian flags. Coal under Ger- 
man jurisdiction and mineral ore under foreign control created 
a situation which made Potsdam uneasy, if not emphatically 
perturbed. What might have happened to change this dual 
political control to a unified one had not the fortunes of war 
favored Germany, no one can tell. 
But the hand of Mars brought about the change. Altho 
the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 had its origin in a 
purely political affair, the Treaty of Frankfort which ter- 
minated the struggle contains one provision of vast economic 
significance. It deals with a territorial possession which was 
rich in mineral ore. This was a part of the Briey basin in 
the Alsace-Lorraine region, and was ceded by France to Ger- 
many. By its cession the former country was deprived of im- 
mense iron-ore resources, the greatest deposits in Europe. In 
1913, almost 75 per cent of the iron ore produced in Germany 
came from Alsace-Lorraine. This amounted to slightly over 
twenty-one million tons. 
Now Germany had every facility needed to spread her in- 
dustrial wings. To her abundant coal deposits was now added 
a complementary sqpply of mineral ore. The acquisition came 
at a favorable time in Germany’s economic history. The new 
order, ushered in by the Industrial Revolution of the eighteenth 
century, was then fully established, and the prospect of unified 
political control over coal and iron ore heartened those pri- 
marily interested in business, trade, and overseas commerce. 
® John Maynard Keynes, The Economic Consequences of the Peace (New York, 1920), 
88 . 
