196 The American Geologist. May 
could have been run at a weight just sufficient to tickle one’s 
hand if necessary.”—J/ines and Mterals. ; 
WEALTH OF THE UNITED States. MINES AND MINERALS. 
The standing of the United States with her neighbors, and es- 
pecially with those of Europe, is illustrated by the following 
statistics taken trom the London Daily Mail Year Book for 
1902. As regards wealth this authority places the United 
States at the head of the list of great nations, and while the 
United States heads this list of countries in its wealth. it shows 
the smallest national indebtedness, the figures for these two 
items being as follows: 
Percentage of 
Indebtedness. | Wealth. Indebtedness 
i | to Wealth. 
United States ......... | $1,076,270,000 | $79,620,500,000 | 1.4 
RSOTITUREW verbs a ws wate | 3,170,370,000 | 39,213,240,000 | 8.1 
United Kingdom ....... | 3,438,220,000 | 57,495,220,000 | 6 
Russia .............-.++ | 3,462,570,000 | 31,280,750,000 | II.1 
Prancerh vcdreer ce eee | 6,033,930,000 | 47,190,300,000 } 128 
Under the head “Commercial Competition,” the Year Book 
says that “the first year of the twentieth century opened badly 
for two of the four leading industrial nations.” The trade of 
the United States was good and showed no decline from the 
booming period of 1899 and 1900, but rather, in most indus- 
tries a continuance of the boom of which the United States 
has had so disproportionately large a share, and France, which 
has responded less expansively to the boom, remained unaf- 
fected by the decline and progress elsewhere. In England and 
Germany, however, the decline was felt acutely. 
Under the head of “Fight for the iron trade,” it calls atten- 
tion to the fact that the United States is now the world’s largest 
producer of pig iron and steel, and says, “It will be noted that 
the United Kingdom has lost ground, producing 396,749 tons 
less in 1900 than in 1899, the total for Great Britain being 
nearly 5,000,000 tons less than in America. An unsatisfactory 
feature in the British iron and steel trade is that In 1900 we 
imported more iron and steel than in any previous year, and 
exported less, while the United States exported more than 
ever.” The tollowing table shows the pig iron and steel pro- 
duction for 1900 to be— 
Pig Iron. Steel. 
: Tons, Tons, 
United States ..... Sen. ——<«_ 
TIRERE MOOR, on cies, | spaee | 8,008,570 | 4.001.054 
REN ct Gd pwns Wa no's ds ba cee at | 8,404,852 4,700 000 
erin A, SUR eee ee | 2,600,404 | 1,624,046 
PRISONER try ohn oN as dis vc a ab ae | 2,821,000 } 1,404,000 
