Show M mining i n ng the basic bas lc industry I 1 n d astry below we give abstracts of the speeches of hennen jennings and T A rickard at the fiftieth anniversary of the school of mines columbia university on may 29 these ar are E interesting as combining some thing of the spirit of mining with advice to the younger members oc the profession mr jennings said to consider man without the earliest primitive contributions of the miner and metallurgist takes us back to savagery mans greatest endowment is his wonderful and crafty brain cells with their latent powers of development which has shown him the necessity of supplementing his own strength by outside aids and then gradually and persistently obtaining the materials for his needs and fashioning them into tools of power and finally incorporating and making them a veritable part of his being his first great advances were the commanding of fire the use of thuu ine ample ments then wooden bow and arrow by these he worked himself into the stone age but was still brutal weak and with little historical recording power it was not until he delved below the surface of the earth for materials that he was able to fashion the sword spear fire arms protective armor plow hoe prun arun ning knife scythe pitchfork axe saw plane etc it was only with metal tools that great agricultural development began and it only reached its present magnitude when further supported by the metals in the form of railroads steam vessels harvesting machinery etc mining and agriculture ar ari the only basic productive pursuits of nian ann and they are both fostered each by the other and both dependent on mother earth the one skims her surface the other goes deeper agriculture furnishes man with food for existence but mining gives him the materials for power art and civilization without metals the scientists tools for experimentation peri and determination would not be possible nor the diffusion of knowledge and thought by means of the printing press photographic appliances telegraph cable and the telephone mining a big industry considering the production of metals in the leading countries of the world the united states produced 39 per cent of coal 63 per cent of petroleum per cent of iron 55 per cent of copper and 20 per cent of gold giving this country undisputed lead the wonderful over all others of big mining cart can be realized by attempts of production previous to obtain any statistics attempts leading to the to 1800 such belief that all the coal iron and copper in all ages for the world prior to this date would not amount to the probable worlds production for the years 1913 and 1914 it is estimated that the total production of gold from 1493 to 1800 was while from 1800 to 1913 it amounted to regarding the life of coal and petroleum deposits should the increment of increase in yearly production continue the known fields of petroleum will probably be exhausted within a comparatively few years and coal in one or two centuries but should the present per capita consumption not greatly increase the coal fields might last one or two thousand years and the petroleum possibly one hundred regarding the useful metals iron copper tin lead zinc mercury ard platinum while these can not be readily obtained from their ores without fuel it must be taken into consideration that they are not destroyed by use like fuel on the other hand the deposits of these metals that are in most striking evidence have been found and the exhaustion of the supply is not even under the present basis of output so very far afield so their discovery conservation and right working becomes more and more a matter of importance and difficulty and should be given serious and broad consideration the history of gold mining for ages has shown success and failure go hand and hand that it has taken a full labor equivalent to obtain the gold unit in the greatest of all the gold mines in history those of the transvaal there are employed nearly black and white men to get a yearly return of and including the labor expended upon supplies and machinery shipped to the mines nearly three fourths of the output of even the most successful mines has been required to meet the current working expenses in the six main technical engineering societies of england the membership in 1912 was while in the five societies of the united states it was 24 the total enrollment roll ment of technical students in all schools colleges and universities of the united states can be placed at these figures being in tune with the membership of the engineering societies from these figures and others may be deduced the fact that mining and metallurgy after dwelling in a lowland of drowsy accomplishment for centuries suddenly sprung into gigantic activity and in leaps and bounds within the last fifty years this has been brou brought glit about by the growa growth th of knowledge through science invention and engineering which first made clear the possibility and finally the way of the manufacture of power on a scale never dreamt of before and thus giving man an almost gladdins Alad dins power of summoning and enchain ing a gigantic retinue of obedient impersonal servitors mr jennings then went on to speak of the he over eagerness over promotion and competition over which brought about wasteful methods ot of mining extravagant use of fuels and remorseless use of labor both of hand and brain he declared that company promoters and manipulators who preferred exploitation of stock certificates rather than ore deposits had handicapped legitimate mining and that the mining engineer should prevent all this by obtaining the full truth first for himself and then for his employer in conclusion he said requirements of mining engineers the mining engineer must have some sound general knowledge of all other branches of engineering inasmuch as in the equipment and running of great mines and metallurgical plants he must make use of the training of engineers in almost all the other branches and to obtain from them their best and hold their respect it is necessary for him to at least appreciate the foundations of their specialties to int intelligently confer with them and decide upon merits rather than dicta in addition he must have special knowledge and training in all things pertaining to the discovery working and valuation of ore deposits he must have also sound business experience and judgment to gauge the of new ventures and this in turn requires that he should have had in some period of his career a successful experience of management requiring a knowledge of accounts and faculty of handling men in distant lands he must have general in formation of many kinds and linguistic attainment tain ment the legitimate uncertainties of mini mining ng throw peculiar temptations in his path as these can be twisted to excuse failures of indolence and unfitness and also be used as narcotics to conscience when temptation to dishonesty presents itself his work especially in mining is often far afield from the observances ser vances and guidance of owners or directors and his work is not of a character that erects lasting monuments or stimulates either admiration or criticism thus character industry and tact are even greater requisites for true success than brilliancy of intellect mining as a profession requires varied knowledge and gives scope for ability and character and is a profession befitting the true gentleman as well as the adventurous strong man it affords absorbing and interesting te work and being bas basic ic and productive duc tive extends opportunity for clean money prizes each branch of engineering is based upon metallic foundations each is dependent upon the other and none could have reached its present magnitude without the others but the miner gives to all the other branches the materials that knit them together in common bond of usefulness making them effective in the art of directing the great sources of power in nature for the use and convenience of man mr rickard said it is a common saying that agriculture and mining are the two basic industries when man rose above the brut brutish s i individualism d of his primordial state and began to develop the social instinct he turned to the soil in order to win food for his family he paused in his migration the soil held him it gave root to his rudimentary community it gave him the chance to enlarge his energies his tracks became highways his rivers avenues of trade and as his traffic expanded so his imagination widened until out of the crudities of communal development grew the complexities of civilization but the nomadic habit lingered the spirit of the hunter survived in man a wanderer and a wonderer he stood beneath the starry dome of the forest arch not knowing whether he were the guest or a captive in the domain of nature the hills beckoned the seas called the more venturesome tur esome left the tents of the tribe in search of material wherewith to fashion their implements they sought iron for weapons copper for tools gold for ornament and found them in various guise in the earth under their feet they became miners to those who delved successfully came power throughout the ages the more energetic and adventurous broke from the plough and forsook the cattle in order to explore and to exploit they brought the metals from which the artificers artifice rs fashioned engines of power and machines of intelligence telli gence they won the materials for a social structure that based on stone and built in iron and copper soared in many storied tracery of steel to towers radiant with light and vibrant to the sky towers so far above the common ground that man almost forgot his lowly origin and claimed kinship with the stars mining our heritage the story of mineral exploration and racial migration is peculiarly the heritage of our people the anglo celts belts it is the motif that runs through the drama of english and american history more particularly during the last hundred years even in its barest outlines it serves to suggest that the miner is the pioneer of industry and the herald of empire the first social organizations around the shores of the mediterranean sent their prospectors to the hinterlands of europe asia and africa the gold of ophir the copper of sinai the silver of laurium laudium were nvere part of the web aeb and woof of those early izat ions the mines of iberia gave hanni bal the sinews of war against rome and the gold of davia strengthened the re sources of rome under trajan but the greatest adventure was that of the phoe Pho enic i ians who passed through the pillars of her H cules into the western ocean in order T to reach the far Cassit orides the tin till islands island that in turn were to produce those cornish men to whom the world is one big mine mille after carthage and rome in turn had bad been overthrown the mining industries of the known world were disorganized de desultory operations persisted in hungary spain and saxony but the middle ages to the miner were as dark below ground as above even the discovery of america which marked the beginning of a new world movement was not connected with a real advance 1 in 11 mineral exploitation although associated with the winning of gold and silver it is true the wave of spanish conquest broke over the american continent penetrating the treasure vaults of mexico and peru but the spaniard devastated he did not lot de celop he gathered the harvest that the patient indian has sown by the laborious toll toil of centuries cortez and werd filibusters not explorers they were pirates not miners the conquistadores conquista deres were no pioneers of industry behind them arose the smoke of ruin and the dust of destruction even the great sea captains of elizabeth were but the sequel to an epoch of spoliation after them and in their wake vake across the sea came the men who from cornwall and devon from saxony and the harz brought the technique of mining to lo the new world applying it peacefully to the mineral development of mexico peru and chile all along the regions previously ravaged by eur european freebooters mining a pioneer pursuit but the great era of mineral explore ex plora of go gold id in tion came with the discovery australia and california it was the prelude to a worldwide migration an enormous expansion of trade a tremendous advance in the arts of life and the spread of industry to the waste places of the earth the color of energy began to tint the blank spaces on the map the western continent all a half of the north american of australia the southern half of africa the invaded pene northern half of asia were search of 0 grated and explored by those in ill J gold of other metals and as each by the sive mineral discovery was made miner he called upon his fellows to com andrake and take a hand in the good 1 work vo rk he was wa the scout far ahead of any army of develop development it is true tru trade follows the flag but the flag follows the pick of mr air richard then told of the finding 11 mars arshall a gold in california by james the 19 sud addell on january 24 1848 and of pacific cefic coast co rush of the gold seekers to th the e pa of which is so well known in the history I 1 california and which resulted in the pro of in gold in 1851 giving details of the subsequent history of the industry among those who were first in those fields was E H hargraves an australian tr alian who was led by the analogy of 0 geologic conditions to those in his own country to suspect the occurrence of gold there and he returned to his home in new south wales where on april 3 1851 he announced the discovery of gold in australla australia the rush to those gold fields was great and in 1853 the gold production there was the first diamond was found in south africa he said in march 1869 by a shepherd who sold the stone weighing 83 carats barats for sheep ten oxen and a horse and this led to the rush to the banks of the orange river the subsequent history of the de beers and kimberly mines and the advent and careers of cecil jola join rhodes and barney barnato were biell told and mr rickard then went on to tell of the finding of gold in 1884 in the de haap region and the subsequent discoveries in other regions which led up to the exploitation of the rand beginning in 1886 and the production in the next twenty five years of more than 1 1500 from the gold fields there the west african fields the gold coast had he said averaged per annum during the first half of the nineteenth century tu ry but real mining there did not begin until 1880 1886 when a frenchman marie joseph bonnat who had been on the coast for a number of years returned to paris and formed a company which did not prosper but which resulted in the finding of tin which has long been a thriving industry there then he told the story of the yukon beginning with 1880 and leading up to the rush to the klondyke in 1897 the output from that region he said in 1898 was 10 with a total output to date of after speaking of the great work of prospectors in the development of the countries they visited he concluded by saying after the prospector has come the mining engineer the scout has gone in advance of the captain of industry those of you that have cr osted the range in winter know how the leader breaks the trail by leaving footprints into which his followers tread step by step greatly to the safety and ease of their travel that is what the mineral explorer has done for the mining engineer that is what the mining engineer has done for those behind him some of you have been prospectors as well as engineers gi again 1 I 1 ask you to recall how you threaded the pathless forest on your way to examine a new mineral discovery on the trees at intervals you have seen that the bark was chipped the trail has been blazed by the prospector making it easy for you and others to follow that Is what the miner has done in a larger way for |