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Show WANING MINERAL RESOURCES OF UNITED STATES DEMONSTRATED WASHINGTON", Dec. 9. The inventory inven-tory of tho mineral resources of the United States whicli the section of minerals min-erals of the national conservation commission, com-mission, under tho chairmanship of Representative Rep-resentative John Dalzcll of Pennsylvania, Pennsyl-vania, has made during tho summer and fall, is a long list of waning supplies. This was shown by the report of the section before the .ioint conservation conference, which summarizes tho fig-ucs fig-ucs of tho couuliy'a mineral wealth. Some of tho main features of this report re-port wcro as follows: What Wo Have. The mineral production of the United States now exceeds $2,000,000,000 in value every year, and is second, only to agriculture as a contribution to our national wealth. It furnishes our light, heat, and power, and supplies 65 per cent of tho freight traffic of the country. coun-try. The waste in the mining and treatment treat-ment of mineral substances during a yoar is equivalent to moro than thrco hundred million dollars. Tho Tuols, Of all our minerals, the fuel's, which supply tho heat, light and powor for domestic as well as industrial purposes, arc the most fundamentally essential to the nation. Tho use of tho fuels involves their immediate and complete destruction. The use" of largo supplies of other materials also increases the rate of consumption of ' tho fuels for both metallurgical and manufacturing 1 purposes, for as tho nation has now passed its early development stage, manufacturing and, consequently, tho use of the fuels, will increase much more rapidly than population. Exhaustion of Coal. Tho 'available, and easily accessible supplies of coal in the United States aggregate approximately l,4b'l,S00,000,-000 l,4b'l,S00,000,-000 tons. At tho present increasing rate of production, this supply will be so depleted as to approach exhaustion before the middle of the next century. Prom tho beginning of coal mining in this country down to tho close of 1907, thcro were mined 0,865,000,000 tons, and it is estimated that for every on produced half a ton has been lost or wasted; so that the above production represents an exhaustion of tho coal supply to January 1, lflOS, aggregating 10,'JOO,000,000 tons. The rate of production pro-duction has been steadily increasing . The first stop in extending tho lifo of our fuel supply, according to the report, should be to lessen the waste in mining, handling, and transportation transporta-tion of coal. But there are equally great possible savings, it says, in tho use of tho coal, not only in the prevention preven-tion of waste now recognized as such, but also in discovering means of avoiding avoid-ing the losses involved iu the transformation transfor-mation of heat into mechanical and electrical energy. Supplies of Iron. The known . supplies of high-grado iron ores in the United States approximate approxi-mate 3,S40,06S,000 tons, which at tho present increasing rate of consumption cannot be expected to last beyond tho middlo of the present, century. If tho average increase in tho production of coal which has been shown in tho past, should be continued, it would require the production during tho next three decades of 0,329,000.000 tons. It is evident, evi-dent, thoroforo, that beforo 1910 either the production will havo reached a maximum nnd begun to decline, or largo uso must be made of low-grade ores not now classed as available, or tho importation of foreign ores must be greatly increased. It should bo remembered re-membered that in tho futuro uso of low-grade low-grade iron ores the condition will be rendered still further unfavorable through tho necessary uso of low-grade coals. Other Important Minerals. The known supplies of petroleum, natural gas and nigh-grado phosphato rock cannot bo expected, according to the estimate in the report, to last much beyond tho middlo of tho present ccnturj-. Waste of Structural Material. The waste of natural mineral resources re-sources used in building and engineer- 1 ing construction is of thrco kinds: 1 1. That duo to improper and wasteful waste-ful methods of mining and preparing for market. 2. That duo to execssivo uso of structural material, becauoe of ignorance ignor-ance of their strength, durability, otc. 3. That due to destruction by ilro on account of the inflammable- character charac-ter of building construction and inadc-cjuato inadc-cjuato building laws, and tho noncn-iorcomont noncn-iorcomont thereof. Fire Wastes and Losses. Tho greatest source of waste of structural materials and of money values val-ues in that duo to tiros, and is one which can bo most readily reduced by the substitution of fire-resisting building build-ing materials for tho inflammable construct con-struct ion now so prevalent. Tho cost of fire to t he country, including not only property destroyed, but maintenance mainte-nance of fire departments, payment of insurance premiums, protective agencies, agen-cies, additional cost ot water supplies, etc.. amounted to over $156,185,900 in 1907, or about 50 per cent of the total valno of the new building construction in that year. This Arc tax exceeded tho total value of conl, silver, copper, and petroleum production of tho United States in that year, and was thirteen limes tho interest on the national debt. Four-fifths of this loss, or $365,000,000, is preventable waste compared with tho present European standard of building construction and firo losses. Tho property prop-erty loss from fires in tho Unitod States in 1907 was $2.51 per capita, while in tho cities of six largo European countries coun-tries it was only 48 ceuts per capita. Tho total per capita loss, including interest in-terest and maintenance of firo departments, depart-ments, execssivo water supplies, insurance insur-ance premiums, etc., was $5.31. In addition, ad-dition, 1449 persons lost their lives in-lire, in-lire, while 5651 were injured. A notable feature of this fire loss is that 27 per cent was due to firos extending beyond tho building whoro they originated. Such lossos aro tho result of infiammablo construction, for with brick and less Inflammable buildings build-ings fires aro more readily confined to tho building in which they start. It is even moro noticeable' that only $5S,n00.000 of this loss was on brick, concrete, stouo. and other slow burning construction, while double that amount, or about $148,000,000 was on framo buildings. In tho last thirty-throo years tho total fire waste amounted to about four and a half billion dollars. At a reasonable estimato, probably more than ono-half tho insurance, one-fourth one-fourth of the city water supply and distribution dis-tribution charges, three -fourths of the firo department charges, and three-fourths three-fourths of tho fire losses, or a. total of $234,192,956 a year, may ha reasonably looked forward to as a saving at such lime as building construction in tho United States shall bocomc as good or better than that now found in European Euro-pean countries. |
