The importance of the subject treated in this volume can be appreciated when it is known that the products of the mines of the United States alone in the census year of 1889 amounted to $587,230,662, and that this amount really only represents the interest on an immensely larger capital invested. The mining products of the United States are far more important in their aggregate value than those of any other country in the world, though, in many individual products, other countries supply more than the United States. This country is first, however, in the production of pig iron and steel. It is also first in the production of copper, gold, silver, petroleum, and a number of other products. Great Britain is still the leader in the production of coal, but the United States’ production is rapidly growing and already equals 81.08% of the British production, and supplies 28.75% of the world’s consumption.
Every subject in this volume is fully discussed, and at the same time nothing is given which is not appropriate and even necessary. Thus a combination of completeness and conciseness is reached which is excellent. Among the most carefully and exhaustively treated subjects are copper, gold and silver, the platinum group of metals and coal and iron, though many others might be mentioned, for every subject undertaken has been thoroughly treated. In the article on copper the statistics of production and consumption, as well as the condition of the various domestic and foreign markets, are fully discussed by the editor, and, in addition, separate articles are also given on “American Methods of Ore Sampling and Assaying,” by Albert R. Ledoux, and on “Bessemerizing Copper Matte,” by Charles Wade Stickney. The article on the statistics of gold and silver is by Mr. R. P. Rothwell, editor of the volume, and is an excellent piece of statistical work, giving, as it does, the statistics of production of gold and silver in the world for a number of years back. To this article are appended interesting papers on the “Chronology of the Gold and Silver Industry, 1492–1892,” by Walker Renton Ingalls, on “Recent Improvements in Gold Chlorination,” by John E. Rothwell, and on the “Cyanide Process,” by Louis Janin, Jr.
The article on the Platinum Group of Metals, by Charles Bullman, gives complete information regarding the production, consumption, nature of the deposits, metallurgy and uses of platinum and its related metals, iridium, rhodium, osmium, palladium and ruthenium. The articles on Coal and Coke and on Iron and Steel, both by Mr. Wm. B. Phillips, give full statistics of production and consumption, as well as interesting historical data, and reports of the condition of various markets. Many of the other articles in this volume deserve mention, but lack of space forbids further detail. It may be said, however, that everything necessary is presented, and nothing unnecessary or unreliable is given; in other words, the volume contains no trash.
One of the most noticeable features of the volume is the uniform and systematic manner in which the results are presented. The uniform arrangement of statistics is a matter requiring the greatest labor and statistical ability. Compiling a single table of statistics is a simple matter, but arranging a vast mass of statistics, relating to many diverse subjects, on a uniform and intelligible basis, is entirely another matter, and requires the highest skill of the statistician. In the Mineral Industry this has been accomplished in a most successful manner; everything is clear and intelligible at the first glance, and everything is in its proper place. A great detriment to the systematic presentation of statistics has been, as pointed out by the editor, the necessity of using our present system of weights and measures, with “our long and short tons, our barrels of 200, 280, 300 or 400 lbs, our pounds avoirdupois and our pounds Troy, our bushels of a dozen different weights, and our gallons of several incomprehensible kinds”; but the disadvantages of this system have been partly avoided in many cases by giving the statistics in metric measures as well as in our own.
The question of the cost of production has been given especial prominence in this volume, with a view to showing the reduction in the cost of the crude products. To use the words of the editor: “The itemization of cost is the first essential step in securing economy in producing any article, and the history of every country and of every industry has shown that prosperity, whether national, industrial, or individual, is, in a general way, inversely proportional to the cost of supplying the rest of the world with what one produces.” These reductions are in no way dependent on the reduction of wages. On the contrary, many of the mining industries where the greatest reduction in cost of production has been accomplished, are carried on with high priced labor; and in many other cases, where the wages are not high, the condition of the wage-earners has been greatly improved. The reduction in cost of production has been entirely brought about by improvements in mining machinery, by a more thorough understanding of the nature of the deposits to be worked, and by more intelligent management and labor. The reduction in cost of production is nowhere better seen than in the materials most necessary to our welfare. For instance, coal can in some cases be carried by rail for 400 miles and delivered on board vessels for from $2 to $2.25 per ton, and yet the mine owners and railroads make dividends; some of the manufacturing establishments in Western Pennsylvania obtain coal at from 60 to 75 cents per ton at their works; hard gold-bearing quartz can be crushed, washed and 95 per cent. of the gold saved on the plates for $1.25 per ton; high grade Bessemer iron ore can be mined, handled, shipped and delivered a thousand miles from the point of production for less than $4.00 per ton. All these figures seem almost incredible until one investigates the various devices which the ingenuity and better education of those engaged in the industry have invented for reducing the expenses of production.
The former annual statistical numbers of the Engineering and Mining Journal were excellent in all they undertook, but the present volume, the Mineral Industry, makes a great advance in giving the statistics for foreign countries in addition to those of the United States. By so doing it gives the American producers an opportunity to know the present, past and probable future conditions of competition in foreign countries.
The two most important features in any statistical work are accuracy and promptness. The necessity of accuracy is self-evident, and without promptness the statistics lose much of their serviceability to those most interested in them, for the statistics of an industry published a year or two years late are rarely of much value to those engaged in that industry. The business man wants his statistics immediately after the expiration of the time to which they relate, so that he may know the existing condition of the industry in which he is engaged; but if he does not get these statistics until many months or even several years afterwards, the condition of the industry may have changed entirely since the time to which the statistics refer. It is the promptness with which this volume is issued, combined with a high degree of accuracy, far greater than would be expected in statistics so hastily compiled, that gives it its especial value.
In conclusion, it may be said, that as a piece of statistical work, relating to an industry that is world-wide in its scope, combining accuracy with full detail and systematic arrangement, and issued so soon after the close of the time to which it relates, the Mineral Industry has never been equaled in this country or abroad. The former statistical numbers of the Engineering and Mining Journal, which referred mostly only to American mining, were considered remarkable pieces of statistical work, on account of the promptness of their publication; but in the Mineral Industry we have an epitome of the mining operations of every quarter of the globe, published almost immediately after the close of the time to which they refer, a feat which heretofore would have been declared impossible. This accomplishment is most creditable to the editor, Mr. Rothwell, to the systematic organization of the Scientific Publishing Co., and to the business manager, Mrs. Braeunlich, by whose business ability such an expensive undertaking is made commercially practicable. The volume will be found of the greatest value to the economic geologist, the miner, the engineer and the business man.
R. A. F. Penrose, Jr.