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days ago, has come at an opportune time, if it had to come. It causes every one of us to feel in serious earnest about this great question of how mining can be done safely, and to endeavor to prevent the terrible catastrophes which have occurred in coal mining. I am sure this convention can do no better service than to pay some attention to the scientific and practical study of these terrible disasters.

Oyer in West Virginia some time ago, I believe something like 350 men lost their lives in a few moments, from a cause which has never yet been absolutely ascertained; and I believe it would be difficult to ascertain with the information which we now have what was the cause of this great Marianna disaster. But at all events the American people have that earnestness and enthusiasm in what they undertake, and have that scientific turn of mind which will cause them to study these questions and endeavor to ascertain what the causes are, and thereby to prevent such disasters in the future.

I would not undertake to say anything to this convention of men today about mining, for I am not a practical miner. I never dug but one wagon load of coal in my life, and I knocked more skin off of the knuckles of my hands doing that job than coal miners would in a lifetime. So my experience has not been so pleasant in that direction. At all events not of the scientific kind.

I think we are entitled to a mines and mining bureau, within the interior department. Some of those in Congress are anxious that it shall be a department of the government which will have a cabinet officer who shall sit at once in the councils of the President. But you know how such things have to develop. I believe eventually it will result in that, but we can do a great deal of good through a mines and mining bureau, as we did in the agricultural bureau when it was originally created. The agriculturalist, you know, sings the song of the seasons, and we can sing the song of the development of the earth's riches underneath the surface.

I want to say to you that not only did the large majority of the members of the House of Representatives vote for this bill to establish the mines and mining bureau, but their sentiment is all in the right direction. I belong to a party that put into its platform assurances that the Senate of the United States would pass that bill at the coming session of Congress. And I see one of the Senators here, Mr. Dick of Ohio, and I am sure that he will promise us now that this will be done.

I very much appreciate the attendance here this morning. I am interested in what you shall do here. I am glad to have a chance to take a part in this great convention with you, and I hope I may be of some service, and I hope also to learn much more than I now know about the needs and business of mining. I thank you. (Applause.)

DR. H. FOSTER BAIN, State Geologist, Urbana, Illinois: I am very glad to say a word for Illinois this morning, and I might say that since oil has been discovered in our state and so many Pittsburg people have moved over there it is almost like coming home to come here to talk about mining. Our state has been very fortunate, particularly in the character of men who have developed our resources. When oil and gas were discovered a few years ago in Illinois, the oil fraternity took hold of the proposition promptly, and I want to say that I do not know whether it was due to the character of the state and our past history, or what it was, but the development has taken place with as little of false promotion as any quick development I have ever known. It has been done with the same friendly spirit of co-operation which characterizes our whole mineral industry, and while we might brag a good deal about the size of our industry and the variety of things we produce, we are much more pleased to speak of the spirit of co-operation which has so far characterized our whole development.

In our section, as you perhaps know, both our miners and our operators are thoroughly organized. They have tested each other's strength

So many times that they have come to the conclusion that the best thing to do is to work together. Indeed, I think we have perhaps the most complete system of working together that miners and operators have anywhere in America. We are developing that same spirit all through our mineral industry, and it is a thing of which we are proud.

I might say something about the great size of our output. We have some 75,000 coal miners. We produce some fifty million tons of coal. We are second only to Pennsylvania and Ohio in the total mineral production. We produced last year about twenty-five million barrels of oil, and this year we will run something over thirty million barrels; it may run up as high as forty million barrels. All such statistics as these invite retaliation and I am inclined to be modest, particularly with my friend from Colorado present. When he stood here waiting for Congressman Burke to get through I was reminded of the case of a minister who was called in to preach the funeral sermon of a man of whom he knew nothing. Being anxious to learn something concerning the character of the deceased so that he might say appropriate things, he called the man's son out and said: "Were you present when your father died?" the son said he was and the minister asked him what the last words of his father were. The boy replied: "There were no last words, because mother was there to the last." So I hardly dare venture say anything more. (Applause.)

PROFESSOR CHARLES J. NORWOOD, Chief of Department of Mines, Lexington, Kentucky:

Kentucky is here, and wishes to say that she is glad of the opportunity of being here. I must say that we have no vanadium or tungsten. Kentucky, I believe, has the reputation of being boastful when it is away from home, but I am not going to say that we have tungsten or vanadium. And I am not going to say that we have not got them either. I know we have some radium-I saw some the day before I left.

Those of us who have the good fortune to live in Kentucky of late years have come to think of two phases of the state, old Kentucky and new Kentucky. Old Kentucky represents to us the homestead, the place where the wandering son is fond of returning to and being welcomed by the lovely women to the beautiful home; and the new Kentucky which represents the industrial desires, the industrial ambition, and I may say, the industrial progress of the state. When I left home I was told by old Kentucky to invite you all to come there and inspect our industries. I was told by new Kentucky to be sure to hustle about and get some capital to come down there and help us develop the state. In behalf of both phases of our state I thank you for the welcome that has been accorded to her delegate, and invite you to come there next year and we will endeavor to show our appreciation of your hospitality. (Applause.)

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PRESIDENT RICHARDS: We have with us the first life member of the American Mining Congress, a man who has had a very large part in laying the foundations of its future importance, Dr. E. R. Buckley of Flat River, Missouri.

DR. E. R. BUCKLEY, OF MISSOURI: Ladies and gentlemen, it is such a very common occurrence for me to respond in behalf of Missouri that I think it is becoming very much of a joke, especially to those who have attended these sessions from year to year.

Missouri, of course, is my adopted home, and if anyone has a fatherin-law or a mother-in-law that they think more of than I do of Missouri, why I shall be very glad to meet them.

I do not think that it is necessary for me to praise or extol the virtues of that greatest empire of the west. It is not necessary for me

to tell you that Pittsburg and Pennsylvania have had a large share in the development of our wonderful mineral resources. It is unnecessary for me to say that perhaps some of the citizens of this great state of Pennsylvania have been richly rewarded for their investments in the state of Missouri, and that some of them may have been wondrously disap

pointed. There is no mining state in the union that does not disappoint some people as well as reward some. Missouri, as you know, is one of the greatest producers of lead and zinc in the United States. I want to state more specifically, that there is no state in this union of states that has a larger production of lead or a larger production of zinc than the state of Missouri. She ranks first today in the production of both. Her resources in this regard exceed those of any other state in the union, and probably will for years to come. We are very glad to receive the people of Pennsylvania, the people of Pittsburg, into our state, and we shall be very glad to have them bring their capital with them. We can provide a place for both. We are both lead lined and zinc coated, and we will neither rust nor tarnish, and you will be perfectly safe within the borders of our state.

I wish at this time to mention one object of the American Mining Congress which I think has not been sufficiently amplified at this session so far. I wish to say that several years ago this American Mining Congress took the position that there is perhaps as much danger, that there are perhaps as many widows and orphans, as a result of fraudulent mining promotion in the United States as result from the fire damp that lurks in the coal mines of Pennsylvania; and this American Mining Congress has taken the stand once, twice, thrice, at every session she has taken a stand in opposition to all methods of fraudulent mine promotion in the United States or elsewhere. (Applause.) And we expect that the United States will co-operate with the honest, industrious, conscientious mine owners and operators of these United States in stamping out that most vicious of crimes which now afflicts our country.

I wish to say to the people of Pittsburg and to the people of Pennsylvania that we are very glad to be here. My own state, and more especially the city of Joplin, had the pleasure of entertaining the Mining Congress a year ago. We received a benefit, we received a reward, and I trust that the people who reside in Pittsburg and in Pennsylvania will derive from this session as great profit and as great benefit as did we ín Missouri from the meeting a year ago. (Applause.)

DR. CHAS. N. GOULD, Director Oklahoma Geological Survey, Norraan, Oklahoma:

Ladies and gentlemen, I represent the baby. We are only a year old down our way, and consequently we have not very much past, but we have a tremendous future. We are just beginning to find out what we have, and we may perhaps be excused if like all babies we are a little proud of our possessions. With your indulgence, in the very few minutes that I shall speak, I shall try to enumerate some of the resources of this, the youngest state in the union.

It is unnecessary to speak of agriculture. We can raise everything that is raised between Minnesota and the gulf, or between Maine and California, better corn than Iowa, better wheat than Minnesota, better cotton than Mississippi. But it is not generally known that the state of Oklahoma possesses as large a variety of minerals, in as large quantities, as perhaps any other state in the union, not that Oklahoma possesses everything, but she has a very large number of valuable minerals.

Our coal fields are just beginning to be developed. We only produced three million tons last year, but we have in the state something like eight or ten billions of tons of coal undeveloped. Last year we led the United States in the production of oil, forty-four million barrels, I believe, and the development is rapidly increasing. Our natural gas resources are practically inexhaustible. We have no means of knowing how much natural gas is contained in the state. Dozens, scores, hundreds of wells are reported to produce all the way up to forty or fifty million cubic feet a day. Our showing of natural gas is such that it is sold in many of the cities of Oklahoma for manufacturing purposes at two and three cents per thousand cubic feet. So it will be seen that Oklahoma possesses a very large amount of valuable fuel.

Our asphalt deposits are very extensive, perhaps as large as those of any state in the union. The western part of Oklahoma has enough salt water, a saturated solution of salt brine, going to waste to make a hundred car loads of salt a day, and not a gallon of it is being manufactured. We have one hundred and twenty-five billion tons of gypsum, enough to keep a hundred mills, each manufacturing one hundred tons per day, busy for thirty-five thousand years. (Laughter and applause.) And if the gypsum were all manufactured and placed in cars and the cars were strung end to end in a train, that train would reach around the world twenty-four hundred times at the equator, so we think we have gypsum enough for local demand.

The only metals we are producing now are lead and zinc. We have no means of estimating the amounts of these metals, but from all researches that have been made we are safe in making the statement that within a few years Oklahoma will at least rival Missouri in the production of lead and zinc. Of glass sand, of granite, of Portland cement rock, marble, sandstone, clays, shales, things of that kind, all of high grade, we have inexhaustible quantities. And then we have iron novaculyte, tripoli, volcanic ash, perhaps a little of gold and silver and a little copper. At the present time not one-half of one per cent of Oklahoma's mineral resources are developed.

Oklahoma is now sometimes called the Pennsylvania of the West. I wish I could be reincarnated a hundred years hence. I would like to come back, I would like to see if my prediction is not true, that, in a hundred years from now, a certain little state at the head of the Ohio river will be known as the Oklahoma of the East! I thank you. (Laughter and applause.)

HON. H. H. LANG, Mayor Cobalt, Ontario: and gentlemen:

Mr. President, ladies

I might say that

I have looked over the program, and if I mistake not I am the only Canadian taking part in your congress. for this reason and for others I consider that I am doubly and trebly honored in coming here from a sister nation to take part in a congress made up of men that I am sure represent the best material that your nation can produce.

Before going further I wish to thank the officers of your congress for the invitation to take part in its deliberations. When I first received the invitation I had hoped that I would be able to select some expert mining man or men from our Canadian Institute, of which I am a member. I am a layman, however, though I have had some practical experience in mining, particularly in the Cobalt district. Now, I am, as I say, very pleased indeed to be with you, and to give you some idea of what we are doing in the north.

As you understand, Cobalt is situated about 720 miles north of where you are sitting. I did expect on coming south here to find warm weather, but I find that the weather here is colder than at Cobalt when I left. I had some difficulty in getting here this morning. When we were within about two miles of our destination our engine ran off the track, or at least jumped the rails, and that delayed us for a little while. However, we got in; but I do not know whether the majority of your citizens have the idea that you have only one building in this city, but they seemed determined that we should go to the Carnegie institute and we went there, and we found that we had to come back, and then when we got to the last corner they were still bound that we should go back to the other building. (Laughter.) However, we got here.

I will not take up much of your time, but I will proceed to give you some idea of what we are doing at Cobalt. In the year 1903 the discovery of silver was made in what is now practically the townsite of Cobalt. In 1904 the shipments from the Cobalt camp mines working at that time were 191.55 tons. In 1905 they were 2,336; and in 1906 they were 5.836.59 tons; and in 1907, to the end of the year, 14,851.34. For the first nine months of this year there have been produced of silver, 12,

223,834 ounces. To the end of 1907 our returns for the silver from that district were $11,085,695. Now, I might say that for the last year the silver production of Cobalt was about one-fifth of the total production of the world. The total production of the world was approximately 185,035,000 ounces. You people of course are perhaps more familiar with your own statistics in regard to your output, but we have it at about 56,825,000 ounces, and the output of Cobalt in practically its fourth year is about 9,000,000 ounces. The mining done in that district so far has been to a large extent very crude. A great many of the mines now, however, are getting down to what might be called practical mining. I might tell you, however, that about the deepest shaft that we have is four hundred and ten feet. We have several formations there, and the mining engineers have their own ideas of what we are going to find in depth. We have to go along for some time yet, as it were, in the dark, before we will have very much knowledge about it.

But I may say this, that up until ten years ago in Canada agriculture was the chief industry of the nation. We have now come to the conclusion that mining is going to be one of the foremost industries of the country, and perhaps like yourselves we will have to come to realize that. Such bodies as this mining congress and our Canadian Mining Institute will conclude that the sooner we get down to a commercial, systematic way of mining the better it will be for all concerned.

I will not take your time further, but I assure you that I feel highly honored to be here to, take part with you in this great mining congress. I thank you very much for this privilege. (Applause.)

PRESIDENT RICHARDS: We are going to reserve for you, as we think, a treat immediately after the noon hour, in the shape of an address by one of the great men of the state of Ohio, who represents that state in the United States Senate, and is chairman of the Committee on Mines and Mining, and has in charge the bill for the creation of the bureau of mines. I know that everyone here would like to hear that gentleman after lunch. At the present time' the secretary has some notices which he desires to give before adjournment.

SECRETARY CALLBREATH: Under the by-laws the president must announce the committee on credentials at the opening session. The committee as appointed consists of Mr. J. W. Wardrop of Pennsylvania, Mr. E. J. Walters of Boise, Idaho, and Mr. J. W. Malcolmson of Kansas City.

The committee on resolutions, which is the most important committee in the body, is selected by the delegations from each of the several states. The names are to be announced before the convention at the opening of the afternoon session. It is therefore requested that every delegation will convene during the noon hour and select its member of the committee on resolutions.

Thereupon a recess was taken until two o'clock p. m.

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1908.

Afternoon Session.

The Congress was called to order by the president.

The membership of the committee on resolutions was thereupon announced as follows:

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