technical school with a newer meaning not to be despised when placed beside the commoner ores and metals.

The author desires to express his thanks to the Vanadium Alloys Company of Pittsburgh, Pa., for the data on physical properties of vanadium steel.

Tariff on Zinc Ores.

BY S. DUFFIELD MITCHELL, CARTHAGE, MO.

At the annual session of this Congress held in November, 1907, at Joplin, Missouri, I had the honor to deliver an address upon this same subject. The same facts and arguments which were then announced can, in the light of a year's experience, be urged today with double force and effect in favor of an adequate specific duty on all zinc ores. While we have passed through a year's severe commercial depression and the zinc mining industry in Joplin has suffered cruel stagnation, we are confronted with the undeniable fact that but for imports of Mexican ore during the years of 1907 and 1908 a much larger percentage of our mines and mills would have been in continuous operation for the past year and the average ore prices would have been higher.

So convinced have become the operators of mines and business men of the Joplin district that certain smelters were seeking undue advantage over the domestic zinc miner in depressing ore prices by importing Mexican zinc ore, that they have organized the Zinc Ore Tariff Club, whose propaganda is to teach tariff on zinc ore by facts and figures. It is doing a splendid work and is reaching out in influence to the farthermost corners of the country.

The tariff case of the United States vs. Brewster, which one year ago was on appeal from the Board of General Appraisers before the Circuit Court of the U. S. at Laredo, Texas, was decided on April 21st, 1908. The government lost in every contention; the Board of General Appraisers was fully sustained. Briefly stated, the Court held that calamine (which under paragraph 514 of the Dingley Bill is admitted free) includes both the silicates and both the carbonates of zinc; that calamine, therefore, is not only the hydrosilicate of zinc, as contended for by the government; that sulphide zinc ores are not dutiable under paragraph 183 of the said act, as "metallic mineral substances in a

crude state," because the free native metal is not to be found in the ore; and last that paragraph 614, which places on the free list "minerals, crude, or not advanced in value or condition by refining or grinding, or by other process of manufacture," includes all zinc ores, because the quarrying of Mexican ores, the breaking apart by hammer the valuable ore and the waste rock and the sorting of the same by hand is not a process of manufacture, but is done merely for the purpose of reducing freight rates.

It is difficult to comprehend the mental processes used in reaching this decision; but as a final test of the question, the government has appealed the case to the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals and the appeal is now pending at New Orleans, awaiting argument at an early date.

However, if the government should win in the Circuit Court of Appeals, the victory would be fruitless, either as affording revenue to the government or protection to the zinc mine operators. This is so, because 20% ad valorem duty on ore, valued at 10 or 15 dollars per ton is a delusion, viewed from either standpoint.

Last year I advocated a duty of 1 cent per pound upon the metallic contents of all zinc ores. Today I am thoroughly convinced that 12 cents duty per pound upon such contents is absolutely necessary to lift the zinc mining business from the "slough of despond" and to establish it upon a plane of fixed and stable prices.

Last June I addressed the Engineers' Society of Joplin upon the general subject of Mexican ore imports and the zine ore tariff. My "false conclusions" and "mis-statements" (to use his definition) were so marked as to require a public answer before the same society by Mr. A. B. Cockerill, of Nevada, Missouri. After his persuasive talk, it appeared that this country does not and cannot produce enough zinc ore to supply the smelters for manufacturing spelter; that the smelters were required to go to Mexico to secure the ore deficiency and until the domestic ore producers can materially increase their production, Mexican ore must be imported. Mr. Cockerill, however, admitted that Mexican ore can be purchased, relatively speaking, so

much more cheaply than Joplin ore, that there is much more profit in smelting it, than our ore. His kindly advice was to close down all our mines until spelter reached a sufficient price to enable the smelter to pay us $40.00 base price. In view of the fact that he proposed to continue the importation of his Mexican ores the "gall and worm-wood" of his proposition were at once so apparent to the local ore producers, that that night marked the birth of the agitation for a tariff on zinc ores. Mr. Cockerill's admissions, wrung from him most unwillingly, were the most potent arguments that any one had advanced, that an adequate specific duty on zinc ores is absolutely necessary if that great industry is to survive and prosper.

The claim of the smelters that for the first half of the year, 1908, the depressed ore prices were due entirely to the large stock of surplus spelter carried over from the year 1907 may well be true, but the surprising fact is, that the tonnage of that surplus almost exactly equaled the tonnage of spelter derived from all ore imported during the year 1907. The difference was less than 249 tons. In other words, foreign ore produced 26,115 tons of spelter and the surplus stock was 26,364 tons, according to the U. S. Geological Survey. The Engineering and Mining Journal and the U. S. Geological Survey both agree upon the main fact of this proposition. The conclusion is therefore irresistible, that had there been no importations of foreign ore, either there would have been no surplus stock of spelter to bear domestic ore prices, or the domestic mines would have been operated to produce that surplus. Thirty thousand tons of surplus spelter would have required the production of 60,000 tons of Joplin ore. This would have kept all our mines running single shift for twelve weeks. As about half the mines were operating all last winter and spring, it would have kept all our mines running all that time, and our miners and employes well employed. With the conditions of other zinc mining districts of the U. S., other than Joplin, I am not familiar.

This district is essentially a "poor man's camp." The

poor man began in 1873 to develope the zinc mining industry and with what marvelous results!

From 1873 to 1894 the district produced 1,399,720 tons of zinc ore valued at $26,520,727, and prior to 1890 the Joplin district produced 425,000 tons of lead, whose value I have been unable to ascertain. These were the days of rich pocket formations; shallow diggings; crude mining methods; and low ore prices.

From 1895 to 1899 the district produced 967,339 tons of zinc ore and 139,695 tons of lead ore of a total valuation of $30,194,760.

From 1900 to November 8th, 1908, the district produced 2,490,828 tons of zinc ore of the value of $82,984,563 and 304,682 tons of lead ore worth $17,679,708. In other words, according to records of actual values above given, this remarkable district in 35 years has dug from the earth lead ore and zinc ore values of over $157,000,000, and it is safe to say that the ore values exceed $175,000,000.

It is a surprising statement to make, but it is nevertheless true, that for the years 1906 and 1907 the value of the ore production of the Joplin district exceeded $15,000,000 for each year and the value of the gold production for 1906 of California was only $18,800,000.

In place of the horse "hoister" and the hand jig of the early days, and of the diminutive 75 or 100 ton mill of ten years ago, we have today the 250 to 500 ton mill, equipped with air compressor plants, machine drills, high speed hoists and all the elaborate machinery to effect the closest saving of ore values. Then, too, a minute system of accounting is kept and costs are properly divided and kept down to the lowest figure. This modern milling and business practice is now necessary, because the bulk of our mines are in the hard "sheet ground."

When the rich shallow pockets were mined the life of them was vexatiously problematical. The owner might be "in clover" this week, next week nothing but blind walls might be seen.

With the sheet ground deposits, the proposition is different. They are vastly extended bodies of lower grade ore.