oil and gas field, I am sure the quantity will amount to not less than one billion cubic feet daily, and it may be more. The heating value of a billion cubic feet of natural gas is roughly equivalent to that of one million bushels of coal. What an appalling record to transmit to posterity.

"There can be no doubt that for every barrel of oil taken from the earth there have been wasted more than ten times its equivalent in either heating power or weight of this the best of all the fuels, and also that much more than half of this frightful waste could have been avoided by proper care in oil production and slight additional expenditures."

The supply of natural gas and petroleum is not renewable, as is the water supply. Water power is our greatest natural resource and the one heretofore least utilized. As the past has been an age of steam, so we are today just entering on an age of electricity, and that means, engineers say, the beginning of the age of water power. One of the speakers before the Conference of Governors, held at the White House last May, said that the United States now has thirty million horse power available in its streams, which is equivalent to the total horse power utilized for all forms of production and transportation throughout the country. Thirty per cent of all the horse power now used is utilized electrically, and this electrical use of power is the growth of twenty-five years. By 1920, if the increase of electrical power continues steadily, it will equal or exceed the power mechanically applied.

There is a great field then, for the federal government in investigating and experimenting in the methods of all kinds of mining and allied industries, and in studying thoroughly the science of metallurgy. Just as a comparatively small investment annually in the way of appropriations for the Department of Agriculture has resulted in greatly increasing the value of our farms, so a small investment for the purpose of investigation and examination into matters pertaining to the great mining industry of the country-an industry which in output ranks next to that of agriculture—

will result in an actual saving of millions of dollars annually.

The relation of the federal government to mining is therefore a very important one, and the function of the government in the premises is plain. An industry whose output is worth over two billion dollars annually, and is steadily and rapidly increasing, is worth greater attention than it now receives from the central government. This Congress can devote itself to no more worthy object than to help create a public sentiment which will result in the federal government doing as much in behalf of mining as it now does for agriculture, and we may be assured the resulting benefits to the industry and the country at large will be as great.

Transportation of Mineral Products.

BY EDWARD H. HARRIMAN.

Pittsburgh is the approprite place for the discussion of problems connected with transportation for the products of the mines. It is the greatest industrial center for utilizing these products; and the aggregate tonnage of the incoming and outgoing freight, consisting largely of such products, is larger than the aggregate tonnage of any other three of the world's greatest cities.

There is ample reason, therefore, why the people of Pittsburgh should be proud of their city, and there is still more reason why the men in charge of these industries, through a more efficient use of raw materials and an increasing diversity of manufactured products, should strive to perpetuate the greatness which they have achieved.

Mine Products as a Factor in Transportation.

The mineral production of the United States during the past year had an aggregate value of more than $2,000,000,000, and the crude and manufactured mineral products of the country gave an aggregate tonnage of more than 525,000,000 tons.

The total tonnage reported by the Interstate Commerce Commission as originating on American railways in 1906 was 820,000,000 tons. Of this the crude products of the mine aggregated more than 435,000,000 tons, or 53 per cent of the total tonnage. Add to this 89,000,000 tons of manufactured mineral products, such as cement, lime, steel, etc., and we have a total mineral production transported by the railways of approximately 525,000,000 tons, or 64 per cent of the entire freight business of the country. In addition to this the railroads hauled for their own use about 100,000,000 tons of coal during the year, or 275,000 tons each day.

Of other freights during the year, the products of the forest, agriculture, merchandise, animals, and manufactures

(excluding the 89,000,000 tons of manufactured mineral products) make 36 per cent of this total haulage.

When we classify the mine products transported on the American railways, measuring the tonnage by that originating on each road, we find that the largest of these products is bituminous coal, of which 206,000,000 tons were transported during 1906. The other products were anthracite coal, nearly 60,000,000 tons; coke, 33,000,000; ores, 69,000,000; stone, sand, and other like articles, approximately 58,000,000; miscellaneous mineral products, more than 9,000,000.

Adding to these the manufactured mineral products we have, petroleum and other oils, 6,500,000 tons; iron, pig and bloom, 21,000,000 tons; other castings and machinery, 13,500,000 tons; bar and sheet metal, 15,000,000 tons; cement, brick, and lime, more than 27,000,000 tons. Besides these, as stated above, the railroads hauled for their own needs more than 100,000,000 tons of fuel and other materials.

The generalized classification of the freight traffic of the country is given in the following tables taken from the reports of the Interstate Commerce Commission for 1906:

SUMMARY SHOWING FREIGHT TRAFFIC MOVEMENT, BY CLASS OF COMMODITY, ORIGINATING ON LINE OF REPORTING ROADS IN THE UNITED STATES FOR THE YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1906:

*To this total of 524,973,676 tons may be added 100,000,000 tons of coal transported by the railroads for their own use.

Increase in Mineral Freights.

The products of the mines constitute the heaviest freight and are charged the lowest rate. They are usually non-perishable, and their quick delivery is, as a rule, not urgent, except in a shortage of coal during the winter sea

sons.

As a rule the mine products are more constant in their production than any other large items of freight. As will be seen from the figures given, coal is by far the largest single item; and while the production of coal varies from year to year, oniy nine times since the beginning of our records of coal mining in the United States (in 1814) has the production of any one year been less than that of the preceding year, the greatest falling off recorded being a drop of 12,000,000 tons in 1894 from the production of 1893. On the whole, the increase in production has been so rapid and so marvelous, that on one of the important coal handling railroads (Baltimore & Ohio) the coal transported dur ing each of the past several decades has equalled the aggregate of that transported by it during all of the preceding decades; and the ratio in the increase of production of coal for the entire country has come near following this rule for the past eighty years.

There has been a correspondingly large increase in the tonnage production of many other important mineral materials, though in some of these the increase has not been so striking as in the case of the coal.

The Railroads as a Factor in the Country's Development.

No man who has not participated in and watched the pioneer work of the railways in opening up the new country of our middle and western states has any conception either of the enormous task undertaken and accomplished by the early railroad builder or of the work accomplished by these pioneer railyay lines in the rapid westward extension and in the subsequent development of this great country. The railway construction across the plain and the desert, with no immediate freight or passengers in sight-this opening up