do find some cobalt and nickel in small proportions and are now actively engaged in devising effective machinery and appliances to develop an infant industry in the United States in these two products. Therefore, in considering the importance of a tariff upon lead ore and pig lead, the fact that a district producing more than 30 per cent of the entire output of the United States is compelled to handle the ore for the sole and only purpose of taking out of it the lead therein and that all the labor and expense attendant upon the discovery and mining of lead in southeastern Missouri must be entirely borne by the lead product therein.

I have no desire to attempt to discuss the relative cost of the production of the argentiferous ores of the far West, nor the advantage that may accrue to the miners and producers thereof from the silver, copper, zinc, or other by-products found therein. Statistics upon this subject show that in many cases the entire output of lead accrues enly as an incident to the mining of silver or copper ore. My purpose before this committee is to draw its attention to conditions incident to the mining of lead in southeastern Missouri and more particularly in St. Francois County.

The lead ore of southeastern Missouri is found either in the form of galena at or near the surface or in a disseminated form in conjunction with lime rock and at considerable depths below the surface. The entire output of the galena ore mined in southeastern Missouri will not reach 4 per cent of the production of that district, and is obtained in Washington, Perry, Jefferson, and Crawford counties in southeastern Missouri, but the relative importance of this industry is not great.

The disseminated lead ore is a low-grade ore ranging from 4 per cent to 10 per cent, and it may be safe to state that practically the entire output of southeastern Missouri may be called a 5 per cent ore considered on a metallic basis. This ore is found at depths of not less than 300 feet up to 575 feet. It must therefore be apparent that the ore of St. Francois County can at best produce only about 100 pounds of pig lead to each ton of ore mined, and this 100 pounds of pig lead at the present average market price for 1908 of $4.35 per hundred would only produce $4.35 gross.

It may not be amiss at this point to make some reference to the manner in which the ore is found and mined. In the first place, the district is perhaps 20 miles in length by a width of approximately 2 miles. The location of the ore can only be determined by drilling the surface by means of diamond drills, and the experience of the district with such diamond drilling is that it necessitates the placing of drill holes at intervals of 100 to 200 feet apart. Realizing that each hole must be drilled to a depth of about 600 feet and that the cost of drilling will average $1.25 per foot, it can readily be shown that to properly drill a tract of 40 acres will cost from forty to seventy-five thousand dollars. The ore, having been located, is reached by a shaft, usually 8 by 15 feet, and drifts run at the levels at which the ore may be found, and these ore levels are often only once, and rarely more than twice, in a given tract of land. The ore is usually mined with the aid of compressed-air drills, loaded on cars hauled by compressedair locomotives, and lifted to the hoisting shaft, but upon reaching the surface is passed through crushers and then over steel rollers, being broken to comparatively fine particles, and then passed over

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jigs and tables and, with the aid of water or by gravity, concentrated. This concentrated product must then be roasted or calcined and then smelted and made into pig lead. It must be manifest that all these processes are entirely dependent upon labor. It is true that successful mining in this district can only follow the installation of all laborsaving devices and all the economies usual to experienced miners, and I think that I can say here, without the fear of successful contradiction, that in no mining district in the world are there more complete facilities for the handling of these low-grade ore bodies than in St. Francois County. In no mines of the world have there been better attempts to make use of power, whether in the form of compressed air, electric, steam, or gas, than are to be found here.

The experience of the district has demonstrated that mining can only successfully be done by the expenditure of large capital; first, in the acquisition of a large body of land; second, in the constant exploration of same by diamond drilling to discover available ore bodies; third, the sinking of deep shafts and the equipping them with high-power pumps for the handling of large quantities of water found in the mines; fourth, the use of ample power for transmitting compressed air for drilling, for power in the compressed-air locomotives, and in the electric or steam power used in the shafts for hoisting ore; fifth, the erection of large and extensive concentrating mills, with all crushers, steel rolls, conveyers, elevators, jigs, tables, etc., of most approved pattern, and necessitating the handling of not less than 1,000 tons of ore every twenty-four hours; sixth, the construction of furnaces for roasting the concentrated product; and, finally, smelters for the reduction of the concentrates into pig lead. But through it all labor and its cost are the most important factors.

I beg to refer to a discussion of this subject on pages 211-212 of a recently published work known as "Lead and Zinc in the United States," by W. R. Ingalls, editor of the Engineer's and Mining Journal.

The mining of lead ores in St. Francois County is now conducted by the following companies: St. Joseph's Lead Company, Desloge Consolidated Lead Company, Doe Run Lead Company, St. Louis Smelting and Refining Company, and Federal Lead Company. The leading mines of Madison County are Mine La Motte, North American Lead Company, Catherine Lead Company, and the Madison Lead Company. It must not be here inferred that the mining of lead in St. Francois County or in the adjoining counties has been uniformly successful. The experience of the district shows that there are many defunct corporations lining the way to the ultimate success of the present companies. I here note the Donnelly Lead Company, the Leadington Company, the Derby Lead Company, the Union Lead Company, the Columbia Lead Company, the Commercial Lead Company, the Lead Fields Company, the Big River Company, the Flat River Lead Company, and others who led only a precarious existence-most of them meeting their downfall with the low prices that prevailed for lead in 1894-1896. Nor can it be said that the prices accruing to these companies are at all unreasonable, for they are at best only paying interest to their stockholders upon their present authorized capital stock, and in at

least one instance one of the largest mines in the district no dividends have ever been paid, although there has been an expenditure on the part of the owners of more than ten million in cash.

I invite the committee's attention especially to the prices of labor from 1870 to the present time, as shown by the tables filed with the committee, and it will then be demonstrated that the price of labor has borne a close relation to the price of lead in the markets. The low-water mark paid for ordinary labor in the district was $0.90 per day in 1895, following the adoption of the Wilson and Gorman bill when lead was sold in the New York market as low as $2.98 for the entire year and having gone as low as $2.45. The tables that will be filed with you will show that from that low-water period there was an advance in the price to labor, so that in 1907 the average wage paid for the same class of labor was $1.95 per day, with a reduction from a ten-hour day in 1896 to an eight-hour day in 1907. Especial attention is called to the wages paid to miners in Mexico and Spain, such wages not being one-half of the scale paid here.

In discussing the price at which lead can be produced in St. Francois County, it is a most difficult problem to reach anything like exactness in figures because the conditions of different properties vary and each property has a different result at different times, owing to the character of the ore bodies and difficulty of mining and the kindred annoyances that occur in all enterprises of this character.

Mr. Ingalls in his work, Lead and Zinc in the United States, at page 12, note, placed the cost of mining lead in St. Francois County at about $3.50 per hundred in the year 1907, and this figure was without allowing anything for amortization and interest on capital invested. Therefore it may reasonably be stated that pig lead can not be produced in St. Francois County at a profit unless lead be above $0.04 per pound, or unless a decreased price can be met by a sufficient reduction in the wages of labor.

Your attention is also invited to the tables showing the relative difference in the price of lead in the London and New York markets, showing that for almost thirty-eight years, and with the exception of the period covered by the Wilson and Gorman bill, that the difference in price in the two markets approximated $0.01 per pound, conclusively proving that a duty of about $0.01 per pound on lead ore is necessary to preserve the industry in the United States. Your attention is also invited to the importations of lead that followed the election of Mr. Cleveland in 1892, 55,775 tons of pig lead being imported in 1895. It may be suggested that the importations hereafter were almost nominal. My answer would be that the country had at this time become so impoverished that it could not afford to import lead at any price.

By the Wilson tariff in 1903 duties were reduced with most disastrous results. Lead mines all over the country were closed and wages were reduced to a point at which it was almost impossible for laboring men to support themselves and their families. Soon after the passage of the Dingley Act, in 1897, conditions improved and a continuous advance has been made since that time both in the production of lead in the State of Missouri and in the wages paid and in the betterment of the conditions of the people at large. During the panic

of the year 1908 some reduction in both product and wages has occurred, but favorable action on the tariff will stimulate activity throughout the State and will result in a somewhat increased price, which will enable wages also to advance.

That a duty upon lead ore and pig lead does affect the price in the American market would seem to be conclusively shown by the statistics for the period 1893-1897, immediately following the enactment of the Wilson-Gorman tariff bill. We see that the price of lead in 1892 was $4.09 per hundredweight; in 1893 it was $3.73, in 1894 it was $3.29, in 1895 it was $3.23, and in 1896 it was $2.98 for the year, with a low price of $2.50, and immediately upon the prospect of an increased duty it advanced to $3.58 in 1897, and gradually advanced year by year to $5.66 in 1906. The opening price for the first six months of 1897 was $6, but with the panicky conditions has gradually gone down to about $4.45 at the present time.

The lead industry of St. Francois County employs 6,500 men, and practically all of these supporting families. No employment is given in that district to minors or women. Consequently earnings of these men go to support approximately 25,000 people. In addition to that the lead district furnished a substantial market for the farmers within a radius of 25 miles adjacent thereto, and these farmers realize from sales of their products an advance of not less than 15 per cent up to 30 per cent over the market prices in adjoining counties. St. Francois County is not a farming county, only the eastern half being available for farming purposes, and yet the statistics filed herewith show that the county more than doubled its assessed valuation, such increase of value being almost entirely due to the manufacture of lead ore in the county.

The operation of these mines is largely an aid to the farmers of the adjoining counties, which permit the boys on the farms to spend their winter months working in the mines at highly remunerative wages and then resume work upon their farms in the crop seasons. The benefit from this source alone is very considerable to the southeastern section of the State.

The consumption of lead by the United States ordinarily equals the output, and if the duty is lowered it must be solely for revenue; and consequently importations will either compel the reduction of our own production or become the disturbing element in prices, for it is, perhaps, axiomatic that the surplus is always the disturbing factor in lowering prices. Hence, by lowering the present duty on lead ore and pig lead we invite first the lowering of wages, and next diminished production.

The effect of a reduction of duty on pig lead and lead ore would not reach consumers. The principal consumption of pig lead results from the demand from manufacturers of lead products, such as white lead, sheet lead, shot, plumbers' supplies, and electric cables. Moreover, a reduction in the duties on pig lead, and particularly on lead ore, would enable both Mexico and Canada to depress lead mining in this country and stimulate it in those places. In view of the experiences of 1893 it is certain that any reduction would result principally in a benefit to foreign countries.

It would seem to be proper to call your attention to what may be denominated the vested rights of a community built solely in the

faith that existing duties which afford a sufficient protection to warrant investments in the upbuilding of an industry would continue.

Here in my county a very considerable area has been developed by the production of lead; not alone has large capital been invested therein, but two cities with a present population of more than 5,000 people, and at least three or four others with populations in excess of 2,500, have virtually sprung up as a part of this development; substantial brick business blocks have been built and thousands of residences; splendid schools have been established, carrying their pupils into the high-school grades, so that their graduates have an accredited standing in the universities of the State; two schools of domestic science have been operated (the only schools of this character in Missouri outside of the city of St. Louis); water plants and sewers constructed, and perhaps all the improvements of a modern city. All these have grown from an almost waste country, having no value for even agricultural purposes, solely as a result of the mining of lead. Shall this community built in the faith of existing legislation by that same power be snuffed out as a candle, for, I say, that the present prosperous cities of Bonne Terre, Flat River, Elvins, Desloge, Esther, Leadwood, and Doe Run would only be a habitat for the owl and the tramp if this industry be wiped out. And wiped out it will be if it must come in competition with the underpaid labor of Mexico and Spain.

Your attention is invited to the fact that from the low grade of the ore mined here considerable land is annually exhausted; hence in conceding to the capital invested a moderate return an allowance ought also to be made for the decrease of territory available and the uncertainty of mining operations.

Finally, it must be understood that the production of lead ore and pig lead in southeastern Missouri is in no way under the control of a trust. Whatever trusts may be in existence in the smelting of argentiferous ores or in the white lead or in sheet lead or cables are not chargeable to the producers of southeastern Missouri. Eighty per cent of the pig lead produced in St. Francois County is produced by independent producers who have been engaged in this business for forty years, and who take a delight and pride in maintaining their institutions up to the highest standard, both in the efficiency of its machinery as well as in the treatment of its employees. Wash rooms, with hot and cold sprays, swimmings pools, gymnasiums, schools of domestic science, libraries, and waterworks, sewers, and homes built. by the companies, are a part of the efforts made by these independent producers to provide as healthy conditions for their employees as can be done.

Consequently, I desire to emphasize the fact that my appearance before this committee is in behalf of independent producers actually engaged in producing lead ore and pig lead and in behalf of the people of that section of the State, so that they may continue to obtain employment at remunerable wages under the beneficence of a Republican policy intended to better labor as well as employ capital.