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By V. V. J. Sarma

Interpretation of earth resistivity data involves not only obtaining depth to interfaces but also determining the nature of formations from their resistivity characteristics. Moore's method of interpretation envisages obtaining depths to the interfaces alone. A simple method of estimating the true resistivity values of formations by applying Hummel's formula of average resistivities is proposed. The method would increase the interpretative value of Moore's method as originally proposed. For most of the earth resistivity measurements, the four-electrode configuration developed by Wennerl is employed. In principal, the method consists of energizing (Current I) the ground through two outer electrodes and measuring the resultant potential (v) between the two inner electrodes. The configuration is such that the separation (a) between any two successive electrodes is equal. The apparent resistivity (pa) for such a configuration is given by 2p- a (V/I). By increasing the electrode separation (pa vs a) curves are obtained. Ideally, a homogeneous isotropic formation underground has a characteristic resistivity. However, the field conditions do not present such ideal cases. Almost invariably, even in the same geological bed, the physical conditions are widely different at different parts in the bed. It is further shown that the penetration of the current into the ground for a given horizontal electrode separation, a, is roughly down to a depth, equal to a. It is therefore, evident that the apparent resistivity calculated from the field observations is a weighted average of the resistivities of the materials present down to this depth. With some prior knowledge about the relative dispositions of the geological formations and their physical conditions, it would be possible, by resistivity surveys, to obtain characteristic resistivities for these formations. It is, thus, that the apparent resistivity-electrode separation curves enable one to decipher the resis- tivity distribution at various depth levels and therefore the nature of the geological formations present. Both empirical and theoretical methods have been developed for determining resistivity characteristics of the various formations. The theoretical methods proposed by Tagg2 and Roman3 are derived from studies of the potential distribution on the surface due to the presence of layers of widely differing resistivities underground. The more recent methods of Wetzel and McMurry4 and Wetzel and Mooney5 are but extensions of the original Roman method of superposition. These methods suffer from lack of similarity of the actual field conditions with those of assumed conditions in developing the theory. The empirical methods such as the one developed by Gish and rooneY6 depend purely on personal observation and local peculiarities, and are applicable only for those limited areas. Out of the empirical methods, moore's7 cumulative resistivity method is still found to be applicable in several localities of differing conditions. While Reudy in 1945 adduced some theoretical justification for the method (Eve and Keys),8 Muskat9 and Mooney 10 tried to show the lack of theoretical basis for the same. It is, however, observed that the method in practice "forms a valuable means of successfully attacking the apparent resistivity curves which fail to respond to the Gish-Rooney, the Tagg or the Roman logarithmic methods" (Ramachandra Rao). 11 Comparatively good results are also reported by Melbyel2 by employing Moore's method in interpreting the resistivity results obtained for ground water in the city of Gunnison, Colo. MOORE'S METHOD As has already been pointed out, the application of the theoretical methods is time-consuming, laborious and sometimes not applicable for quick and accurate interpretation of the field data. moore7 has developed a quick method for obtaining depths to interfaces by plotting the cumulative sums of resistivities, against the corresponding electrode separations a instead of plotting the usual Pa — a curve. In this process of continuous integration, corrections for small variations in resistivities, arising due to local surface conditions or adjacent layers, are made, while large consistent variations are brought out

Jan 1, 1963

By T. M. Berry

FOR the past several years it has been growing practice to install circular shafts at deep mining operations. Several factors have brought this about. Throughout eastern and midwestern coal fields circular shafts have been conventional for many years. Where large bodies of coal are mined, a production shaft may have a life of 20 to 30 years. Quantity production is essential; therefore the shaft must have a large cross-sectional area for larger skips and cages. Mechanical mining has become a necessity if a company is to stay in business today. Continuous mining machines and cutting, loading, and hauling equipment must be taken in and out of the mines. If the access shaft is not large enough there will be expensive dismantling and assembling. This has become a problem at many operations, particularly in the western sections where ore was originally mucked by hand into small cars and hoisted by a skip through a narrow rectangular shaft having small compartments. Mechanical loaders must be dismantled to wheelbarrow size to go into these mines.

Jan 7, 1957

EDUCATION for the mineral industry was at first a single comprehensive curriculum, but it was early recognized that the main basis of mining is physics, while that of metallurgy is chemistry. The first school to offer curricula leading to degrees in mineral industry education in the United States (1853) had separate ones in mining and metallurgy. The Columbia School of Mines (the fist really successful one) had only a single curriculum when it opened in 1864, but within a few years had so reorganized its work that it offered curricula in mining, metallurgy, geology, chemistry, and civil engineering. Interest in the metallurgy or geology curricula was slight at fist, and for the next 30 years the great majority of Columbia students took the mining curriculum, probably partly because it contained nearly as much geology as the geology curriculum, practically all the metallurgy, and most of the chemistry, and partly because of the degree awarded for it. Other schools kept their mining curricula equally broad, and as late as 1900-1910 men were graduating as mining engineers who were practically as well prepared to make geology or metallurgy their life work as they were for mining. Gradually, however, the subject matter of mining geology and metallurgy became so enriched through research and development that separate curricula in them became worth while; their progressive development is the subject of another chapter. Mining curricula also began to be somewhat diversified, and schools in areas where coal mining was of outstanding importance began to offer options in coal mining, the earlier curricula having been chiefly aimed at metal mining. The petroleum industry began its meteoric rise about the same time as mineral instruction in this country, but little more of applied science attended its birth than had attended such ancient practical arts as copper and iron

Jan 1, 1941

THE SECRETARY The year 1917 has been a notable one in Institute affairs. The usual activities, including meetings, publications, local section interests, library service, and so-forth, have been continued on at least the same scale as previously, and in addition the resources of the Institute have been placed without stint at the service of the Nation, not only for the active prosecution of the military side of the war, but even more especially in the industrial operations which form the very basis of modern warfare. The officers and directors of the Institute have labored both officially and individually, while the Institute as a body, through committees of, prominent members, and through many individual members, has given freely. Finally, Institute funds have been appropriated to an amount exceeding $5000 to accomplish the cooperation with Government bureaus, and provide committee expenses necessary for performing the services that have been given. The President of the Institute had a very large personal share in many of these activities, which will be described in the following pages, as well as in the President's own report. Many of the Institute's members are giving their whole time for. $1 a year, or less, and especial mention should be made of Herbert C. Hoover, Food Administrator, W. L. Honnold, Head of the Commission for Relief in Belgium, Mark L. Requa, Petroleum Administrator, Edgar Rickard and Charles W. Merrill of the Food Administration, S. A. Taylor of the Fuel Administration, W. L. Saunders, B. B. Thayer and Joseph W. Richards who .are giving a. large share of their time to the Naval Consulting Board, W. Y. Westervelt, W.0. Hotchkiss and Harvey S. Mud of the War Minerals Committee, David W. Brunton of the War Committee of Technical Societies, and hundreds of others whose names are mentioned in the Honor Roll of Members. It has also been a notable year in cooperation with sister-societies. The most important event under this head was the accession of the American Society of Civil Engineers into the fraternity of Founder Societies.

Jan 2, 1918

"The Midvale. Plant of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, situated twelve miles south of Salt Lake City, consists of mills for concentrating lead-zinc ores and a custom lead smelter.The milling department includes a 475-ton gravity mill for ores from the United States Mines at Bingham, a 100-ton Huff electrostatic zinc plant and a 60-ton pilot flotation mill for differential separation of lead and zinc. The gravity mill and electro¬static plant are being replaced by a 600-ton differential flotation plant, now under con¬struction, for differential separation of lead, zinc and iron. This new mill will have cap¬acity for treating custom ores in addition to ores from the company's mines at Bingham.The smelting department is equipped to handle 1600 tons of charge per day through six blast furnaces, 48 inches by 160 inches at the tuyeres. All gases from both blast furnaces and roasters are filtered through baghouses, which remove the dust from the gases so effectively that even when the plant is running at full capacity no smoke can be seen coming out of the 450-foot brick stack handling rca2ter gases, nor out of the two shorter steel stacks which take the blast furnace gases. On this account the Midvale plant has come to be known as the ""smokeless smelter.""The blast furnace gases are filtered through 832 woolen bags, 33 feet 6 inches by 18 inches in diameter, and 1200 woolen bags, 28 feet by 12 inches in diameter."

Jan 1, 1925

Report of Secretary TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS Gentlemen -I have the honor to present the following report for the calendar year 1920 The activities which-seem to call for special com¬ment are THE NEW FORM OF MAGAZINE MINING AND METALLURGY appeared every month during the calendar year and has been developed until it contains some ten departments It has brought forth more commendatory letters than have been received at headquarters on any other subject throughout the year Less than a dozen letters unfavorable to the change have been received, and the indications are that the magazine has met a want deeply felt, especially by members distant from headquarters The technical papers printed by the Institute are published in abstract in the magazine and opportunity is given to members who desire them to receive full copies of any or all papers published The Bound Volumes, as usual, contain all the papers in full and discussions thereof FINANCES The greatly increased cost of paper and printing has put a tremendous burden on the Institute's finances, since the dues of $12 per year are only 20 per cent greater than the members paid when the Institute was founded forty-nine years ago This has resulted in a temporary deficit, similar to that encountered by many of our sister engineering societies The fact that our Institute has lower dues and gives more in the way of publications to its members than any other of\the national engineering societies has rendered the situation more difficult for us MEETINGS The Annual Meeting in New York, the Field Meeting in the Lake Superior District, the meeting of the Petroleum and Gas members at St Lours, and of the Institute of Metals Division in Columbus, Ohio, have all been described in full in the magazine

Jan 1, 1923

By Paul L. Goddard, Alfred G. Hoyl, William R. Sirola

A good place to look for elephants is in elephant country, and old mining districts are certainly elephant country as far as minerals are concerned. In many areas probably more ore is still in the ground than has been taken out. The old timers were good miners and hard workers and when they left ore behind, it was usually for good reason; but many an old mining district has been revived by new approaches to old problems, taking advantage of new techniques and new equipment. One of these is the Front Range mineral belt of Colorado, which has produced minerals for the past 100 years through the ups and downs of mineral prices and the general economy. Gold, silver, copper, lead, and zinc have been found in abundance in the complex sulfide veins of the area. Between Idaho Springs and Central City lie several strong veins which have been mined successfully in the past. The two strongest of these veins, striking northeast-southwest, (Lake-Bald Eagle), and northwest-southeast, (Crown Point-Belman) , and dipping northeast and northwest, respectively, intersect in a flat X near the head of Virginia Canyon. From the lowest drainage of the area, Clear Creek Canyon, the old timers drove the Central, or Big Five, haulage-drainage tunnel due north. It intersects the two veins 8460 ft from the portal and 1670 ft below the surface. The two veins were mined successfully at the surface and at the tunnel level. Without an opening to the surface at the in- side end of the tunnel, ventilating became very difficult as the stopes were opened up, and mining ceased in 1929. Vertically, 1200 to 1600 ft of virgin ground remains in the veins.

Jan 6, 1959

By W. A. Bruce

THIS paper presents the essentials of a mathematical method of studying the pressure behavior of an oil reservoir as the fluids are withdrawn. Methods are shown whereby the behavior of a reservoir can be used to predict the future relationship between withdrawals and pressure. The oil reservoir is considered as a small part of a large porous continuum, which contains for the most part water. The expansion of this water resulting from a decrease of pressure in the oil zone causes a movement of water that is an important factor in the relationship between fluid withdrawals and reservoir pressure. Examples are given to illustrate the methods of pressure prediction for a circular reservoir containing undersaturated crude, the pressure distribution over a field that has a uniform production rate, the effect of a fault line near a field, the mutual interference of near-by fields, and the perturbing influence of a gas cap. Applications of the analysis to sell-spacing problems are shown.

Jan 1, 1942

To THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS. GENTLEMEN Like every other significant activity in the United States today, the work of the Institute has been affected by and adjusted to the prosecution of war against Germany, .Japan and their satellites. As the elaborate engines and materiel of modern mobile warfare are made, for the most part, of metals and other minerals; and are powered by mineral fuels, the industries -represented by the A.I.M.E. are of primary and vital importance. Of some 29 critical materials officially listed by the War Production Board, 24 are minerals. An alternate for one of the others, rated as a nonmineral, is to be made principally from petroleum. This alludes, of course, to rubber. The procurement of tremendous quantities of such raw materials and the effective processing, fabrication, and utilization of them depend on members of those branches of the engineering profession represented by the A.I.M.E.

Jan 1, 1943

By D. J. McAdam

In 1917 Haighl presented evidence that under simultaneous corrosion and cyclic stress metals may fail at lower stresses than if the corrosion is prior to the cyclic stress. In 1926 the author, while investigating the cooling effect of water on the fatigue resistance of metals, found that under these conditions steel specimens fail at stresses far below the endurance limit.2 (By "endurance limit" is here meant the fatigue limit obtained with specimens as free as possible from stress concentration and corrosive influences.) This led to an investigation (at the Naval Engineering Experiment Station, Annapolis, Md.) of the influence of cyclic stress on corrosion. This investigation may be divided into three parts. The first part was a general survey of the conditions necessary to cause complete failure under corrosion and cyclic stress of relatively high frequency. The entire process by which metals fail under these conditions was called LLcorrosion-fatigue." Corrosion-fatigue limits" for a large number of metals were determined and the relationships of these limits to chemical composition, heat treatment and physical properties were established. The conclusion was reached that corrosion-fatigue is due to the accelerating influence of cyclic stress on corrosion. Results of this part of the investigation were presented in five papers.*-= The second part of the investigation was a preliminary study of the influence of cyclic stress on corrosion. Each experiment was conducted in two stages. The first was a corrosion stage in which the specimen was corroded under cyclic stress; the second was a fatigue stage, in which the previously corroded specimen was tested (without further corrosion) to determine its fatigue limit. The difference between this fatigue limit and the endurance limit was used as a criterion of the "damage" due to

Jan 1, 1932

By G. F. Jenkins

The word asbestos is a broad term that has been accepted and applied to a number of fibrous mineral silicates found in nature. They are incombustible and can be separated by mechanical means into fibers of various lengths and thicknesses, but differ in chemical composition and other properties. It is generally recognized that there are six varieties of asbestos; the finely fibrous form of serpentine known as chrysotile, and five minerals of the amphibole group, i.e., amosite (not fully recognized as a mineral species name but accepted in asbestos terminology), anthophyllite, crocidolite, tremolite and actinolite. (Figs 1-4.) Physical and Other Properties The structures of asbestos fibers have been studied intensely in recent years. X-ray diffraction patterns 1 to 15 have been used as a means of identification and classification. The amphibole group structures have been fairly well established while the serpentine group has been the subject of many investigations during the past six years. Low-angle X-ray scattering techniques5 have shown that the chrysotile fibrils are "hexagonally close packed" and parallel to each other, having cross-sectional diameters varying from 180Å* units to 300Å units, while the amphibole fibers are many times larger in cross section. The electron micrographs of chrysotile asbestos (Figs 1-4) have also indicated that the fibrils might be in the form of a hollow tube. This point has been the subject of considerable controversy by a number of investigators.7 to 16 Density measurements17 made on a sample of high quality Arizona fiber did not indicate that the fiber had a hollow tube structure; however, the so-called "sheet structure" of the fibril could be distorted in such a way that it gives the appearance of a hollow tube in the electron microscope. It is of interest to quote one investigator, F. L. Pundsack,17 in this connection: Although the empirical composition of chrysotile is 3MgO.2SiO2.2H20, the true unit cell[#] composition is best represented as Mg12(OH)16Si8O20. This cell has dimensions of a= 5.3Å, b = 9.2 Å, and c = 14.6 Å where the "a" direction is the fiber axis. The calculated density of this unit is 2.56 g/cc, a value in close agreement with experimentally determined density values for chrysotile. The exact manner in which the unit cells of asbestos are stacked together to build up a single fiber of chrysotile is not known, but from various

Jan 1, 1960

Beyond the industrial suburbs of Melbourne to the southeast are brown coal deposits just under the fertile soil of the Latrobe Valley. These deposits rank as one of the wonders of the world. The manner in which this resource is put to use is one of the great engineering accomplishments of our time and also a prime example of Australian elan. The brown coal, with over 60% water content, occurs in beds from 200 to 400 ft thick, under 50 ft of cover. Fifty thousand tons of coal per day move in a nearly continuous stream from mining face to boilers. The power plants supply two thirds of the State of Victoria's requirements, about 800 megawatts. Surge capacity between mine and power plant is sufficient for 12 hr steaming time! Victorian brown coals have been known since the middle of the 19th century. However, it took a strike of bituminous coal miners in 1915 to bring brown coal permanently into the picture as a fuel for power generation. In Australia, power generation is a State function. The great development of brown coals has been under the State Electricity Commission of Victoria.

Jan 10, 1964

By Wesley G. Josephson

THE MINING PROPERTY of the Argonaut Mining Co., Jackson, Calif., is one of the oldest on the Mother Lode. A vein outcropping on a hill in this section could not long elude the eye of the forty-niner, so it was first discovered in 1850. From that time until 1893 the Pioneer mine, as it was then called, limped along under various poorly equipped and financed operators who tried tapping it by trenching and tunneling. Then the Argonaut Mining Co. took over the property and sank the present 65° inclined shaft in the hanging wall of the vein. The mine workings have now reached the 6000-ft. level, which is 5283 ft. vertically below the surface, or just 3 ft. over a mile. The total production of the mine is uncertain, because of lack of early records, but from 1893 to 1932 it is known to have produced in excess of $17,000,000.

Jan 1, 1932

ASSETS Working Fund Assets Cash-unappropriated $62,41294 Members' 1951 dues receivable 14,336 98 Accounts receivable Advertising, publications and miscellaneous $43,22055 Less-Reserve for delinquent accounts 12,775 76 $30,44479 Petroleum Branch-Special Projects Fund¬ Advances re Petroleum Conservation Volume 5,37085 35,81564

Jan 1, 1952

R. Culver, Colorado School of Mines I appreciated Professor Starfield's presentation, because his approach to blasting research reflects my feelings that a lot of practical work can be done toward making short-term advances that can be used by the blasting industry. We should not forget this in our attempt to obtain solutions to such idealized problems as a mathematical theory of cratering. The blasting industry would like very much to have the efficiency of the basic blasting processes improved from the range of 20 percent up into the range of 50 percent. And many of these problems should be approached and attacked in the laboratories. Blasting research at the Colorado School of Mines for the past two or three years has been aimed at improving the pre-splitting process, because we feel it will become increasingly important to the construction industry. We have attempted to develop a unified theory of how pre-splitting works; and the more we investigate, the more variables we find. We may never obtain an entirely satisfactory theory of pre-splitting, but we have developed a tentative explanation. One of our first conclusions was that we are making very poor use of the explosive in current pre-splitting practice. But to appreciate this we must first consider how pre-splitting works. A series of parallel boreholes are loaded with low density charges which are detonated simultaneously. (Delayed detonation has been tried, but most people agree that simultaneous detonation is best, and this is what we found.) Stress waves traveling out from each borehole interact with the stress waves from the two adjacent boreholes influencing the direction of the fractures that occur and propagate from each borehole. It has been suggested in private communication with Mr. Wilbur Duvall of the U. S. Bureau of Mines, that the fracture between the adjacent boreholes is a result of the net particle velocities above and below the pre-split plane which tend to set up a net tension along the pre-split plane. Regardless of what the exact mechanism is that causes the fracture to propagate from one borehole to the next, we know that it, in general, relies upon an interaction of the stress waves. However, if there is a large compressive stress normal to the pre-split place, it can practically eliminate any possibility of obtaining the desired pre-split by preventing the desired fractures from getting started. Aside from obtaining a fracture along the pre-split plane, the other major aim of pre-splitting is to minimize the fracturing that occurs around the borehole. We do this by drilling a large hole and putting a small charge in the middle of it. This results in a badly decoupled charge which is very inefficient; most of the energy is used in compressing the air in the borehole. Out of discussions about how pre-splitting works, we decided that perhaps there was some other explosive geometry which would make more efficient use of the explosive, and result in optimizing the pre-splitting process. Starting in the laboratory with small plexiglas blocks, we found that a fully-coupled explosive charge of 5 grains/in. of PETN gave random fractures extending about I in. from the borehole. A 1/4 in. plexiglas plug fit into a 1/4 in. hole in a similar block with the same fully coupled charge gave random fractures extending out only about 1/2 in. due to the energy absorbed in fracturing the plug. If the plug was split longitudinally but otherwise using the same geometry, it was possible to drive a fracture about 2 in. in either direction from the borehole, with an even smaller amount of fracturing around the borehole.

Jan 1, 1967

TO THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND MEMBERS Of THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF MINING AND METALLURGICAL ENGINEERS GENTLEMEN Submitted herewith are the reports of the Treasurer for the year 1947 and the reports of the following standing committees Membership, Admissions, Papers and Publications, MINING AND METALLURGY (Magazine), and Library 75th Anniversary Celebration The founding of the Institute at Wilkes-Barre, Pa, in 1871, vas appropriately commemorated by a three-day Celebration, March 17, 18 and 19, 1947, at The Waldorf-Astoria, in New York City The Celebration had been scheduled for the preceding September but had been postponed, perforce, because of conflict with meetings of the Assembly of the United Nations The Celebration immediately preceded the Annual Meeting which was deferred from the usual February dates The proceedings took the form of a "World Conference on Mineral Resources " More than three thousand people, including eight hundred ladies, participated in the proceedings in one way or another Twenty-eight foreign countries were represented, some of them by five or six individual delegates Likewise, official representatives were designated by fifty institutions of higher learning in the United States A special 820-page Anniversary Volume entitled "Seventy-five Years. of Progress in the Mineral Industry,".(which

Jan 1, 1952

By Robert M. Doerr

A method, based on radial distribution analysis, was developed for determining the effect of size to which a given ore is broken on the potential recovery in beneficiations targeted to selected concentrate grades. A measuring microscope and computer analysis are used to obtain the radial distribution of the valuable component in polished sections of ore.

Jan 1, 1975

By authority of the Secretary of War, and in response to frequent requests, the following suggested list of reading is issued by the War Department for the information of civilian engineers desiring to inform themselves on military subjects: These references have been selected, first, with a view to giving to engineers unfamiliar with the art of war a general survey of that sub-

Jan 1, 1916

By W. V. Long, D. H. Reynolds, R. B. Bhappu

Equilibrium distribution coefficients were determined for some monovalent and polyvalent ions for several absorbing and exchanging media as functions of pH and initial ion concentration. Among ions studied were NH4 (I), K(I), Ni(II), Ce(III), Th(IV), and Mo(VI). Absorbents used were: ion exchange resins; a tertiary, and a quaternary amine in an inert solvent; and some activated carbons. The ions studied were in aqueous HCI, HNO3, H2SO4, or HC104 solutions. The classical mass action expression proved of little value in describing the variations observed. The data indicate that the determining factors in absorption and ion exchange may be the ionic species in the aqueous solution, which in turn depend upon pH, dilution, and perhaps other conditions. Three sorption processes have become prominent in recovering values from leach solutions. These are: 1) ion exchange, 2) solvent extraction (liquid ion exchange), and 3) physical adsorption by materials of high specific surface. In the first two of these processes the exchange reaction is considered chemical in nature, and is discussed in terms of the mass action principle. The third is considered a surface phenomenon and is discussed in terms of surface areas and various forms (Gouy, Stern, Grahame, etc.) of the Helmholtz double-layer theory. Generally speaking, we have found in chemical analysis and hydrometallurgical studies that there are close similarities between the three sorption processes, and also differences which are difficult to reconcile with any of the usual theoretical treatments. That others have experienced the same troubles is shown by the fact that usable processes, in chemical analysis as well as in hydrometallurgy, generally are discovered by empirical procedures. EXPERIMENTAL CONSlDERATlONS The gaps between theory and practice have allowed many conflicting statements to appear in the litera- ture. To learn, in particular, the behavior of some metallic ions on a cation exchange resin at a constant pH, equilibration studies were made over a wide range of concentrations.' Results are shown in Fig. 1 for four metals in hydrochloric acid solution on a strongly acidic cation exchange resin, AG 50W-X8 (Bio-Rad). The distribution coefficient, defined as D = amount of metal extracted per g of resin/amount of metal unextracted per ml of solution is seen to vary in a way to support all manner of reports about its behavior with changes in solution concentration. The metals used were chosen from those least likely to form stable chloro-complexes. The changes of slope in the various isotherms may reflect formation of unsuspected chloro-complexes of low stability (ion-pairing for example) whose concen-

Jan 1, 1967

By George Smith

IN discussing present-day business and industrial troubles we easily drop into the habit of clinical diagnosis. Talk of this kind, with its emphasis on suspicious symptoms and abnormal tendencies, makes us all morbid. As an English essayist has put it, we may thus induce a melancholy, temper that simply in-vites the ministrations of social and political quacks. It is far better-because nearer the truth-for us to recognize that our condition is in no sense diseased, that our body politic, social and economic, is suffering merely from growing pains; that America is not de-cadent-indeed, that any lapses from staid normality are traceable to the, excesses of youth. Our chief .trouble, then, is only that our industrial state is still young; it may be that we have been growing too fast. The growth in the industrial development of our country from pioneer days to the present time has been marvelous. Too many of us, however, take all this as a matter of course-we credit this record of American progress to our American genius alone. Too often we overlook the fundamental relationship between resources and progress-that man is aided and even guided by Nature. The fact is, social advance, indus-trial progress, national prosperity all have their ma-terial basis in natural resources. In furnishing the needed mineral raw materials to the great manufac-turing industries of the United States there has been no halt, but rather a general acceleration. No other phase of American activity can show-equal advance. As the decades have passed, the winning of mineral wealth has progressed from the role of a stimulus for western exploration to that of the foundation for nation-wide business. In 1890 the Sherman law was passed; since then the population of the United States has about doubled. Since then, too, thevalue of the annual product of the mines of this country has increased better than eight-fold-from 650 millions to 51/ billions of dollars. Since then the four largest branches of the mineral industry, which supply the iron and copper, the bituminous coal and petroleum-the bone and sinew and the energy of all other American industries-have increased their annual output nearly ten-fold as to value and six-fold as to quantity. Such a growth in the volume of mineral output must be taken as a true measure of the ex-ceptional service rendered by the mines of the United States. Not only is this a much larger country than it was 38 years ago, but its growing mineral industry has met demands that have been out of all proportion to the growth of the population.

Jan 8, 1928