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By John Lovejoy

As the Seminole area, Seminole and Pottawatomie Counties, Okla., appears to be the chief danger zone of overproduction in the United States, it may be of interest to review the production records of the various pools which make up this area; also to dis-cuss the future prospects of these pools, together with the structurally "high" points which may develop into new pools. It is also of interest to appraise the effect of the curtailment program in this general area, which was agreed to in principle by the various Seminole op-erators at a meeting held on May 23 at the offices of W. C. Teagle in New York. There are four large pools in the greater Seminole area. They are, in the order of their importance Seminole City, Bowlegs, Earlsboro, and Searight pools. A glance at the accompanying general map of the area will show their relative situation. The detail maps show the extent and area of these prolific spots. Seminole production comes from the Wilcox sand of Ordovician age, found at a depth of 3900 to 4300 feet. Semninole City Pool:-This pool was discovered in Wilcox sand in July, 1926. By Jan., 1927, there were 123 wells completed, making 146,000 bbl. per day. The field reached its peak of 253,000 bbl. per day the last week of Feb., 1927, with 211 completions and a per well average of 1200 bbl. On July 4 there were 304 wells completed, producing 102,000 bbl., with a per well aver-age of 336 bbl. per day. This pool will cover an area of approximately 3500 acres. It has produced approxi-mately 38,000,000 bbl. to. July 1. Estimates of total ultimate production are around 55,000,000 bbl. or somewhat better than 15,000 bbl. per acre. Some of the individual leases have already yielded 30,000 and 40,000 bbl. to the acre. Bowlegs Pool:-This pool shows 175 drilling wells and 131 completions making 180,000 bbl. per day, with an average per well production of 1380 bbl. It appears that this pool will develop into nearly as large an area as Seminole City. The wells, however, do not give up

Jan 8, 1927

By Dr. O’Neil Thomas J., Donald W. Gentry

Pure gold was hidden in the quartz, they said, 'Twas proved by dreams and signs, and rods divining, By chemic tests, and spirits of the dead, In fact by everything-except by mining. " from R.E. White, "The Mining Town," Alta California, August 18,1873 Textbooks in mining engineering have traditionally covered ore reserve estimation and mine valuation in a single volume. Indeed, Examination and Valuation of Mineral Property by R. D. Parks (1957), having been the standard of the profession for over 20 years, is a classic example. However, the state of knowledge in these two fields has grown tremendously. Most mining engineering curricula now cover these topics in separate courses, and in practice, these tasks are usually performed by different individuals. Thus, this trend now suggests the need for separate, specialized publications rather than a single volume for both topics. Because of the separate development of the science of ore reserve estimation, it is important to state at the beginning what this chapter does not cover. It does not address in detail the design of sampling programs, sampling methods, or the processing of samples or sample data compilation. There are a number of suitable references available on these topics, including Peters (1978), Gy (1979), as well as the previously cited book by Parks. Furthermore, this chapter does not cover in any substantial detail either the traditional methods for using sample data to calculate ore reserves or the more recently developed geostatistical methods. The traditional methods are thoroughly covered by Popoff (1966) and more concisely by Barnes (1980). Among the more useful references for statistical applications in ore reserve estimation are Barnes (1980), David (1977), and Clark (1979). A thoughtful review of the entire science and art of ore reserve estimation is provided by King, McMahon, and Bujtor (1982). In spite of the fact that expansion of knowledge now calls for separate books on ore reserve estimation and financial evaluation, neither publication can ignore the important interrelationships between the two fields. In regard to this text, the unique and crucial role of ore reserves can not be omitted entirely; however, the field is now simply too extensive to treat here in any comprehensive manner.

Jan 1, 1984

By Clarence Seyler

THE technical difficulties of cutting thin sections of coal for examination by transmitted light have hitherto restricted the investigation of the important subject of the microstructure of coal to the few possessed of the requisite skill and time. Apart from this, the method fails with anthracites and other coals rich in carbon, owing to the opacity of the material. Occasional use of the method of polishing a surface, with or without etching, has been made, but it was not until Winter1 published an account of his results that attention was seriously directed to the method. In May, 1923, a specimen of dull anthracite came into my hands; I tried Winter's method on it and the presence of megaspores and other vegetable structures became clearly visible. A preliminary notice was published by me;2 but I soon abandoned the use of Schulze's solution having found that a mixture of chromic and sulfuric acids gave far better results. In the meantime Turner and Randall, in America, had independently developed the method of flame etching, as applied to anthracite, with great success. I have spent a year studying the method of chromic etching, which gives excellent results with bituminous coals and cannels, as well as with anthracite. For anthracites, I have used the chromic method and Turner's method of flame etching, whichever was the more convenient or as a check one on the other. The polishing is done, according to metallurgical practice, by the use of a polishing machine and successively finer emery paper, followed by polishing on cloth moistened with a suspension of levigated green oxide of chromium, and a final rubbing on "selvyt" (a cotton velvet polishing cloth) moistened' with alcohol. The polished sample is examined by reflected light with a 2/3 and 1/6 in. objective. Bituminous coals usually show considerable structure, and even anthracites show it faintly in places. The sample is then etched by immersion in a boiling solution made by adding 10 c.c. of concentrated sulfuric acid to 30 c.c of a saturated solution of chromic acid; enough water is then added to dissolve

Jan 3, 1925

By H. C. George

THE Wisconsin. Zinc District, or the Upper Mississippi Lead and Zinc District as it is often called, lies in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin, in, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette Counties, and it includes adjoining parts of Illinois and Iowa. The district is about 70 miles long, north and south, and about 40 miles wide, east and west. It lies wholly within what is geologically known as the non-glaciated area of the Upper Mississippi Valley. HISTORY OF THE DISTRICT The district was first opened up as a lead producer in 1822. From this time until 1860, about 205,000 tons of cog lead (galena) and washed lead (galena) was produced from shallow crevices and openings. From 1860 to 1900, about 74,500 tons was produced, and since that time, from 5000 to 7000 tons has been produced annually. Since-1900, most of the lead concentrate produced has been as a byproduct of the zinc mines. The first zinc ores were mined about 1862. These were the carbonate ores, locally known as " drybone." Very little zinc blende was mined in the district, previous to 1875. The zinc blende ores mined from 1875 to 1900 were mostly of the high-grade, hand-cobbed, sheet-ore class, which usually contained from 45 to 60 per cent. metallic zinc. Such nines as the "Sallie Waters," ? Quinlin," "Lead Mine," "Benton Blende" and "Ida Blende," located near Benton, Wis., were mines which produced ores of this type, during this period. The mines located at Highland, the "Coker Mine" located at Livingston, Wis., and the "Opencut Mine" located at Shullsburg, Wis., were mines that were heavy zinc carbonate producers, previous to 1900.

Jan 12, 1917

By W. M. Peirce

THE PROCESSES USED FOR THE rolling of zinc are not novel or unique in a mechanical sense. There has not been so widespread a tendency toward heavy slabs and mechanical handling, and toward 3-high and continuous mills as has taken place with steel and with some of the other nonferrous metals. Those respects in which the rolling of zinc differs from the rolling of other metals center around two facts. First, the hexagonal zinc crystal has only one plane of easy slip: namely, the basal plane. Fortunately, however, the crystal twins readily on any of the pyramidal planes, thereby creating new basal planes favorably oriented for relief of the stress which has caused twinning. Second, the recrystallization temperature of zinc is little above room temperature and for very pure grades of zinc may in fact, be at room temperature for severely strained material. The practical effect of these two characteristics of zinc will become evident in the later discussion. First, it is necessary to give some attention to the melting and casting of billets for rolling. Reverberatory furnaces are commonly used for melting. These vary over a wide range of capacity from as low as 5 tons to 100 tons or over. Low-frequency electric furnaces have also been used with satisfactory results. Arc Furnaces are, of course unsuited to a low-melting and lute-boiling metal, such as zinc. To minimize oxidation and volatilization losses in the furnace, the temperature should be kept below 500°C. With this temperature in the melting furnace, a suitable pouring temperature in the neighborhood of 460°C can he maintained at the mold when a transfer ladle is used for pouring.

Jan 1, 1948

By AIME AIME

THERE is a constant reiteration in some quarters that technical societies are autocratic and that democracy is utterly lacking and that members would welcome democratic societies in which they had full, control of affairs. While we may not speak for other societies, than our own, in so far as th's Institute is concerned such charges- can only come from people uninformed as to the circumstances. It. is no curtailment of the democratic privileges of the members that a -slate is prepared by the Nominating Committee to be voted on at the annual meeting. The Constitution of the, institute stipulates how the nominating committee shall; be chosen and who shall compose it, which prevents anything like- a- clique controlling- the situation. The Constitution further provides how the nominees shall be distributed geographically and the by-laws specify geographical boundaries: for-these nomination districts. Further more, any man or complete ticket can be placed in nomination by means of a petition signed-by only; twenty-five members,- and three or four times such an independent slate has been so nominated and elected.

Jan 1, 1920

By J. D. Vincent

During the history of man, the term concentration has had many meanings. Early in history, it may have been construed to mean sorting and smelting. Not many years ago, its definition included only the physical beneficiation processes. Today, and in this article, the term concentration is taking on the meaning of beneficiation and chemical processing, or either separately. An alternate definition could be: concentration is the process of recovering and upgrading an element or nonmetallic mineral so that the product can be used or refined for the needs of man. For the purpose of this article, concentration will have the same connotation as it does in the mineral industry, which has come to include processing methods such as leaching and chlorinization under this heading. Usually, smelting techniques and electrorefining are excluded and classified under the heading of refining. Using the broad definition of concentration, the areas of mining processing include not only the physical beneficiation processes and flotation but also hydrometallurgy and vapor-metallurgy. These methods include sorting, sizing, crushing and grinding, gravity concentrating, magnetic processing and flotation as well as hydrometallurgy and vapor- metallurgical processing.

Jan 1, 1971

By L. B. McConville

The general term "tar sand" refers to sand that contains varying amounts of dense, viscous petroleum. Tar sand deposits have been found throughout the world, often in the same geographical area as conventional petroleum. The largest one by far is known as the Athabasca Tar Sands, in the province of Alberta, Canada. Actually a group of three deposits, these particular sands underlie an aggregate area of more than 12,000 sq miles. Current estimates place the contained raw petroleum at about 700 billion bbl; and via currently available technology, the amount of recoverable synthetic oil may be as much as 300 billion bbl-which is roughly equivalent to five times the combined US and Canadian total crude oil reserves. With the ever-widening gap between energy supply and demand, mining and petroleum companies are now evaluating all possible energy resources-both developed and underdeveloped-and, certainly, the Athabasca Tar Sand deposit is one of the more important ones to merit such attention. The first section in ME deals with the geology and historical developments; the other four sections, with mining methods, extraction technology, economics, and outlook.

Jan 1, 1975

An extended investigation by the chief engineer of the Bureau of Mines shows that North Dakota has immense beds of lignite. War conditions have stimulated the use of North Dakota lignite until it is now being used at the rate of 1,000,000 tons annually. This North Dakota lignite is coming into extensive local use and considerable of it is being shipped to various parts of the state. The great problem at the present time is to find a market for the gas, which is the principal-by-product of lignite preparation. Bureau of Mines specialists will complete their reports of the studies of lignite in this country and will then make a recommendation as to the lignite field which is best suited for the establishment of the proposed Government's experimental plant. "Broken eggs cannot be mended."-(Lincoln.) Neither can "cashed in" War Saving Stamps grow to their maturity value.

Jan 8, 1919

By F. V. Tideswell

COAL being essentially a complex conglomerate of plant remains that have undergone decay and interaction in varying degree, it is understandable that attack on the problem of its chemical constitution by normal chemical methods should have been attended by but slight success. The obvious method of fractionation by means of selective solvents has yielded a few results of some value. Thus it is known that from many, if not all, bituminous coals organic solvents extract small percentages of oxygenated compounds, which are generally assumed to have been derived from the original plant resins, though a more probable source would appear to be the glycerides and waxes of the plants. Organic solvents also extract small proportions of hydrocarbons, the origin of which is doubtful. Of more importance is the action of such pseudo solvents as pyridine, which, in addition to their specific solvent action, have the power of resolving and simplifying a portion of the coal substance in a manner analogous to that by which water can disperse a hydrogel. Early, work with pyridine indicated that coals are composed of two main classes of compounds: the one soluble in organic solvents, the other capable of being partly dispersed in pyridine. Recent work has shown that the dispersion is colloidal in character and that it may be accomplished by the use of solvents less active than pyridine, such as benzene or chloroform, provided that the temperature of extraction is raised or the coal has been suitably preheated. The action of reagents on coal has proved of little value in the past, but some insight into the constitution of coal has been given by regulated .destructive distillation. Thus, it has been shown that coals behave on distillation as though composed of two main classes of compounds: the one readily decomposable at moderate temperatures (yielding mainly the paraffins), the other undergoing a preliminary early decomposition (with evolution of oxides of carbon and water) and yielding a residue that at higher temperatures breaks down, yielding much hydrogen.

Jan 3, 1925

By Marius R. Campbell

VARIOUS classes of coals are recognized in this country at the present time. These classes depend largely upon physical characteristics rather than upon chemical composition, and consequently they cannot be accurately defined. The divisions into anthracite, semi-anthracite and semi-bituminous are fairly satisfactory; but the term bituminous embraces so large a variety of coal that it is of little value, and the term lignite is so loosely applied that it has little or no place in a scientific classification. At present there is no way of accurately defining the vari¬ous classes of coal, because no adequate scheme of classification, which applies to lignites as well as bituminous coal and anthracite bas been proposed. The object of this paper is to present such a scheme, which is based upon data obtained dur¬ing the past year by Prof. N. W. Lord,1 in charge of the chemical laboratory of the United States Geological Survey coal-testing plant at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis. All the classifications of coals proposed prior to 1877 were based either on physical characteristics or on proximate analyses, including all of the impurities. These schemes were illogical and highly unsatisfactory, for the physical properties of a coal give little indication of its true composition; and impurities, such as ash and sulphur, are largely the results of acci-

Sep 1, 1905

Open pits and quarries are the major sources of all hard rock tonnages mined today. Normally, ore is fractured from the pit bench face by blasting and then truck-hauled to a primary crusher on the pit rim for conveying to the concentrator; overburden (or waste) is generally truck- hauled from the pit to dump areas. This system of truck haulage of blasted ore and waste accounts for some 25 to 50% of total mining costs in a typical open pit operation and commonly is the largest single cost factor. In an effort to reduce these costs mining companies are continually replacing their older and smaller trucks with larger ones and at the same time are studying conversions to conveyor haulage, since this method of transport seems to offer possibilities of lower costs per ton of material handled. In these studies it seems logical to consider installing these conveyors as close as possible to the mining face for maximum use of conveyors and minimum use of trucks, since a conveyor is much less labor intensive than a trucking system. However, direct loading onto a conveyor near the retreating bench face is impractical because of excessive lump size. Consequently, it is conventional practice to load the blasted rock into trucks at the face for haulage to the crusher. After crushing, the rock is fed onto a conveyor. The closer the crusher is to the mine, or if it is in the mine, the shorter the truck haul and the greater the potential for cost saving. At first appearance, in-pit conveying might seem to be an obvious solution, yet many mining companies have considered such a move while few have implemented it. To determine why, it is necessary to consider the factors influencing such a decision. A conveyor system tends to be capital intensive but can have a lower operating cost per ton than trucks. Trucks, on the other hand, tend to cost less to buy but more to operate; thus, economics tend to favor the conveyor if it can be operated close to capacity and if a sufficiently large tonnage can be passed over the system to mitigate the effect of its high capital cost. In a typical hard-rock, open-pit mine it is necessary for a variety of reasons to mine several faces of both ore and waste at the same time; and any mining system must have sufficient flexibility to permit loading from one face or another at short notice. This makes it impractical to place small mobile crushers and their consequent network of conveyors at each working face. To date no alternative has been found to using trucks for bringing all rock of the same class to some convenient marshalling point from which it may be crushed and conveyed from the pit. Another advantage of trucking when compared to conveying is flexibility. Many mines wish to deliver their shot-rock to different locations, depending on the mineral content. For instance, a typical copper mine may have to simultaneously mine milling ore, leach ore,

Jan 1, 1978

By W. Denham Verschoyle

IN designing a pocket instrument whereby any given horizontal or vertical angle may be closely approximated, the following points should be kept in view, if general utility is aimed at 1. The instrument should be light and compact, so that it can be carried in the pocket, or in a sling. 2. It should be capable of observing any angle whatever, horizontal or vertical. 3. Since time is often an important consideration in making a preliminary survey, it should be capable of giving the horizontal and vertical angle at one observation. I do not know of any instrument that will fulfill these requirements, except the one here described. Where the depression- or elevation-angle of the distant object, whose bearing is required, exceeds 50 or 60 degrees, it becomes difficult or impossible with a prismatic compass, for instance, to obtain accurate results; and since it frequently happens, particularly in mining, that much work requires to be done beyond that limit, it is obvious that an instrument which can be used to observe a high angle just as easily as a low one, if not absolutely a necessity, will at least be a great convenience. How this " pocket transit " attains to the required degree of universality will be understood from the diagram, Fig. 1, in which B is a beveled, graduated circle, attached to and freely revolving about the center of the magnet A. Light falling on B is reflected through a window in F (the compass-box), along the line AC, and is again reflected back to the eye at D by the prism C. By a simple arrangement, the sight-line DCE can be completely revolved in the vertical plane DE, which is normal to AC. It is clear, then, that no matter through what vertical

Jul 1, 1907

By Foster Fraas

MOST commercial electrostatic separators utilize the electrical property of conductivity, but although based on the same principles, they are constructed in a variety of forms, a common one being the simple roll type. Some information obtained during an investigation of that type of separator, and which indirectly is applicable to other types, is presented here. NUMERICAL RELATIONSHIP In Fig. I material discharged from hopper 6 is fed onto grounded rotating roll 2. Electrode 3 is at a high electrical potential with respect to roll 2, and any conductive particle in contact with roll 2 therefore acquires an electrical charge of such polarity that, when present in the electrical field, the force on it is in the direction of electrode 3. A detailed description of the charging by conductance as utilized in electrostatic separators may be found in a previous publication.1 As a result of this force, the path of the projected particle is changed in increasing amounts in the direction toward region C as the magnitude of the charge is increased. With the dividing edge 4 the projected particles may be divided into two fractions -those in region C designated as "deflected" or " deflectant " and those in region B designated as "residue." When material is passed over the roll only once, a complete separation is seldom obtained, therefore most commercial separators contain several roll-separator units in [ ] series, and some practical machines use as many as 12. In this paper a "pass" means the passage of material over a single-roll unit. The procedure is to repass either residue B with a low potential on electrode 3 or deflectant C with a high potential on 3. Most electrostatic separations follow a flowsheet of roughing and cleaning either the concentrate or the tailing, on both. In a specific instance, a dry, heated mixture of wet cleaned chromite and garnet from an

Jan 1, 1942

The purposes of composition are various; one purpose, for instance, is to make a record for the writer's own use, as in a diary. That does not involve responsibility to others. There is also the writing meant to influence opinion-to be persuasive and pleasing. With such writing we need not concern ourselves at this stage of our study. The prime purpose of technical writing is to be informative-to convey information; therefore it must be clear beyond the chance of misunderstanding. Such clearness is impossible if meaningless or ill chosen words are sprinkled through the text. Discard the trivial phrases that are constantly at your elbow. Brush aside a host of vapid superlatives. Metternich exclaimed: "The superlative is the mark of fools". It is a false emphasis, like the underlining in a school-girl's letter. For example, the little word 'very' can be deleted nine times out of ten; it is an impediment to terse and perspicuous writing, as the multitudinous hand-baggage of the British tourist is to his travel. 'Very' supposes comparison. A mine with a 1000-ft. shaft is very deep to the scribe who writes from the Joplin district, in Missouri, but it seems a shallow hole to a man living at Calumet, Michigan. A vein that is 10 feet across may be considered very wide at Cripple Creek, Colorado, but it is only a 'stringer' to the miner at the Homestake, in South Dakota. Ore assaying $20 in gold is very rich at Juneau, Alaska, where 10,000 tons of $1 ore is crushed daily, but it is relatively low-grade to the pocket-miner at Alleghany, in California. It is all a matter of comparison; unless the reader knows your standards of depth, width, or richness, your 'very' has no significance. "Where erosion was very rapid or oxidation very shallow"

Jan 1, 1931

By Joseph W. Richards

THIS method of briquetting flue-dust, or flue-dust mixed with fine ores, or, in a few exceptional cases, coke-dust, has come into large commercial use in Europe, and a small plant is already in operation in the United States. It promises to become of such great importance to the iron industry of the United States that the following description will certainly interest the majority of our pig-iron producers. Discovered in 1908, the process rests upon the observation of Dr. Schumacher that blast-furnace flue-dust, while possessing of itself no binding or cementing properties, acquires strong cementing properties if mixed with a very small amount of certain salt solutions, the amount of which is so small that the resulting cementation appears to be rather by catalytic action of the salts added than by the mass-action of such chemicals. To be more specific, fresh blast-furnace flue-dust mixed with from 5 to 10 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride solution-that is to say, with from 0.25 to 2 per cent. of its weight of magnesium chloride or calcium chloride-acquires the property of setting within a short time, from 15 to 60 min., and forming a hard cemented briquette. Alkaline solutions appear to have no action such as described, and they even interfere, if present, with the action of the magnesium and calcium solutions. When treated in this way the flue-dust briquette sets very hard, apparently from pure excess of cementing- and setting-power. It is, therefore, possible to . mix with the flue-dust a considerable proportion of inert ore or like material, which has no setting-power by this process, and thus to make a compound briquette containing large quantities of ore mixed with flue-dust, but in which the flue-dust may be regarded as the cement or binding-material. A particularly strongly cementing flue-

May 1, 1912

By Herbert Hoover

I HAVE been greatly honored as your unanimous choice for President of this. Institute, with which I have been associated during my entire professional life. It is customary for your new President, on these occasions, to make some observation on matters of general interest from the engineer's standpoint. The profession of engineering in the United States comprises not alone scientific advisers on industry but, in great majority, is comprised of the men in administrative positions. In such positions, they stand midway between capital and labor. The character of your training and experience leads you to exact and quantitative thought. This basis of training in a great group of Americans furnished a wonderful' recruiting ground for service in these last years of tribulation. Many thousands of engineers were called into the army, the navy, and civilian service for the Government. Thousands of high offices were discharged by them with credit to the profession and the nation. We have in. this country, probably, one hundred thousand professional engineers. The events of the past few years have greatly stirred their interest in national problems.' This has taken practical. form in the maintenance of joint committees for discussion of these problems and support to a free advisory bureau in ,Washington. The engineers want nothing for themselves from Congress.. They want efficiency in government, and you contribute to the maintenance of this bureau out of sheer idealism. This organization for consideration of national problems has had many subjects before it, and I propose to touch on some of them this evening.

Jan 1, 1920

By Dr. O’Neil Thomas J., Donald W. Gentry

It was a western truism that more money was made from selling mines than from buying them, just as it was accepted that many a good mine had been spoiled by working it. from R. E. White, "The Mining Town," Alta California August 18,1873 INTRODUCTION One of the most important aspects of mineral enterprises of US corporations is the influence of the depletion allowance on cash flow. This allowance permits mineral producers to claim sizable federal income tax deductions not available to other industries, and these deductions significantly increase cash flows in mining. In the past several years the minerals depletion allowance has come under increasingly heavy fire from many sectors as a tax loophole that deprives the federal government of large amounts of revenue. One estimate of the loss of tax dollars in 1968 was $2.25 billion due to depletion deductions and intangible expenses in the oil industry. Largely on the basis of such arguments, the Tax Reform Act of 1969 reduced percentage depletion rates for a number of minerals, and the Tax Reduction Act of 1975 totally eliminated statutory depletion for most oil and gas. In regard to percentage depletion for hard minerals, the federal government has estimated its resulting loss of revenue at $1.75 billion for 1980. The TEFRA legislation of 1982 further reduced the statutory depletion allowance available to iron ore, coal, and lignite beginning in 1984. Thus, it is clear that minerals engineers and managers should have a thorough knowledge of the origin, evolution, justification, and computational procedures relating to the depletion allowance. ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF THE DEPLETION ALLOWANCE

Jan 1, 1984

By H. P. Allen

THE Achotla mill of the Cia. Minera de Peñoles is of special interest in that it is one of the few still employing the chloridization process. The ore milled comes from the Suriana mine and consists of both oxide and sulphide, from neither of which can the gold or silver be extracted by a simple cyanide treatment. The mill was built in 1927, after several years of study in the development of the process1, and operated from December of that year until October 1930. Operations were resumed in February 1935, and have been continuous since, treating approximately 5000 tons per month, while the mine is getting up to full tonnage of 6500 tons per month.

Jan 1, 1937

Engineers who are in charge of industrial operations, and their number is legion, sense as much as anyone the present feeling of unrest in the' country and more than anyone else realize the present inefficiency of labor. Undoubtedly the two phenomena are closely correlated and no doubt are due to a multitude of causes which it will be impossible to enumerate. From my experience in mining I estimate that the present efficiency of labor is only about two-thirds of what it was under pre-war conditions. In the mining industry, at least, we have not a large surplus of men looking for work and usually under these conditions men are rather more independent and will not work as efficiently and faithfully as if they felt there were plenty of men ready to take their places. Wages in metal mining have advanced more than the increased cost of normal and sane living. The result is that the men often work fewer days in a month and do not seem to have very much interest in their work while actually engaged in it. Then again, they have been listening to the more or less vague propaganda of the I. W. W. and the radical wing of the socialists, who are harping on the fact that the distribution of newly created wealth is unfair and that the laborer really is not working for himself or his fellow laborers but is carrying on his exertions for the benefit of a small and lim-ited class of exploiters. A continued harping on this view is bound to influence the judgment of even a conservative workman who is not a student of economics and who hears little or nothing upon the other side. I am a great believer in the common sense of the American people and in the long run I do not think that they will be carried away by unsafe doctrines. The trouble with so many of these propagandists of industrial in-equality is that they do not differentiate between production and dis-tribution. Even if we admit that distribution is unfair, unless goods are produced there will be nothing to distribute. A great many unthinking people seem to feel that wages are paid out of a pot which is inexhaustible and do not realize that eventually what comes out of the pot can never exceed what is put into it. The workman is not paid in money but is paid in goods, money as we all know being used simply as a measure of value and a medium of exchange, and that all that can be used to pay the laborer is what he produces.

Jan 11, 1919