10 
OUR MINERAI. RESERVES. 
consideration is therefore pertinent to the present discussion. The 
country’s reserves of certain of these minerals are great enough to 
stimulate larger exports and the interference with the importation 
of others enforces the utilization of reserves as yet relatively un 
touched. Of a few other mineral products unfortunately the do 
mestic resources are inadequate, or at least undiscovered, and the 
problem they present is one of exploration and thorough investi 
gation. 
A glance at the statistics of mineral imports affords a means of 
comprehending in a broad way how great and complex is the task 
of attaining national independence in the mining, métallurgie, and 
chemical industries. Last year the imports of mineral products, 
both crude and manufactured, exceeded $270,000,000. Of this total 
probably $200,000.000 represents raw materials and crude metals, 
the value of these imports being only 8 per cent that of the domestic 
output. In this list of imports the larger items named in the order 
of value are unmanufactured copper, precious stones, nitrate of soda, 
copper ore and matte, nickel, tin, iron ore, pig iron and steel, petro 
leum products, manganese ores and alloys, platinum, aluminum, 
pyrite, graphite, stone, potash, and magnesite. In the discussion 
which follows it will be shown that this country has an abundant 
supply of most of these mineral products that are now imported 
in large amounts, and that as to them it can be independent of for 
eign countries. The only essential minerals of the first rank of which 
the United States has no known supply at all commensurate with its 
needs are nitrates, potash salts, tin, nickel, and platinum, the list 
thus comprising two essential mineral fertilizers and three very use 
ful metals. Probably no other nation in the world so nearly ap 
proaches absolute independence in respect to mineral resources. 
MINERAL FUELS. 
opportunity por export. 
In its reserves of mineral fuels, the United States holds an im 
pregnable position as a world power in industry and commerce. Our 
production of coal overtops that of any other nation and, in fact, 
nearly equals the combined output of Great Britain and Germany, 
the nations that rank second and third. Inasmuch as the United 
States leads the world not only in coal production, but also in low 
cost of coal mining, and apparently possesses the greatest reserves, 
it follows, as was pointed out by Campbell and Parker in 1908, that 
foreign countries will obviously look more and more to the United 
States for their supplies of coal. The lower cost of production in 
the United States, which is due largely to the favorable location of 
the coal beds and the extensive use of mining machines, is offset in 
Great Britain by the proximity of the coal mines to the seaboard. 
The wages paid in the United States are higher than in any country