Because of such advantages the United States Steel Corpora tion to-day controls more than half the steel business of the United States. It employs over 250,000 men distributed from Alabama to Lake Superior and from Pennsylvania to Colorado. Its 150 great manufacturing plants, its 130 iron mines, its 750,000 acres of coal lands, its 1300 miles of railway, 1400 engines, 60,000 freight cars and its 100 steamers, together with its docks, limestone quarries, gas wells, and oil wells, are worth two billion dollars, and yield a profit of between one and two hundred million dollars each year. A part, but by no means the greater part of the profits has come back to the public. For instance, Andrew Carnegie, for a long time the largest stockholder of the Corporation, gave not far from $350,000,000 for public use in libraries, scientific organizations, educational insti tutions, and many other forms. This is the only right course, for the profits of all such industries, although due in part to wise man agement, are also due partly to the fact that our laws permit private individuals to obtain control of valuable natural resources like coal and iron.
How Copper Influences Human Progress.—After the time when iron tools came into use at the end of the Bronze Age copper played a minor role, its chief use being for cooking vessels. Within the last half century, however, copper has again become important, for the world has learned to use electricity. Among all the common substances copper is the best electrical conductor, therefore no power plant, electric light plant, telephone, telegraph, or automobile is made without copper. In California and elsewhere copper wire now makes it possible to transmit electric power 400 to 500 miles. The need of good electrical conductors is growing so rapidly that to-day copper is the most important of all metals after iron. Eight times as much copper was produced in 1910 as in 1880, and there has been a steady increase in more recent years. In 1913 the world's production was over a million tons.
Copper Production of the United States.—The United States dom inates the copper situation, for it produces more than half of the world's supply. It is the only great industrial country, aside from Japan, that has large copper mines. The American supply formerly came largely from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Oddly enough the fact that the ore'there often occurs in large pieces of pure metal is a disadvantage. Copper ore can be smelted more easily than pure copper can be dug out, for the metal is so ductile that it cannot be broken by blasting. Arizona and Montana are now the chief copper States.
The Character of a Copper Town.—The demand for copper has led to the growth of many cities such as Butte, Montana, and Bisbee, Arizona. The surrounding regions have been thoroughly prospected and the copper industry has assumed a permanent aspect. Hence
the towns have lost many of the bad qualities of the " boom" towns which grow up where the precious metals are mined. A man may settle in a copper mining town with the idea of staying there for life.
The chief drawback is that mining is a hard, disagreeable occupation. Aside from the skilled superintendents, engineers, and foremen, it usually attracts only the poorest kind of labor. Moreover, most of the copper mines are not located in agreeable surroundings, for the bare deserts of the region west of the Rocky Mountains are less attractive than the more fertile regions elsewhere. Another draw back is that the smelting of copper ore fills the air with vast clouds of sulphur, for many of the best ores are a combination of copper and sulphur. At Butte, Montana, and at other places, the sulphurous smoke is carried to heights of four or five hundred feet in great chim neys. Yet it settles down in such volume that not a tree can grow within miles of the smelters. Such conditions often drive capable people away from the mining towns, and thus retard their progress.
Copper in Other Countries.—The other countries where copper is abundant are Chile, Japan, Spain, Mexico, and Australia, in the order named. The Chuquicamata deposits in Chile, owned by an American corporation, are by far the largest in the world. Copper is one of Japan's chief metal products, but her total production is only about one-eighth that of the United States. Aside from Spain the countries of Europe have little copper. In the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor supplies are reported, but are not extensively worked. Germany's inability to get copper during the Great War was a great handicap. Ordinarily that country produces only 26,000 tons a year and consumes about 260,000 tons. During the War her need was vastly increased. The government requisitioned every available bit of copper, including trolley wires, electric light fixtures, faucets, old teapots handed down for generations, and the very roofs and bells from the churches. Even the Emperor's palace was not spared, and attempts were made to buy up the copper coins of other countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Aluminum.—The light metal known as aluminum is a compara tive newcomer. Not till about 1910 was it sold at such a price that it could be used like iron and copper for ordinary purposes. Its uses lie between those of the other two metals. Pound for pound it surpasses copper as an electrical conductor, but cannot so easily be made into wire that will not break. It is harder than copper, how ever, and hence in automobiles and especially airplanes it can be used for parts like the oil pan of the engine, where the strength of iron is not required and where lightness is desirable.