Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/151

Rh that is a little below the highest standard of efficiency, but is still too good to be definitely discarded.

In the mining and metallurgical industry, the capacity for copper production is without any doubt greatly over-extended, but it is difficult to express this numerically. The refining capacity was 1768 million pounds at the end of 1913 and 2794 million pounds at the end of 1917. After 1918 there was a small annual decrease owing to dismantling. The smelting capacity was sufficient for about 20 million tons of ore at the end of 1913 and about 22.5 million at the end of 1920. In this branch of the industry there was no great increase, there having already been superfluous capacity in 1913. As for the mines they produced about 1.25 billion pounds in 1913 and two billion pounds at the maximum (in 1916). At the latter time their production was forced to a rate that probably could not be maintained long. The present mine capacity is probably somewhere between 1.5 and 1.8 billion pounds.

The capacity for zinc production is over-extended about 100 per cent; for lead production there is a smaller surplus, but this is an old state of affairs, no noteworthy additions in this industry having been made during the war. In pig iron also, there was a substantial surplus of capacity in existence before the war and only moderate additions were made during that period, but at the present time the furnaces are able to make a far greater quantity of metal than there is any demand in sight. The steel works also, are overbuilt having a present ingot capacity for making 55,000,000 long tons per annum, which is largely in excess of the blast furnace capacity for making pig iron and far beyond present or prospective requirements for steel. In