Page:Walter Renton Ingalls - Wealth and Income of the American People (1924).pdf/152

130 bituminous coal mining “there is nearly 100 per cent excess capacity in the development of the mines and this development keeps growing.” The anthracite mines, on the other hand appear to be pressed closely to their capacity. In brimstone, the country has capacity for the production of 2,000,000 tons per annum with prospective demand for no more than 1,000,000 tons.

The metal manufacturing industries are also greatly extended. The copper wire, sheet and brass mills have present capacity for manufacture of about two billion pounds of copper per annum, but the use of copper in the United States immediately before the war was at the rate of only about 800 million pounds per annum. The steel plate rolling mills have present annual capacity for 6.7 million long tons, and the sheet mills (for black and galvanized sheets) for about four million long tons, both of which capacities are greatly in excess of the requirements. The capacity for plates had necessarily to correspond with the rate of shipbuilding, and with the decline in the latter became redundant.

In sulphuric acid, the basis of the chemical industry, the overbuilding is enormous. In 1913 the United States made 2,235,000 tons (in terms of pure acid) and in 1918 no less than 4,700,000 tons. At the end of 1918 the sulphuric acid manufacturing capacity was 6,000,000 tons, basis 100 per cent H.SO,. The capacity for alkali production is also largely overextended. The maximum pre-war capacity for sodium hydroxide was about 300,000 tons. In 1916 it was about 400,000 tons, and at present about 550,000 to 600,000 tons.

The over-expansion of our shipyards is so notorious