In the United States the extraordinary richness of the heritage of natural resources has often been stressed. The rate at which this heritage is drawn upon is significant because it is basic to our material well being. The extent to which we use these resources is shown by the increase between 1899 and 1929 of 286 percent in mining production, as compared with increases of 210 percent in manufacturing, of 48 percent in agriculture, and of 62 percent in population. Modern civilization rests upon power, upon energy derived from inorganic rather than human or animal sources. Since the beginning of the century the consumption of energy has increased about 230 percent; and the prices of coal, oil and electricity have not risen more than have general wholesale prices. Iron, the most common element in the tools and machines driven by power, has been plentiful and its price has risen much less than have general prices, and most of the other minerals have risen in price less than the general price level.

But the supply of minerals is limited and exhaustible. As the richer and more accessible deposits are used up, mining proceeds to leaner ores and greater depths, and from year to year the natural obstacles become more serious. How does it happen, then, that the minerals can be used in increasing quantities, yet produced at diminishing costs? The answer is given by a thousand technological improvements in production and consumption. This brilliant achievement is shown in the increasing output per worker; in the coal mines it rose more than 50 percent during the period 1900 to 1930; in the same period the reduction in fuel consumed per unit of product was over 33 percent. In the field of the metals, there is a great increase in recovery of scrap, and the drain upon the under-earth supply is thereby retarded. The revolving fund of metal thus created will increase with the years. All of these factors promise further victories in the battle against increasing costs. For the immediate future the outlook is for a growing abundance of minerals available at declining price. After that and long before exhaustion sets in, the problem of rising costs will become more acute. The ultimate outlook is suggested by the position of England, where growing difficulties of mining have swallowed up the gains of technology and the output per worker in the coal mines is less than it was fifty years ago.

At the moment the problem which is absorbing the attention of the mineral industry is not one of scarcity but of surplus. Abundance of resources and the competitive organization of mining have led to excessive capacity, causing heavy loss to the capital and labor engaged. But in preoccupation over the problem of too many mines and too many miners, there is danger of forgetting the waste of the underlying resources which such destructive competition entails. The best seams and richest deposits are being rapidly stripped, leaving large quantities more or less unminable. In the bituminous coal industry this loss amounts to 150 million tons of minable coal a year, and oil production is a similarly conspicuous example of waste. The money losses in mining have stimulated attempts at control of production and even proposals to modify the anti-trust laws. From the public point of view it is important that any change in economic organization undertaken in the interest of steadier profits and wages should also insure conservation by preventing waste of the resources.

One of the most practical steps in conservation is to harness the inexhaustible sources of power. Power from the tides is still in the future, although a tidal project at Passamaquoddy Bay is now under consideration. Power from waterfalls, on the other hand, now supplies 36 percent of the electricity generated by public utilities. The capacity of installed waterwheels has increased sevenfold in thirty years, and projects now in hand insure further large increase. Even so, only about 40 percent of the potential horsepower has been harnessed. Except for the St. Lawrence the undeveloped resources lie chiefly in regions remote from present markets.

It is clear that development of water power as fast as it can be utilized is in the public interest. Yet there is danger of exaggerating the amount of energy obtainable from this source. At the present time only seven percent of the country’s energy consumption–if heat be included as well as power–is derived from water, and even maximum development of the potential resources would leave us primarily depending upon fuel. As far as the energy resources are concerned, the heart of the conservation problem lies in preventing waste of coal, petroleum and natural gas.

Source: Recent Social Trends in the United States, an examination of the social state of the United States at the end of the 1920s undertaken at the direction of President Herbert Hoover.