Repository: UIHistories Project: Dedication - ISGS New Mineral Lab [PAGE 5]

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IMPORTATION OF MINERALS

Importations of minerals from outside the State have seriously reduced the production of minerals within, caused the abandonment or temporary closing of many mines, pits, and quarries, reduced employment, seriously affected the comfort and happiness of thousands of homes, curtailed the business of many communities, lowered property values, and diminished tax returns for the support of public schools and other essential institutions. Whatever the factors which have permitted this, it is evident that any attempt to regain the lost markets must take into consideration the new evolutionary changes and readjustments in business. In 1929, in the production of Illinois coal, there was a decrease below normal which resulted in a loss in wages to coal miners alone of more than $20,000,000. Gas from the southwest is already being delivered in Illinois by pipe-lines. Crushed limestone, cement, clay, sand and gravel, silica, and architectural building stone are coming in in large quantities, which mineral substances in large part, we believe, can be made available from Illinois sources by research of the order hereinafter outlined. As would be expected from the above mentioned facts, the statistics of the U. S. Bureau of Mines show an alarming decline in the value of the minerals produced in Illinois, while the statistics of the Bureau of the Census show an increase in population. Those statistics are as follows:

Mineral Production

1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 $254,000,000 245,000,000 283,000,000 236,000,000 232,000,000 237,000,000 180,000,000 188,000,000

Population

6,528,000 (1920) 6,744,000 6,856,000 6,987,000 7,093,000 7,203,000 7,296,000 7,396,000

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It is evident that all of the mineral industries of Illinois did not share in the increased use of minerals resulting from a growing population, equivalent to an added city each year of 100,000 persons. During the period 1921-1928 inclusive, the amount invested in construction of all kinds, according to the F. W. Dodge Corporation, in nine central states increased from $695,585,000 to $ J,934,775,000. In other words, the value of construction trebled, but Illinois'mineral industries did not all share in the opportunities afforded. On the other hand, the value of minerals produced in the United States increased $1,246,700,000, in spite of the decline of such an important mineral producing state as Illinois.

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