d and at
the same time the drain on the iron is lessened.

A large use of steel of the highest quality is for battleships, cannon,
and war supplies. If the great nations of the world would agree to
reduce their armament, one of the great drains on the world's iron,
coal, and wood supply would cease, and these materials be put to
improving the world.

The worst feature of it is that these war supplies are continually
changing. They must be of the latest pattern, or they are of small value
for fighting purposes. The construction of battleships differs greatly
year by year, and the older ships are discarded to make place for newer
and larger ones. It is said that our newest battleship alone could with
a few shots destroy all of Admiral Dewey's fleet. The following is from
a recent magazine article:

"It is admitted by naval officers that the ships of ten years ago are of
obsolete type and would be useless against the new vessels. It is
admitted that within ten years or less the new types will in turn become
obsolete, and will be useless against the type of vessel certain to be
evolved. That is, as soon as a vessel costing millions of dollars leaves
the docks, she enters into active competition for a place on the junk
pile."

The greatest improvement that can be imagined in the iron situation will
be in the discovery and use of alloys or mixtures of iron with other
materials. Steel, the strongest of all forms of iron, is an alloy of
iron and carbon, and for various purposes these are further mixed with
nickel and silicas. Many other alloys have been discovered within the
last few years, and each makes possible new uses for iron requiring
greater strength. One of the best of these is a mixture of iron and
silicon, called ferro-silicon. Silica is one of the cheapest and most
abundant materials of all the earth's products, so its combination with
iron will greatly lengthen the life of the iron supply; and it is
probable that in the future combinations of other materials will yield
better and cheaper metals than any thus far produced.

The amount of metal which can be reworked is constantly increasing. Most
of the iron factories remelt large quantities of old iron, to be used
with the new, and this will lessen each year the demand on the ores. It
is also possible that new deposits of iron ore will be found and these
will greatly increase the supply. But from the whole iron situation we
may draw the following conclusions: