of people, is as great in commerce as France and America with their 70,000,000. It is, then, our possession of coal, near what depends on coal, that has given us this extraordinary pre-eminence in commerce and industry."

St. Louis enjoys all the conditions to which Chancellor Gladstone ascribes the industrial greatness of England. In the immediate vicinity of this city there is an exhaustless supply of coal, iron, limestone and fire clay.

The nearness of our iron mountains to coal of a suitable quality and quantity to smelt them, preordains this city to be the great central machine shop of this continent. A direct revenue of annual millions will yet repay our capitalists for investments in this branch of business. But the collateral benefits of this success would be immense. The establishment in this vicinity of iron works sufficiently large to answer the needs of this valley would bring tens of millions annually to our municipal coffers. It would give a powerful impulse to the growth of St. Louis, improve our markets, and quicken the activity of every trade. If this great enterprise can be carried into successful execution, no rivalry can endanger the pre-eminent greatness of St. Louis.

CONDITION OF THE FIRE INSURANCE INTEREST.

It was not without good reason that the representatives of the Fire Insurance interest recently assembled in convention to deliberate upon the serious aspect of their affairs. During the last two years there has been such a grave increasein their losses that the companies found the rates upon which they had effected insurances quite inadequate to cover the actual risks; and some have suffered a severe drain upon their resources. The insurance institutions are the less prepared to meet this adverse course of affairs from the fact that a severe competition had induced them to lower their rates much below a conservative limit.

The facts presented to the convention were simple, and the remedy as plain. The case was clear that, if the present rate of losses be continued, with the current tariff of premiums, most of the companies must at no distant date go into liquidation. The only step that could possibly meet the case was a prompt increase in rates, in something like the same ratio as the losses had increased. This course the convention, with great unanimity, adopted; and in so doing they showed but a just regard for the conservation of the large amount of capital invested in their enter prise, and for the protection of the immense interests insured.

The main conclusion arrived at was therefore businesslike and to the point; but it should by no means be corsidered as all the action the condition of this interest requires. While the advanced rates may be considered justifiable as a temporary expedient, providing against an extraordinary exigency; yet a rigid inquiry should be instituted into the eauses which have rendered this resort necessary. It is not to be presumed that the public will be long satisfied to pay the new rates, nor ought the continuance of the advance to be long required. The causes of fires are, to a certain extent, within control; and it is the business of

the insurance companies to institute a thorough inquiry into the condition of affairs which has produced the late extraordinary frequency of fires, and into the means which may be devised for reducing risks. It will not do to assume that the present rate of losses is altogether extraordinary and temporary, and that, as risks will soon return to their wonted ratio, all that is required is an advance of rates during the period of exceptional losses. We have seen that the companies are at any time. subject to an increase of conflagrations, seriously impairing their solvency and the security of the insuring public; and the fact of their being exposed to such contingencies will greatly shake public confidence in the ability of the associations to carry their risks, unless some measures be adopted calculated to lessen the liability to fires in our large cities.

The insurance companies assign as one reason for the large increase of losses that an unusual number of fires have arisen from parties insured becoming incendiaries, in order to make money upon their insurance. As it is a demonstrated rule that incendiary fires are always most numerous in times of commercial depression, it is quite probable that the specially heavy losses now being incurred by business men may have more or less contributed to the late increase of fires. But this alone cannot account for the augmentation of risks. Nor is it to the interest of the companies to attach undue importance to this circumstance, as they appear disposed to do. The large majority of policy holders are honest; and they will naturally ask the question whether it is not better to carry their own risks rather than submit to a large increase of rates to cover the losses caused by recklessly dishonest parties. The public have a right to expect of the insurance companies that they exercise a most searching scrutiny into the degree of risk arising from this cause, so that they be not needlessly taxed, by an increase of premiums, to cover the destruction caused by incendiaries. The true remedy in this case is in prevention, rather than an increase of rates.

The companies also affirm that very unusual losses have occurred in connection with cotton insurances. Of this there can be no doubt. The receipts of cotton at this port have been unusually large, and we have no proper warehouses for storing it. Besides, much of it has been received in such condition that it required to be repacked; and the rebaling by workmen who are allowed to smoke during the process has been attended with great risk. The immense stock held here, and our present accommodations for holding it, have led to its heing stored in such solid masses that when fire broke out the water could be brought to bear upon the huge piles very imperfectly. Nor is it improbable that cotton has at times been fired for the express purpose of creating a chance for gain upon the salvage, the profits made upon charred cotton having in many cases reached 200 per cent. Here, again, is a case calling for investigation by the insurance interest; for the cotton trade must not be driven away from us by excessive rates, nor must ordinary policy holders be called upon to pay for the carelessness of cotton-packers and the incendiarisms of salvage speculators.

These and other special causes have been assigned as the true explanation of our late increase of fires. No definite result, however, can be reached, because there are no facts from which we can draw our conclusions; and besides, no remedy is proposed except a continuance of high

rates. To be sure, it has been suggested that a rule be adopted limiting the amount of insurance to three-fourths the value of the property insured. This, it is supposed, would neutralise the motive to incendiarism on the part of insurers; and in this view there is doubtless force. But on the other hand, there are insuperable objections to the proposal. It would operate most seriously against the trade of the port were it impossible to protect consignments against fire risks to the full amount. A large proportion of merchants would feel that an important motive to insurance was then taken away. In case of the total destruction of their stock, the policy would perhaps cover that portion held on credit, while the remainder, which was strictly their own, would be a total loss; in other words, the insurance would cover their creditors but not themselves. Right or wrong, this is a view which many would doubtless act upon. There are many other grave objections to this proposal; but there is so little prospect of its being adopted it is unnecessary to mention them.

The most effective, if not the only remedy that the case admits of, is, we think, to be found in a thorough examination into the causes of all fires, and also in the non-payment of the amount insured until it is at least established that the loss is not of incendiary origin. A committee or board should be organized, the members to be chosen by all the companies, whose duty it should be to make this examination. If this were done the insurance business could be reduced to a proper basis, and no insurer would be called upon to pay for his neighbor's dishonesty or for his neighbor's greater risk. At present, no sooner does a company hear of a loss than it hurries to the insured with check in hand to liquidate it, thus making a bid for future business. This is clearly wrong. Of course, no unnecessary impediment should be put in the way of prompt payment, but it is due alike to the company and its patrons that there should first be a proper investigation.

8

Such a committee as we have suggested would also find assistance in their work by an examination into the causes which give rise to such an enormous excess of losses in our large cities over those of Europe. In London, with a population thrice that of New York, the amount of losses is far less than in this city. There the rate of insurance, on average trade risks, is of 1 per cent.; while here it is fully six times that ratio. In Paris the losses are far less than even in London, fires being there of very rare occurrence. These facts show that the frequency of fires is a matter dependent upon conditions connected with the habits and social arrangements of the respective localities; and as those conditions are susceptible of material modification by judicious legislation and police regulations, it is clearly the business of a well conducted insurance interest to institute a broad and thorough examination of the causes of this difference. The inquiry should be conducted not by the legislature, whose investigations rarely elicit much truth, but by a carefully selected board, chosen by the insurance interest at large, and furnished with every means requisite to make their researches thorough.

RAILROAD EARNINGS FOR JANUARY.

The gross earnings of the specified railroads for the month of January, 1866 and 1867, comparatively, and the differences (increase or decrease) between the two periods, are exhibited in the subjoined statement:

The statement which follows shows the miles operated, and the gross earnings per mile of these railroads, for the same months:

Railroads.

-Gross Earnings

-Miles of Road

per mile,

1866.

1867.

....

1,032

563

669

* Earnings of O. and M. Railroad for January, 1867, are estimated.

From the above statements it appears that the decrease in gross earnings in January, 1867, as compared with January, 1866, has been only $34,192. Eleven lines gained on the earnings of the previous year $478,276, and eight lines lost $512,468. The gaining lines were chiefly in Illinois and Wisconsin, where the snow fall has been much less than in January, 1866. On the contrary the great through lines, East and West, were badly snow-bound, and for days at a time unable to pass trains. That the business of the sections not invaded by snow has been more than usually active for January is obvious, and the interruption in the snow-bound regions is no indication of an actual falling off from the general average.

We have, then, in these statements very satisfactory results, calculated certainly to give increased confidence to the stockholders of the great div idend-paying roads.

REPORT OF JAMES W. TAYLOR TO SECRETARY MCCULLOCH.

SIR-In pursuance of your letter of instructions of Sept. 12, 1866, I present some general information in regard to the production of gold and silver in the Territories of New Mexico, Colorodo and Montana, in a district of Minnesota northwest of Lake Superior, of which the lake and river Vermillion indicate the locality, and upon the eastern slope of the Alleghany range in the States of Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland, with some notice of recent discoveries of gold in New Hampshire, Nova Scotia and Canada.

In a second instalment of this communication a general review of the production of gold and silver in other quarters of the world is submitted, with the purpose of indicating relatively the commercial and social importance of the treasure product of the United States.

A third division presents a summary of the domestic commerce from the Missouri River westward to the interior or mining districts of the United States, having reference prominently to the situation and prospects of railway communication with the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific coast. The brief period and the limited means of information which have been available since the date of your commission will confine the present communication to the form of a preliminary report, postponing a fuller consideration of the topics enumerated to a subsequent occasion.

THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS.

This designation no longer includes the whole breadth of the Andean chain in the United States. It refers only to the formation known in Mexico as the Sierra Madre, or Mother Mountain, from which the Sierra Nevada of California, or the western wall of the mountain mass, diverges in northern Mexico, while the intervening plateau of table lands is now recognized as a distinct and characteristic division of the continent. The Rocky Mountains, or the cordillera of the Sierra Madre, traverses the territory of the United States in a north-northwest direction, from the 29th to the 49th parallel of latitude. The average elevation of its crest is 12.000 feet above the sea, lifting, for a breadth of 300 miles, above the altitude of its eastern and western piedmonts, which, in the latitude of Denver and Great Salt Lake, is fully 6,000 feet. Those valleys, slopes, and gorges, which supply the sources of the Missouri, Yellowstone, Platte, Arkansas, and Rio Grande rivers, are the prominent features of the Territories of Montana, Colorado and New Mexico, and will be the first topics of consideration in relation to gold and silver mining east of the Rocky Mountains.

NEW MEXICO.

If we compare a map of this Territory with any similar publication of the last century, even as early as a chart in Moll's atlas of 1720, the vicinity of Santa Fé is represented as even more populous than at present. The Spaniards thoroughly explored the valley of the Rio Grande, and their mining settlements were very numerous in the mountains of New Mexico There is a tradition that the Indians, whose labor had made the mines of