The chief use of iron is for the carrying of freight. Here are some figures given by Mr. Carnegie. Moving one thousand tons of freight by rail requires an eighty-ton locomotive and twenty-five twenty-ton steel cars, or five hundred and eighty tons of iron and steel to draw it over--say an average of ten miles of double track with switches, frogs, spikes, etc., which will weigh more than four hundred tons. Thus we see that to move a thousand tons of freight requires the use of an equal weight of iron. The same freight may be moved by water by means of from one hundred to two hundred and fifty tons of metal, so that if freight were sent by water instead of by rail the amount of iron needed for this service would be reduced at least three-fourths, the amount of coal would be reduced not less than half, and at the same time the coal used in extra smelting would be saved. No single step open to us to-day would do more to check the drain on both iron and coal than the use of our rivers for carrying heavy freight. The next great use of iron is for buildings and bridges. The greatly increasing use of cement and concrete is reducing this and will reduce it still further. Cement is made from slag, or the refuse of iron ore--the clays and shales--and the cost of this valuable product is little more than the former cost of piling it away. By making the useless slag into cement the cost of iron production is lowered 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."