The Goldfield news. [volume] (Goldfield, Nev.) 1904-1911, 1910-04-23
Sal INF LANDS WORTH MILLIONS IN DANUEl
Enormity of Borax and Salt Industry.

Enormity Of Borax and Salt Industry.
The enormity of the borax and salt
industry of the nation is something IN
derstood and comprehended, but by
very few of the people in the United
States. Borax is a commodity with
which every housewife is familiar, as
she uses it in her dishwater, in bath
water, in washing the family clothing.
1t is an ingredient of every bar of
laundry or toilet soap. 1t is contained
in all washing powders-it is held in
the horaeic acid used in nearly every
household for disinfection of trifing
cuts and abrasions and burns. The
housewife knows that borsx is cheap
and yet she knows, upon reflection, that
the package of borax given her by her
druggist for the sum of ten cents IS
today about half the size of the pack.
age she received for the same money
ten years ago. Laundry soap costs
twice as much now as it did then-as
10 all commodities in which borax is
used. Salt, also a product and by
product of the saline lands, is also a
household commodity, necessary for the
life of man and beast. Salt, too, has
increased in value, and its cost to the
consumer ranges from 3 cents per
pound for the lower grades to Is cents
per pound for the high grade table and
dairy salts. This is practically double
the price paid for the condiment ten
years ago.
Great Profits.
Government records for the year 1908
show that the United States production
of Borax was some $4,000 tons, vaiueG
at $40.52 per ton, or totalling s2,43l,
200-this exclusive of the imports. For
the same year 100000 tons of salt were
imported from Europe and the West
Indies, and the domestic production is
given by the government authorities as
5000, 900 tons, making a total Salt con
sumption for the United States for that
year 5,15O,000 tons. This salt had a
gross value of $3.50 per ton, totalling
1885, 25, 900. Government figures for
1908 show that the salt manufactures
made a net profit per ton of $l,S75,
which makes a total profit for the year
to the salt producers of $4,000, 600.
Summing up the value of the borax
produced within the United States dur
ing 1908, (the figures as to borax I'M
portations not available now, and the
value of the salt produced aud imported
during the same year, we have a total
gross value of salt and porax as SAL
056, 200. The prof. on the salt alone
was so, 900 900, and the profit on the
borax will add much more than another
million dollars. so it viii be seen that
the borax and salt producers made a
net profit for the year of more than
&c., 0 900.
Who Made the Profit.
This profit in part has gone to the
+. NJ. Smith, better known as "Borax
Smith, is the ostensible head. Smith,
be it known to those who like salt in
their bread and beer, and on their
potatoes and steak, is the efficient
handler of the Standard Oil money that
has made his extensive operations in
the fearsome Death Valley in Inyo
county, California, and in the Fish Lake
Valley, Rhodes Marsh, Columbus
Marsh and Teal's Marsh, in Esmeralaa
county, Nevada, possible.
The rest of the profit has gone to the
International Salt company, which is
another name for John Rockefeller q
Co., these people having financed the
International Salt company, and today
hold the bonds for the same concern.
The start of the Borax Trust was in
teresting. "Borax'' Smith, in 1874,
with a grub outfit, a burro and one Or
TWO empty oil cans, started In at reals
Marsh, saved borax by evaporating the
saline waters of the lake in his oil can,
and took the same to Wadsworth, Ne
vada, where he sold it at 80 cents per
pound. This was a much less price than
borax could be shipped across country
for then. 1t '1took' with the house
wives, and soon the market increased.
Smith was able TO get more oil cans for
evaporating tanks. Finally he was able
to get a team and some lumber, and
constructed wooden evaporating tanks
in which to expose the saline waters of
the lake TO the torrid sun, that licked
up the water so rapidly that one could
sit beside the watts and almost see the
water level lower. Then, in 1882, in
the Calico district, in San Bernardino