The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1911-03-16
THE POTASH CONTROVERSY
German Claims Presented at Wash
lngton Are contradicted by
American Interests.

Washington, D. c., Jan.-The cotton
growing states are particularly inter
ested in the potash controversy be-
tween the State Department and Ber-
lin, since the future price of fertilizer
is directly affected by the outcome.
German interests have just made rep
resentation to Secretary Knox similar
in effect to those assertions made by
circular letter to the miners through
out the South claiming that the Ger
man potash Law, which places a pen
atty on mines selling heavily to Amer.
leans at a lower price than has for
merly ruled, is merely part of the
general conservation policy of Ger
many.
According to Ochsimus, leading
German geologist, there are about
$4,000 square miles of potash in one
section of Germany, each of these
containing some 5O,OO0,OOO tons Of
pure potash. This same authority
states that the annual output from
these mines is about 100000 tons each.
and he figures that II the annual out
put should jump to 100000 tons an
nually, it would still require 621, 600
years to exhaust the supply.
Another of Germany's assertions is
that the law does not discriminate
against Americans. The brief of the
American potash buyers committee
submitted to congress points out that,
under the law as recently passed by
Germany, the mines of the potash
trust in that country were allowed q
proportion of output sufficient to sup
ply the world, while the Independent
mines that had made contracts to sup
ply the United States at reduced
price were limited to one-fourth Of
their actual sales already made to us.
In addition penalty of $22 per ton
was imposed for overproduction. Thus
the penalty falls exclusively upon
shipments to this country and indi-
rectly upon the consumer.
An effort is apparently being made
to create the impression that this con-
troversy is really a contest between
the policy of the German government
and an American trust. The fact is
that there is no such complete and
powerful trust in the United States
as this German potash syndicate.
This syndicate actually monopolizes
the entire potash supply of the world,
save for the two mines that broke
away from the trust and sold to Amer
ican buyers. In this c0untry there
are about 70 different fertilizer manu-
facturers using potash, and OF these
about rs ryr cent are Independent of
any trust affiliation.
Another claim made by the German
committee at the White House was to
the effect that the American buyers
knew that law would be passed pro-
viding for government taxes and pen
alties to be assessed, and that they
made these contracts with this knowl
edge in mind. The American commit
tee states positively that this informa-
ton was brought to them after the
contracts were made, and used as a
club in an attempt to force them to
give up the contracts already entered
into, which would have reduced the
price of fertilizer materially in this
country.
An official high in the government
here is authority for the statement
that the cost of this controversy must
necessarily fall upon the consumer,
and that 1t should, therefore, be set
tied quickly While the American
companies paying penalty have met
the prices made by the German trust
that pays no penalty, this has been
done at a loss, and should they with.
draw from the field because Of this,
the price OF fertilizer in this country
would be dictated by the German
monopoly untrammelled in Berlin.