The Washington herald., 1914-01-15
Lane DISCUSSES
RADIUM POLICY
Secretary Explains the Bill to
Chairmen of Committees
In Congress.
BITTER FIGHT EXPECTED
Conference with Dr.. Kelly Gives Inn
petus to Movement for Fed
eral Development.

Impetus was given to the movement
that has been started to induce Congress
to reserve title to the United States in
public lands containint radium-bearins
ores at meeting held yesterday in the
off1ce Of Franklin K. Lane, Secretary OF
the Interior. Secretary Lane invited the
members of the House and Senate Com
mittees on Mines and Mining to listen to
an address on the subject Of radium as
curative agency by DIR. Howard Kelly,
Of Baltimore. who is treating Represent
atfye Robert Bremner, of New Jersey.
for cancer.
The object of today's meeting was to
impress on members of Congress the
need for the withdrawal of the carnotite
areas in Western States in order that
radium may be kept out of the hands of
a monopoly. DR.. Kelly talked at length
on the subject and exhibited a number
of photographs illustrating the efficacy
OF radium as a remedy for cancer. 1t is
understood Tat the address of the Balti-
more physician made strong impression
upon the members present
Those in Attendance.
Among those in attendance were Sem
ator Walsh, of Montana, chairman of
the Senate Committee on Mines and Min
ing. and Representative Foster, of Illi-
nois, chairman of the corresponding
committee in the House These commit
tees have jurisdiction over the radium
bill proposed by the Secretary of the In
terror. Representative Foster is a ply
sician, and has great faith in the cura-
tive qualities of radium-
Secretary Lane insisted that the OBJ
ject of the proposed legislation sis not
reservation from use, but rather devel-
opment under conditions favoring the
best use of this valuable resource, which
has no value except as it is mined and
used"
Hearings on the radium bill will be
held before the Senate and House COM
mittees on Monday. Secretary Lane, DR..
Kelly, and others will appear in sup
port of the measure. Announcement has
just been made that at the next meeting
of the Medical Society of the District
a petition will be presented, calling onl
Congress to have the Federal government
manufacture and furnish radium to hos
pitfalls.
A bitter fight will, be made on the
radium bill. Representatives of COM
panies that are said to extract radiuml
from ores are in Washington in opposi- |
ton to the measures. Joseph A. Kelly. J
representing a radium manufacturing
company in Pittsburgh, takes exception
to a statement made by DR.. A. X. p. /
of this city, who has studied
the use of radium as n cancer cure in
France and Germany, that radium is not
get manufactured in the United States.
Statement of Output.
statement was made public by the
of the Interior yesterday con-
serning the production of radium, uranium
and Vanadium ores in 1873 This shows
hat the radium output increased about
10 per cent in the past year. 1t Is stated
hat the output in 1913 was equivalent to
about S79 grams of metallic radium. or
grams of hydrus radium bromide,
worth at s120 a miiligram of metallic |
-adium. about s1.055,000.
The statement says that during last fall
geological reconnaissance of the carno-
lite deposits which contain uranium, the
>nly mineral bearing radium, and van
idium deposits of Utah, was made by
Frank L. Hess and B. S. Butler, of the
United States Geological Survey. All the
newly found localities are far from rail-
'oads, and the hope for commercial pro-
iuction from them lies in concentration
IN the ground by some cheap process
md many experiments are being carried
IN to develop such process.
Toward the end of the year steps were
aiken for the erection of a concentration
'iant in Dry Valley, fifteen miles north
If Monticello. plant was put up on
Mesa Creek, Colo, and another was said
o be in course of erection in the Gate
way district