The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1914-08-26
WAR is BENEFIT TO U. S. A..
Secretary Lane Reviews Benefits Li-
able to Accrue From Conflict of
European Nations.


A direct benefit to the United
States from the European war will
be its effect in making the people Of
this country realize to a greater ex-
tent the value of its mineral re-
sources, said Franklin K Lane,
Secretary of the Interior. in an in
teryiew last week. 1T is entirely
possible to so utilize these resources
and expand our industries that the
label Made in Amerida' will be-
come familiar in our own foreign
markets
"Of an Importance second only to
that of the food supply" said Mr..
Lane. is the supply of mineral pro-
ducts necessary to meet the require
ments of twentieth century civili-
cation. One of the first effects of
the war has been to make us realize
the interdependence of nations In
the matter of food supply. Most of
the countries now at war are de-
pendent upon importation of food
stuffs, and we have cause for self
congratulation in the United States
that We are able to feed ourselves.
What we possibly have not so fully
realized is that we are nearly as in
dependent in the possession of ee-
sential mineral resources, and tha
the interference with manufacturing
caused BY interruption of the flow of
importations of many necessary raw
materials, may be overcome almost
wholly by development of neglected
resources in our own country"
do you mean" Mr.. Lane was
asked, that the United States can
make itself independent of the rest
of the world in its manufactures"
VERY largely" asserted the Sec
retary 1.-THE main difficulties to be
overcome are in the rearrangement
of the distribution system necessary
to establishing this independence.
Business is established along cer-
tain Htl4 htQ tildnACioy anu uou-
ally follows the line of least resist
ance. II has been easier and perhaps
cheaper to import mineral products
and materials from other countries
than to go to the trouble and ex-
pense of developing our own re-
sources of the same nature. Forced
to the latter course by suspension of
commerce with other countries, be-
lieve that American enterprise and
energy will almost at once turn to
the development of the native re-
sources, rather than permit produc-
tion to lag and supply to be d.
minished In any industry.
For the maintenance OF agricul-
ture, for instance, we rely more and
more largely upon mineral fertil-
izers The three essential plant
foods are potash. nitrogen and phos-
phorus, the latter used generally in
the form of phosphates. We have
depended, with the rest of the world,
very largely upon the mines of Ger
many for our supply of potash salts,
and war has cut off this supply, but
we have large deposits of potash in
California reserve which can be
Immediately opened and developed
If bin now before congress to make
these supplies available is enacted.
Chile holds a practical world mo-
nopoly of the most readily available
nitrogen in its great nitrate beds,
and not only the manufacture of ag-
rieultural fertilizers, but also of
many kinds of high explosives, have
been made dependent upon the
Chilean supply of nitrates. If this
supply should be cut off. a new
supply would have to be found or
manufactures and agriculture would
suffer. Fortunately this new SUP
ply is at hand. We can draw nitro
gen from the air and fix 1t with
/ lime by the use of large and cheap
electrical development, as is done at
| Niagara Falls and In Norway, ana
all that is necessary to pave the way
to this electrical development is the
passage by congress of the Ferris
bill now pending, which will make
possible the utilization of the great
unused water powers of the Western
States.
"The Southern States have for
years largely supplied the world
with phosphates, but because of the
distribution system, a large part OF
this supply has gone to Europe, and
much of the phosphates used in the
Western States have been imported
across the Pacific. We have some
100000 acres of phosphates lands
in the west lying near the smelters
from which is produced the sui
phuric acid necessary to convert