The comet. (Johnson City, Tenn.) 1884-1916, 1914-08-20

tance to this industry, and the larges
supply of ore comes from Russia ant
other countries with which commerc,
is now paralyzed. There are large de
posits in South America which have
not been developed, but il is not neces
sary even to go SO far away as that
We have great stores of manganese il
this country which has been largely
untouched because it is somewhat in.
ferior In quality. To bring this home
supply into use means merely adop'
ton of methods for its publication
which are known and can be success
fully used, and then we can continue
making manganese steel without re.
gard to foreign wars or sources oi
material. There are other internation-
al contributions, though, in the steel
industry. We have depended largely
upon the island of Ceylon for the
graphite used in the manufacture OF
the crucibles in which crucible steel
for edge tools and small firearms is
made. Or to take another metal
European smelters, using in part
Chinese and Mexican ores, have in
late years furnished much Of the
worlds supply of antimony, which is
used in the manufacture of type metal,
and also incidentally. War has para
lyzed the production of antimony in
England (at Newcastle), and prices
have gone up. Antimony, however, is
easily extracted from any low grade
ores which we have in great quanti-
ties in at least seven States, and there
is no reason why we should not make
this extraction and be independent of
other countries, both as to supply and
prices. Similar conditions hold in the
case of arsenic.
"a large tonnage of ferromangese
alloys come from Germany and Eng
land. 1t is only in the last ten years
that we have freed ourselves from
Sicily's monopolistic control of the
sulphur supply Flint pebbles are
common and the supply large enough
in the United States, but for such an
apparently unimportant product as
these, used in the fine grinding of ce-
ment and ores, we have been depend
Ing upon the chalk cliffs of England,
Denmark and France. Ores and min
eral freight depend almost wholly up
on the tramp steamer, a carrier of
foreign parentage. Now the tramp
steiner has taken to cover, and all
kinds of ocean freight, especially low
grade freight, will be held up and its
carriage almost suspended during the
war"
will this suspension mean disaster
to our industries?"
mot disaster, but inevitable inter-
ruption to some extent" replied Mr..
Lane. at means that suddenly ma.
terials upon which great Industries de-
pend. must be obtained from other
sources. Importers, consumers and
manufacturers are making anxious in
quiries as to where they may find in
the United States supplies of crude
materials to replace the foreign sup
plies now shut off. This is the oppor-
tunity of the United States to free it
self from dependence of its industries
upon other countries, and business
men are awakening to this fact. They
look to the government for aid in find-
ing new sources of material with
which to keep the factories open and
In operation. When they have found
the domestic supply. and begin its use,
they will not return to dependence
upon the foreign supply, and thereaf-
ter good or bad times in the United
States, so far as the maintenance of
industries is concerned, will be more
Independent of foreign complications"
what is the government doing to
aid industry in these matters?"
"All it can do under present laws"
replied the Secretary. "The Nations
greatest natural natural resources
are part of the public domain, and
under the charge of the Interior. De-
partment. The annual reports on the
mineral resources of the United States
published by the United States CO.
logical Survey for the last thirty
years, contain not only statistics of
yearly production of all commercial
minerals, but also useful facts re-
garding the occurrence, exploitation
and application in the arts and
sciences of the mineral wealth of the
country. The Geological Survey has
been instructed to furnish uopn re-
quest the addresses of producers from
whom buyers can supply their wants
II the mineral is produced at all in
this country or information regarding
the localities where reported deposits
are undeveloped. In some instances
large deposits remain undeveloped
simply because of the fact that dis
lance from market has given to the
foreign sources of raw material with
the lower ocean freights an advantage
over domestic producers shipping by
rail-"