The Logan Republican. [volume] (Logan, Utah) 1902-1924, 1914-12-03
INDUSTRIAL
OPPORTUNITIES


gineers, Philadelphia, Pa.
Four constituents enter into the re-
action that we term industry. TWO
of these, brain and Drawn, are organ
ic compounds and two are perhaps to
be regarded as inorganic-money and
material. None of these components
is wanting here in the United States
and in fact their abundance affords
the best reason for an optimistic out
look upon the present industrial sit
uation. OF these four constituents,
labor and capital and brains are all
more easily transported generally
than the crude materials upon large
tonnage of which the industry, must
depend. Thus. cheap coal attracts
manufacturers just as cheap land at
tracts farmers.
With distribution or raw material
is linked the influence of markets up
on the location of industry. The de-
velopment of transportation systems
makes the problem of markets most
complex one. The industrial indie
pendence of the small community Of
century ago has given way to the
system under which your dinner ia
BILE may represent the tribute from
several continents. Even in coun-
try so diversified as ours in its nat.
ural bounties domestic production of
everything consumed is not desirable
| nor profitable. Exchange of commo-
dties with foreign countries becomes
necessary, so 1t follows that indus
trial independence is the goal toward
which a nation should face but not
n goal which it should have either
the intention or desire to attain
To inc ease industrial prospe yity
this country needs to export finished
rather than crude products and to
import raw materials rather than
manufactures. 1t is the product OF
American labor rather than the boun-
ty of our natural resources that pre-
ferably should go into the worlds
markets. AS the engineers of AM
erica study this matter of expansion
Of manufacturing 1t becomes evident
that the distribution of raw material
and of power Is the key to industrial
opportunities.
Petroleum and natural gas In their
distribution in some degree supple
ment coal. Thus, the largest oil
field both in present production and
probable reserve is in California,
State with only negligible coal re.
sources. Taken together, these min
eral fuels constitute a national asset
comparable with the soil resources
of this country, but the larger part
of the value of the natural gas, pet.
roleum, ana coal to the nation Is in
their relation to manufactures.
The wide distribution of ores Of
the principal metals sufficiently rich
and extensive to be mined in large
quantities means that the metallurgi.
cal industry is important on both the
Pacific and the Atlantic seaboard in
most of the Rocky Mountain States
as well as In several of the Middle
States. Even in the two metals
which at once suggest to us central
ization-copper and steel-there IL
widespread production. In the min
Ing of copper last year twenty three
states contributed. ana no less than
twenty eight states furnished iron
ores to the furnaces of the country.
The raw material resources Of this
country are so widely distributed
that industry has been developing at
this rapid pace at many points. The
tendency is away rom geographic CEN
tralization of industry rather than
toward 1t. few opportunities for
expansion need only to be sugges ted:
the South with its happy combination
W ''hl o'u 'Sh VIC odiut Wis
tricts makes pig iron production pos-
sible at minimum cost; the west |
with its hydro electric possibilities
available as a source of relatively |
cheap power for chemical and metal. |
lurgical industries; the Rocky Noun
tain region with its vast unutilized |
sources of sulphuric acid and equally |
great unmned stores of phosphate
rock.
The ingredients necessary for pro.
ducing prosperity appear at hand.
The new financial system Already
promises more mobile credits. A
more sympathetic attitude OF the |
public toward big industrial opera
lions IS indicated. The efficiency of |
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