The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-12-03
INDUSTRIAL OPPORTUNITIES.

.s to the future Of this country and
ats opportunities would do well TO give
a little attention to speech that was
delivered before u recent session OF
the American Institute OF Chemicai
Engineers at Philadelphia by 0eorge
Otis Smith. director of the Unateo
States geological survey.
Four constituents enter into the re-
action that We term industry. said MI.
Smith. among other thinss- Two OF
these, brain and Drawn. are organic
compounds and two are perhaps to oe
REGARDED as inorganic-money and
material None of these components
in wanting here in the United States
and in fact their abundance anords
the best reason for an optimistic out
look upon the present industrial situa-
ton. OF these four constituents. iaoor
and capital and brains are all more
easily transported generally than, the
crude materials upon large tonnages
of which the industry must depend
Thus. cheap coal attracts manufac-
turers Just rs cheap land attracts
farmers.
with the distribution Of raw ma
terial is linked the influence OF mar
kets upon the location OF industry. The
DEVELOPMENT OF transportation systems
makes the problem of markets most
complex one. The Industrial fnde-
pendence Of the small community OF q
century ago has given way to the sSs-
tenn under which your dinner table
may represent the tribute from several
continents. Even in q country so d.
n.
ties domestic production of every
thing consumed Is not desirable nor
profitable Exchange OF commodities
with foreign countries becomes neces-
sary, SO it follows that industrial In
dependence Is the goal toward which
a nation should face. but not goal
which it should have either the In
tentiOn or desire to attain.
To increase industrial prosperity
this country needs to export finished
rather than crude products and to inn
port raw materials rather than manu-
features. 1t is the product OF Amerl-
can labor rather than the bounty OF
our natural resources that preferably
should should go into the worlds mar
cts. AZ the engineers of America
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 prob
able reserve is in California. a state
with only negligible resources. Taken
together, these mineral fuels consti-
tute q national asset comparable with
the soil resources of this country. but
the larger part of the value of the nat
ural gas, petroleum and coal to the
nation il in their relation to manu-
features.
The wide distribution of ores of the
principal metals sufficiently rich and
extensive to be mined in large guam
titles means that the metallurgical in
dustry 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 sug-
gest to us OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES and
steel-there is widespread production.
In the mining of copper last year %
states contributed. and no less than
% states furnished iron or - to the fur
naces 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 tend
ency il away from geographic central
ization of industry rather than toward
it. A few opportunities for expansion
| need only to be suggested: The south
with it's happy combination of coal and
iron-ore in the same districts makes
pig-iron production possible at mimi
mum cost; the west with it's hydro
electric possibilities available as
source of relatively cheap power for
chemical and metallurgical industries;
the Rocky Mountain region with its
vast unutilized sources of sulphuric
acid and equally great unmined 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 sympa-
thetic attitude Of the public toward big
Industrial operations is indicated. The
efficiency of American labor and Amer
| lean engineering was never questioned.
In any estimate of American ability
to make the most of the present oppor-
tunities for Industrial expansion, no
better measure of the inventive genius
Of this country can perhaps be found
than in a moments review of what is
making the European war SO terrible.
Strictly neutral may We be. yet from
the heights above to the depths below
We find American inventions "at the