The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-11-18

rassing situation which the war in Flu rope created there. One of the romances of mining is the story of that peasant In Bolivia who from a small beginning, not much greater than that of a junk deal CT. gradually mastered the tin industry of the country, gaining thereby one of the worlds great personal fortunes.
 Horace c. Knowles. who was United States minister to Bolivia during the ad- ministration of President Taft and had earlier been United States minister to Roumania, confirmed the accuracy of the story which told of the gaining of enor- nous wealth by a man who had been a Bolivian peasant through his control of the tin industry. That. however, merely symbolized the magnitude of the Bo- liviar industry. It meant the chief part If the revenue which the Bolivian treas cry yearly obtained because Bolivia ex- acted a heavy export tax upon this tin. England had been for years the sole market for Bolivian tin and the English sn.elters converted the ore into a com mercjal product.
 Controlling Bolivian tin. which in qual- ity is the best in the world, also con trolling the mines in Wales and In the Straits Settlements, England dominated almost exclusively the tin industry of the world. When the European war began Bolivia had on hand millions of tons of tin ore, but the English market was closed For that reason Bolivia was de- prived of its customary revenue and hoped to find relief in the United States,
 The United States has no tin smelting industry, chiefly because we have not yet discovered any tin mines which are pay irg mining properties. It occurred to the auth9gities of Bolivia that they might re- lieve themselves of their embarrassment and night also establish in the United States an industry which England has heretofore controlled if only sufficient capital could be secured for the building and operating in the United States of a sme,ting plant. Bolivia sometime ago did market d small loan in the United States and the surnise was common that the purpose of the loan was to facilitate the removal of tin ore from Bolivia to this country.
 Mir Knowles was commissioned by Bo- lvia to make investigation, but he did not find that capital was then especially interested in the proposition. He did dem- onstrate at a small smeltlng plant on the Hudson river, near Poughkeepsie, that the Bolivian tin ore could be per fectly smelted and made instantly avail ahle commercially
 It is but a step, speaking in terms of ations from Chile to Bolivia. The Gug- genheims, or the interests identified by their name have already established in Chile what is likely to be one of the largest copr er-mining properties in the world. Their attention must have been called to the wonderful resources of Bo- livia, especially in tin. for they have been persuaded according to common report to establish a large smelting plant in New Jersey, and upon waters which can be brought by way of he Pan anna canal. and smelting upon a consid- erable scale even at first will begin.
 It would be one of the, strange, unex- pected effects of the European war if the tin-smeting industry, one of the larg- est of it's kind in the world, since tin, although much cheaper than copper, new erthcless is, commercially speaking, one of the most important of minerals, should be begun in the United States. The econ omy who h passage through the Panama canal ard the crossing of the Atlantic enee and capital of the Guggenheims, are thought to justify the prediction that at last tue United States may have it's fair share of enc of the great industries of the world. tre smeting of tin. More over, an industry of this kind is likely to be followed by greatly increased trade relations between Bolivia and the United States. One of these days American capita. may be found for the completion of the railroad from mid Bolivia to the vast oil fields of southeastern Bolivia. This railroad was begun a few years ago and then abandoned through the