The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-18
AMERICAS OPPORTUNITIES.

1 1CanC ADDRESS OH LIl6 WILL OPPOA
ties to make America mineraloglcaliy
independent. Excerpts from it follow:
For more than half a year we have
watched the adjustments and read
justments of American industries to
meet new conditions. Six months ago
the United States geological survey
suggested, by the publication of Bull
letin 500, the extent to which Ameri-
cas- mineral. reserves could be drawn
upon to meet the emergency and in
deed to strengthen the position or the
United States as a world power in in
dustry and commerce. Today, as
nation, we face an even greater crisis
in our commercial relations, SO that a
discussion of national independence is
especially opportune.
LAS nation we began with decla-
ration of independence leading to an
experiment in statecraft-popular
government on a large scale in a string
of colonial settlements connected only
in a crude way by post roads and
coastwise sailing vessels, and perhaps
even more feebly united by bonds of
common race or creed. Yet that po-
litical independence was the breath of
life in the new nation, and the ideal
then set up attracted the best human
material from all lands. Thus we
may say was developed Americas
greatest resource, a progressive citi-
zenry.
1.-THE other element necessary to
make America great is material re-
sources-the earth and the fullness
thereof. 1 do not discount the wealth |
of our forests, which have contributed |
so largely to our foreign and domestic |
trade since colonial days. nor do I |
disregard the bounty of our soil, |
which enables US in these days of |
waste and war to feed the peoples of |
Europe as well as ourselves, yet 1 be- |
heve the mineral wealth of the United |
States is in largest measure the foun-
dation of the marvellous growth of the
last few decades. Industrial America.
think to what degree the indus
tries of America are based on our ores
and mineral fuels, or figure, if you
will, the percentage Of railroad ton
mage that originates at the mine.
Not only is our country a world
leader in the output of such essential
minerals as coal, petroleum, "copper"
zinc, iron, lead, phosphate-and in
three of these it exceeds all other
countries put tOgether-but as far as
such things can be measured or esti-
mated we are blest in the possession
of the largest reserves of many of the
more important of these minerals. No
other country can, in any sense, COM
pare with the United States in the de-
gree of industrial independence af-
forded by the possession of these
mineral resources. The raw material
is at hand to enable us to win and
maintain supremacy as a manufacture
ing nation. |;
ton clause the catalogue of our min
era1 resources is not the complete list
of minerals essential to modern civil
few items are missing 9TH
ers are present apparently only in 1
quantities, and the quail !
ity or locality of the deposits of still |
other minerals may be unfavorable to
utilization. Thus it hap
pens that the nation is not wholly in
dependent, in it's mineral industry
and no problem better deserves the Y
attention of the American mining
engineers than this, How can we fill s
-hese gaps and thus make America
more truly Independent t
1.-THE catalogue of the products of
our mines, quarries, and wells is long.
The list of what we lack is short. We
are wholly dependent on other coun-
-ries for only four principal items c
in and nickel potash and nitrate. G
Among the minerals of which the
United States has deficient supply a
ire manganese, platinum, gems, and Il
asbestos. Still other minerals it has
heretofore been more profitable to buy :,
abroad than to produce at home, such
Is chrome ore, barytes. flint pebbles G
nagnesite, mica, and graphite. Il
s"Fhaza dafioiannios to
'e1ating to three different types or t
classes of minerals. In the first class, I
in and nickel only seem to present
hopeless outlook; and as matter of :
act the whole world is poor in tin.
is this scarcity felt in GER +
ain of the countries now at war, t
where the shortage due to cessation
If imports is intensified by the in v
creased use of tin in canning army L
supplies. But we look to South Amer r
ca for tin ore and make it's irnporta- q
ion a foundation for profitable COM +
nerce with Bolivia. For nitrate we U
IAN continue to rely upon Chile, but
We should develop our independence
n respect to this mineral by the
of nitrates from atmos-
oheric nitrogen. Opportunities for a
heap hydroelectric development will
invite capital soon as congress will y
egislate. For potash the outlook is
ess certain: thus far only one potash r
'ich brine has been found-that of the
Searles Lake deposits, in California;
where potash occurs in even greater
quantity than that at first estimated
oy the geological survey, but the n
problem of its commercial extraction
las not yet been fully solved by the n
chemical engineer. C
s"Che deficiencies of the second