The copper era and Morenci leader. [volume] (Clifton, Ariz.) 1911-1929, 1915-03-19

1COlO9lCdi survey DCIOTC tNCW
York Section of American Institute
of Mining Engineers, New York,
March 5, 1915.
For more than half year we have
watched the adjustments and readjust-
ments of American industries to meet
new conditions Six months ago the
United States Geological Survey sug-
gested, by the publication of Bulletin
500, the extent to which Americas
mineral reserves could be drawn up
on to meet the emergency and in
deed to strengthen the position of
the United States as world power
in industry and commerce To-day,
as nation, we face an even greater
crisis in our commercial relations,
SO that discussion Of national indie
pendence is especially opportune.
"As a nation we began with a dec
laration of independence leading to an
experiment in acknowledgements
government on large scale in a
string of colonial sentiments con-
nected only in crude way by post
roads and coastwise sailing vessels,
and perhaps even more feebly united
by bonds of common race or creed.
Yet that political 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 de-
veloped Americas greatest resource,
a progressive citizenry
The other element necessary to
make America great is material re-
sources--the earth and the fullness
thereof. i do not discount the wealth
OF our forests, which have contributed
so largely to our foreign and domestic
frod q cir nfo1 do
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
l believe the mineral wealth of the
United States is in largest measure
the foundation of the marvellous
growth of the last few decades. In
dustrial America! think to what de-
gree the industries of America are
based on our ores and mineral fuels,
or figure, If you will, the percentage
of railroad tonnage that originates at
the mine.
Not only is our country 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,
compare with the United States in
the degree of Industrial independence
afforded by the possession of these I
mineral resources. The raw material
is, at hand to enable US to win and
maintain supremacy as manufactur- |
ing nation. li |
yet under this, most favored ma
ton clause the catalogue of our min
eral resources is not the complete list |
Of minerals essential to modern
civilization; a few items are missing, !
others are present apparently only in |
quantities, and the quality !
or facility of the deposits of still other !
minerals may be unfavorable to |
Dresent-day utilization. Thus it /
happens that the nation is not wholly
in its mineral industry,
attention of the American mining en-
yineers than this, How can we fill /
,hese gaps and thus make America |
more truly Independent?
The catalogue of the products of |
,ur 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 |
in and nickel, potash and nitrate. /
Among the minerals of which the !
United States has a sufficient supply |
ire maganese, platinum, gems, and !
asbestos. Still other minerals it has /
abroad than to produce at home, such
Is chrome ore, barytes, flint, magne-
ute, mica, and graphite.
These DEFICIENCIES create problems
'elating to three different types or
classes of minerals. In the first class
in and nickel only seem to present !
hopeless outlook; and a matter of /
act the whole world is poor in tin.
is this scarcity felt in GER
ain of the countries now at war,
where the shortage due to cessation
If imports is intensified by the in
:reased use of tin in canning army
But we can look to South
America for tin ore and make it's i'm :
,ortation a foundation for profitable
commerce with Bolivia. For nitrate (
We can continue to rely upon Chile
mt we should develop our independ-
nee in respect to this mineral by
he manufacture of nitrates from at
uospheric nitrogen. Opportunities
Or cheap hydroelectric development
will invite capital as soon as Congress
5 less certain; thus far only one I
,otash-rich brine has been found
hat of the Searles Lake deposits, in
alifornia-where potash occurs in
ven greater quantity than that at
rst estimated by the Geological Sur
ey, but the problem of its CONNER !
ial extraction has not yet been fully I
olved by the chemical engineer. i
1.-THE deficiencies of the second class t
Ike manganese and platinum, are l.
to the geologist and the t
ngineer, the one to discover, the