The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-15

Secretary of the Interior Franklin K
 Lane writes Interestingly and construc- lively of the south's raw material po- tentialities. In an informing paper in the Baltimore Manufacturers Record he says in part:
 The present urgent demand of the Unit ed States for minerals necessary in war making has awakened this country to po- tentialities that have not been fully ap-
 preciated in the past and which will
 undoubtedly lead to a tremendous gain
 in permanent industries in which the
 whole country will benefit greatly. Tn
 times of universal peace we have been complaisant and even laggard about cer-
 tain industries, permitting the shipment
 to this country from foreign shores of raw and finished materials that could
 with some effort and the development of our resources have been made in this country. But the stern necessities of war have changed all this. Shut off from
 needed supplies from certain countries and handicapped in others by the short age of shipping and the impelling need of utilizing our shipping to the best ad-
 vantage in sending men and supplies to
 France, we have been confronted by the necessity of furnishing these materials
 ourselves. And there is nothing We
 Americans like better than to have hie
 problems put up to us for solution. Tn tact, we rather pride ourselves on the
 results we accomplish
 At the present moment we have sey- erai or these problems on hand and we
 nave already done considerable toward
 their accomplishment. We found early
 that IL we were to save shipping for
 It's most urgent use, we would have to de-
 velop our mines-those that produce war
 making minerals-much beyond their
 present capacity, and to also discover
 new deposits of the minerals
 In the south we have found a most fruitful field. The experts knew that you had pyrltes, sulphur, manganese, graph ite and many other minerals essential to war-winning, but with a development
 that was not nearly commensurate with our needs. It was early the aim of this department to aid in this development, and much has already been accomplished Today we are paying much attention to
 the south, due to the development of new deposits which are producing many of the most important war minerals. Tt is my belief that the south has only be-
 gun her progress in mining. The mines in process of development will be perma- nent after the war and will add much to the general prosperity of the south
 One of the important minerals of the south is iron pyrites, an ore of sulphur and iron, used primarily for the manu- facture of sulphuric acid, which is es- sential for explosives and munitions An extensive belt of pyrite deposits, which has long been known, extends through Alabama and Georgia. A few small mines have been previously worked, but under the stimulus of war conditions a group of very important mines is in process of development, and the exploration work which has been carried on is further demonstrating the value and extent of these deposits, which promise to become an important and permanent source of this material. Other deposits in Tennes- see aIfd South Carolina show promise of development. Virginia, which has long | been the leading state in the production of pyrites, is having several new de-