The Wallace miner. [volume] (Wallace, Idaho) 1907-current, 1918-07-04

not appeal to me as an insuperable
obstacle. However, | do not want 70
go into that far, because of certain
confidential communications. The de-
inand for sulphuric acid is, and is go
ing TO be, a very serious one, A
thousand tons could be handled in 20
tank cars day. l believe the tank
cars can be gotten. If not, they can
be built. They can be run from the
west through in train loads. and
do not think it would take over six
or eight hundred cars to handle that
whole western acid situation. think
that could be done.
4 want to develop the arsenic situa
ton, because it was commented upon
by Mr. Hoover, for whom | have a
profound regard, and the very sim
cerest respect. Prior to the war we
were producing comparatively large
quantity of arsenic. We had been
producing it for sixteen years or there
abouts. After several years of the
closest cooperation with the bureau
OF mines we entered upon a plan of
spending approximately a million dol
lars and quarter in the construction
OF new stack and new flues, and
putting in Cottrell treaters. That
work is proceeding just as fast as it
can be done. Now, we will have
supply OF arsenic sufficient, according
to the figures, to take care of the
United States and if we do not sell
it, we will have to dig holes in the
ground and bury it and cover it up,
and we intend to do it.
"A complaint was made because
arsenic increased in price from Is to
20 cents a pound. 1t was cited as a
profound case of profiteering before a
house committee. The fact of the mat
ter is that for 16 years We never made
a dollar on arsenic, and we never sold
a pound that we did not sell it at a
loss, until a temporary increase in
price came in the last year or two. |
do not know how much was sold at
20 cents. We did not get any but a
very small amount. The price cuts
no figure, because this arsenic has to
be taken out of the fumes. You have
to dig a hole and cover it up if you
cannot sell it. So it is perfectly sill,
to talk about spending money to slim
ulate the production of arsenic. We
will give it away.
1.-THE increase in manganese has been
enormous, and it is going to increase
to the limit of potential output
"Mr. Hewett, who has such a splen-
did knowledge of this, says that he
does not think that the United States
will ever become wholly Independent
Of imports, because of the very large
demand. | do not know. l do know
that his figures are conservative, be-
cause l think Montana will, in 1918,
ship over 100000 tons of manganese
ore of a grade from 35 to 40 per cent
iNlo" liieit lilO EAiielSoiiNtt SoPpOi
Mining company is shipping now about
$50 tons daily, and we expect by
August to raise that production up to
between and 5 hundred tons, and
that is very large proportion of the
entire amount Of production up to last
year.
Il cannot conceive of anything in
this bill that will help the situation
greatly. You might get a few scat
tered deposits somewhere, but if there
Is any manganese ore that is lying
around loose, the congress does not
need to appropriate ten million to de-
velop it because the money can be got
ten while we are sitting around the
table talking about it. If somebody
knows where the deposits are, l can
assure them of that proposition.
"There is no priority board that can
bring freight over lines that are con-
gested by snow and the highest zero
1t cannot be done, and
as far as embargoes and priorities are
they are necessary to some
extent, but to the most limited extent
possible, because the moment you give
4 priority for one thing you sidetrack
another, and there is not any doubt
that the traffic situation last winter
was intensely aggravated by priorities
that were issued in the beginning by
fuel and food administrators, in my