The Evening Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1917-1920, 1919-01-15
TELLS BEARING OF
MINERALS ON PEACE
Coal and Iron Make Great
Nations, Says Doctor
Powers.
PEOPLE FROM MINES
Speaker Says French POpu-
iation Will Increase With
AlsaCe-LOrraine.

..EaturaI Resources: The Economic
Reauisites of NatiOnhOod,' was the
subject of DR.. II. II. Powers lecture
last night. Doctor Powers said that
with the way the world is organized
today the great powers are those coun-
tries which control the worlds output
of coal and iron. These countries
have the materials with which to
manufacture, not only farm machin-
erv and other useful instruments, but
defensive weapons as well. Germany
knew this and in her first drive on
France directed an offensive toward
the great iron mine of France, when
in the taking of Alsace-Lorraine or
iginaIly she had failed TO estimate as
valuable
The products of this mine were util-
lied by Germany throughout the en-
tire war and the ore which she cap
tured was hurled back on the French
in the form of bullets and other pro-
jectiles.
Doctor Powers pointed out the
unique fact that it was possible to
mine people out of the ground. Ger
mans or Freedmen can be extracted
from the mines of Alsace-Lorraine
depending entirely which of the coun-
tries own the mine. He said that
should France be given the valuable
iron regions that her population would
increase as Germany's had since the
Franco-Prussian War. This increase,
he said. would be largely due to i'm
migration from all parts of the world,
which would be attracted by the in
dustries arising there and would soon
become natiOnalized.
A most unusual fact was pointed out
i'm last nights talk regarding the
worlds supply of chromium. This
is a rare element and very essential
in the manufacture of steel for large
guns. At the entrance of the United
States into the war this country was
secured for sufficient supply to meet
the demands of the munitiOn plants.
The richest deposits of the ore of
chromium are situated about a point,
which is already the worlds most i'm
portant center, namely Constantine
pie. Doctor Powers asked his au-
dience whether they thought it was
advisable for the Turk to have con-
troll of a place so necessary to keep
ing humanity stable.
But Doctor Powers believes that
should France be given the iron dis
tricts now controlled by Germany that
the coal districts which, unlike the
iron, are not in disputed territory,
should be given France as well. He
says that it appears impossible that
with France in control of the iron, and
Germany holding the coal so neces-
sary for its smelling. there would be
constant rivalry between the two ma
tiOns. especially so long as there were
international lines and so long as it
matter91 whether a man was born a
Frenchman or a German. The German
frontier today and for many days to
come will 'bristle with the hatred of
centuries past, says Doctor Powers.
He believes that the French have an
unusual quality of winning people to
their standards as shown in the re-
markable way they won the hearts of
the Alsace-LOrraine people who even
speak German almost entirely
With regard to the supplying of
Germany with raw materials or the
Withholding of them in case she does
not pay certain indemnities, we are
victims of the principle for which we
fought" Doctor Powers says.
Should Germany offer to pay twen-
ty-eight cents for cotton. worth twen-
ty-five in this country. how would it
be possible for anyone who stands
for liberty as we do to restrict such
sales to Germany.
Something of the trials of the peace
commission were limited at in the lee
ture when Doctor Powers said that
not in single case where the estab-
lishment of boundaries is concerned.
do the requirements for strategic
economic or political stability coin
eide