The Alaska daily empire., 1920-01-29
ALASKA MINES
 MAY GET HELP
 FROM CONGRESS
Tariff Laws May Protest Chrome and Other
 Minerals

1 That Congress is likely to pass the | measures introduced in the Senate by Senator McNary of Oregon and in the House of Representatives by Re- presentative Kahn of San Francisco, according to J. J. Underwood, Wash 1 ington correspondent of the Seattle Times. These measures would aid
 Alaska, as there are deposits here of Chrome, graphite and other ores mentioned. Capt. George w. Whit ney and w. P. Lass of this city have developed chrome deposits at Port Chatham and Red Mountain on Cook
 Inlet, near Seldoyia, and their prop critics could be worked at profit if they had such oa tariff as that pro. posed by the measures referred to-. : Mir. Underwood. writing concarn. ing these measures in the Seattle Times, says:
 Although the probability of enact
 ment of general tariff legislation at this session is not great, two bills affecting Western industries, have
 been introduced and. under the guise
 of pop-gun tariff measures, may be-
 come law.
 The more important is measure
 proposing an import tax on chrome,
 introduced by Senator Charles L..
 McNary of Oregon and Congressman
 Julius Kahn of California. The other
 measure proposes tariff on graph ite. Both are the result of the les
 son taught by the war that it is
 sound policy for the United States
 to develop any form of production
 which will make 1t independent of
 foreign countries.
 When the United States entered
 the war. it was soon brought home to manufacturers that steel is the
 basis of all industry. and that the
 supply of any material used in the production of any kind of steel is a
 very successful commodity. Without it. industry would perish.
 Very shortly after war was de clared it was discovered the United States was dependent on Austria for magnesite, without which the pro-
 duction of any kind of steel is i'm
 possible. f4@ A sss It was also learned Germany prac- tically controlled the tungsten and
 chrome industries of the world. With
 out these minerals hard or high speed" steel, used in making tools,
 cannon, armor plate and thousands of other commodities, could not be manufactured. w Through the Bureau Of Mines, Un- cle Sam sent an S. o. s. to every
 miner. prospector, geologist and met allurgist in the country, asking them to hunt and develop these much needed minerals. The official call for help met with immediate and en' thusiastic response. In Washington they discovered and developed a large deposit of magnesite. In Colo rado, Nevada, California, Washing, ton and Alaska a similar result was achieved with the tungsten ores
 wolfram and scheelite.
 In fact, so enthusiastic. were the Alaskan miners about 1t that they | made several large shipments of half-ton lots by parcel post from Fairbanks. Tn Northern California. Southern Oregon and Alaska they found and developed chrome depos- it's, and Montana prospectors came to the rescue with enormous shipments of manganese.
 ] The general staff of the United States Army estimated the war would last from three to five years, and the men who discovered the minerals so
 badly needed based their develop ment plans on that estimate. Th,s cost a lot of money, but had the war
 continued the estimated period they
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