The Washington herald., 1920-04-01
By JAMES II. COLLINS.

Valparaiso. Chile, March 80
After he had invented the art of
war reporting and followed all the
big and little wars through the
seventies AND eighties. it is said
that Archibald Forbes went to Chile
expressly to see where the wars
really came from-out of the nitrate
beds which furnish a product indis-
pensable in both war and peace.
When the world goes mad Chilean
nitrates make explosives. and the
price and production both rise, with
boom times in the nitrate regions of
the north. When the world cools
down again price and production
fall of. but Chileans resume their
steady campaign to increase the use
Of nitrates in agriculture industry
all over the world. Which is really
the most important end of this dou-
bled barreled industry.
Chile has the only commercially
workable deposits in the world.
Nobody knows how the nitrates got
into Chile's ''pampa salitrera.'
Some authorities attribute them TO
guano deposits by birds, others TO
the evaporation of an ocean, and
one daring hypothesis involves
lightning in the Andes. with nature
anticipating man in making nitrates
by electricity. They are there. that
is all, and are Chiles largest source
OF revenue, with enough in sight TO
last for century at the present
rate OF production, and thirty times
as much uneXplored ground likely
TO yield future supplies.
So the prosperity of the industry
is really an advertising and selling
problem.
on the walls of the nitrate asso-
ciation's offices in Santiago hang
some beautifully made plaster tur-
nips and cabbages. There is a small
turnip, raised without fertilizer
ContraSted with an enormous one to
show what plants will do if you feed
them chemicals. These plaster Hege-
tables were made in Germany 20
promote sales of German potash.
but they arc just as vivid an argu-
ment for Chilean nitrate, which is
needed too.
Produced by 200 Companies.
The German potash propaganda
was so systematic and vigorous
before the war that when the
chemical became scarce the
American truck farmer. cotton
planter and fruit grower won
dered what they would do for
crop foods. 1t was predicted that
one or two more crops would eN-
haust the fertilizer potash in the
soil, and then oranges and early
potatoes could not be raised profit
ably. But our farmers discovered,
as the war went on. that they had
been using several times as much
potash as they really needed. owing
to the persistent advertising of pot
ash by the Germans.
The Chilean nitrates arc produced
by nearly 200 companies. large and
small: some Chilean, others German
and British, with two American com
panies that have recently entered
the industry. The majority Is or
ganized in a producers association
for the purpose of adjusting pro-
duction to demand. maintaining sat
isfactory prices and increasing the
use of nitrates through advertising
and demonstration. On every quin-
tai of about ninety-five pounds
small tax is levied, just as our
orange growers tax themselves
few cents on each box for advertis-
ing and sales work. This tax brings
II 70 W n
the Chilean government adds Sl5O,-
900 more. The fund OF nearly s5oO,-
900 is used to maintain nitrate
propaganda Offices in the United
States, England, France, Italy
Spain, Belgium, Holland, Egypt
Japan, Australia, India and South
Africa-in all twelve countries.
In the United States there Is an
Office in New York, with ten travel
ing assistants who keep in touch
with all the organizations of far
mers who use artificial fertilizer,
This office distributes thousands OF
pamphlets and samples. and assists
in research and experimental work
likely to increase the use OF nitrates.
U. .. Offers Greatest Field.
More money Is spent in the Unit
ed States for propaganda than any
other country, because our country
offers the greatest field for expan-
sion In the use of nitrates. Eng
land and Germany were bigger i'm
porters before the war. but because
they had the most capital invested
in the Chilean nitrate fields ana
were active distributors. Virtually
every pOund of nitrate tlTat' We
bought, on the other hand. was used
either for fertilizer. explosives or
Industrial purposes. The American
farmer is steadily increasing his
use of chemical fertilizer. For one
thing. our agriculture Is becoming
more scientific and exact. and y dol
lars worth of the right che ical In
the right place adds SO to the
VALUE of the crop. For another, mil.
lions OF acres of land In our corn