Evening star., 1923-05-06
INDUSTRY OF u. S. MUST
MAKE SURE OF SUPPLIES
Some Facts Which Throw Light on
Our Participation in World
Scramble for Concessions.

chemical analyses and carry on the
researches upon which so much of our
industry rests and which Is so essen
tial to its expansion without liberal
supply OF platinum for the chemical
laboratories.
Nickel is not only tremendous
convenience in plumbing and In tfss
manufacture of automobiles. b-.~
nickel steel and other nickel alloys
and compounds are essential
In the case of tin the United States
Is the largest user in the world and
yet has no supply. During the war
every effort was made to develop a
substitute, and this proved possible
only to limited extent, principally
for the reason that tin is a non-toxic
metal. and therefore available for the
manufacture of food containers. with
the large population that must be fed
in the United States and the con
siderable distances that food products
are transported. food containers are
matter of primary Importance to us
We must, therefore, have supply
of tin.
Incidentally. it may be mentioned
increasing steadily throughout the
world, prolonged search has failed To
bring in new fields in corresponding
ratio. AS a result, to meet the in
creased demand, it has been necessary
to work leaner ores at greater depth
in the various old tin fields and
through a series of years the price
of tin has steadily risen.
Tin Subject to Monopoly.
Much has been said about the atti-
tude of Great Britain in agreeing
with us upon the war debt settle
ment, and then raising the price OF
rubber sufficiently to more than pay
the whole debt, so that in reality the
people of this country are paying il
themselves. Great Britain might do
the same thing with tin as with rub
ber. Any nation that has practically
the world supply of any one raw ma
terial can hold UP the rest of the
world. as Germany did with the old
Kali syndicate. which controlled po-
tassium. or as Chile is accused of
doing in connection with the nitrate
supply.
For all these reasons there are Ger
tain raw materials which the United
States must go abroad to get. The
American interests can either buy
the ore or metal after it has been
mined or produced by others, or they
can acquire title to the mine itself
and produce the. material to meet
American needs by American meth
ods. 1t seems inevitable that as time
passes by the latter method will be-
come more common.
Need to Conserve Supplies.
Then there are cases where the
United States has a large supply, but
larger consumption. There the
United States must still go abroad to
meet it's requirements. This is spe
cially true where the heavy con-
sumption is making such a draft
upon the definitely limited supply
available that there is grave danger
to industry unless outside resources
can be controlled The most striking
illustration of this is petroleum.
From an economic point of view we
must consider not only the maintain
ing of supply of raw materials for
our industries, but also, if we are to
be a part of the economic world as a
whole, we cannot afford to get our
wage scale and cost of production en-
tirely out of line with everybody else.
We must, therefore. in the absence
OF adequate labor to use all our cap
ital at home to advantage, either in
vest our capital ourselves or lend it
to others for investment. To the eN
tent that we can furnish management
and engineering it will pay US bet
ter to make our own investments
abroad rather than to lend our
money-just as business man al
ways makes more out of a business
enterprise he conducts himself. as
suming his capability, than in lend
arts