The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1935-02-28
Laboratory
and Shop
By David Ramsey
Minerals and MOnopoIies

Minerals and MonopOes
The mineral industries are the basis upon which
our industrial complex rests They represent per-
haps the most characteristic section Of capt.
talist production. On the one hand there have
been impressive chronological advances; on the
other, no branch of production has such brutal
labor conditions, such an appalling waste of ma
terials, and much acknowledgement" in rel>ton
to the dwndling capitalist market. Oil, copper
lead, zinc coal, to cite only the most important,
all chronically sick industries with permanent
and large unemployment
Conditions became so bad during the crisis years,
that when Roosevelt launched the New Deal he
appointed a so-called planning committee to work
out a mineral policy which would conserve our
natural resources. The committee finally brought
out its report few weeks ago It came out fatty
for greater monopolistic control of production
within the framework of NRA codes. In other
words, the administration under the pretense Of
removing waste in the mining industries will work
to eliminate the small competitors Of the big trusts
Its policies will strengthen the very monopoles
which have been plundering the resources Of the
country in their greed for huge profits.
The administration comes out with the pre-
posterous argument that the way to conserve our
natural resources is to allow the monopoles to fix
prices and control production. Thus the time-worn
liberal cry for conservation is used to increase the
profits of Big Business, to crush the small indie
pendent producer, and perpetuate the low wages
and inhuman conditions that prevail throughout
the various mining industries
This program which turns over the resources of
the country to more ruthless exploitation than
in the past, is linked to the war program of the
Roosevelt regime, Not only are the industries to
be recognized and geared to the war machine.
but deficit" minerals are to be developed with gov
eminent funds and subsidies Important war
minerals like mercury nickel. anthony manganese,
tungsten, tin, ETC., which the United States lacks
are to be pushed by surveying sub-margina deposits
testing and sampling questionable ores and per-
fecng processes for extracting these minerals from
whatever sources are available
Thus the first organized surveys on a national
scale are to be undertaken for war purposes, and
incidentally for the greater profits of the monou-
oies who will exploit whatever the research workers
turn up. 1t is interesting to note that the vice
chairman of the planning committee for mineral
policy is DR.. Charles K Leth professor of geology
at the University Of Wisconsin DR.. Leith achieved
quite bit of notoriety three years ago. On the
basis of some armchair speculation and great
deal of wish-fulflment he announced that the
First Five Year Plan was a failure and that the
efforts Of the Soviet Union to become the foremost
industrial nation in Europe was doomed because
the US.SR. had no mineral resources He also
pooh-poohed the planning Of scientific research
especially, geological surveys
Since he made this scientific" announcement
the Soviet Union has become the second leading
industrial country in the world The geological work
In the Soviet Union is acclaimed by experts as
second to none in the world. More money is spent
for geological surveys by the USS.R than in all
the other European countries put together. As
result Of the fine achievements of the Soviet geolo
gsts, new and vast mineral resources of all kinds
have been discovered, and are being utilized Il
rapidly as possible And now Dr. Ieith himss5f
urges the kind Of organized research that the Soviet
scientists have developed. But he wants this re-
search to benefit the monopoIes and the war
mongers. 1t is not to be used, as in the Soviet
Union, for the welfare of humanity and the build
ing of new social order.