Glacier County chief. [volume] (Browning, Mont.) 1931-1940, 1939-09-29
MINERALS GOVERN
NATIONS WEALTH
MINING SCHOOL PRESIDENT SAYS
METALS ARE KEY TO OUR
PROSPERITY
Montana Still Has Undeveloped Re-
sources of Manganese, Chromium,
Molybdenum, All Critical War Ma
terials, Says DIR. Thomson.

"Any nation may start a war,
but capacity to sustain it effective
ly under modern conditions is
about commensurate with its in
dustrial power based upon miner
ais, particularly the mineral fuels,
iron, copper, lead and zinc" DR..
Francis A. Thomson, president of
the Montana School of Mines, told
the Butte Exchange club recently.
THE time has gone by" Dr. Thorn
son continued, when military strength
can be measured mainly by the number
of men available. The hordes of Asia
would break against the weapons of
modern lndustrialism. From this point
OF view, therefore, the relative military
strength of nations may be roughly in
ferred from the survey of mineral con-
dltions. The seat of industrial
power is likely to remain in North
Atlantic countries for an indefinite
future. No combination of nations in
the rest of the world can marshal any
where near the industrial power of
these nations because of the absence
Of the necessary raw materials. Even
though deficient minerals may be
freely imported, it is almost impossible
Tor any country in emergency to build
all the vast network of industrial
pants necessary to convert the raw
materials. This has to be done COM
mercially. under normal conditions and
requires a long time. The possibilities
OF emergency building are usually over
estimated, because the necessary scale
and time are underestimated
Especially noteworthy Is the funda-
mental lack of necessary raw materials
IN Asia, the Mediterranean, South
america, and for the present in
Difficulties are encountered in an
praising the. mineral strength of the
British empire for war purposes be-
cause of the wide geographic scatter
ing OF Its minerals, and the doubt about
the extent to which they might be
mobilized with unit control under the
various potential alignments of many
nations. To some extent this doubt
extends to any minerals controlled DO
htically and commercially by distant
nations
Turning now from the World war
10 the present situation it is instructive
to look first at the position of the
United states in the matter of min
roughly one-third of the worlds coal,
iron, cement, copper, zinc and alum
mum; two-thirds of the worlds pc
sulphur.
TN, and we are deficient in our pro-
duction of manganese and chromium
although Montana has resources of
BOTH. We have no natural nitrates
and we lack an abundant supply of
mica ana OF antlmony, tungsten and
mercury, all of which are important
war minerals. Fortunately, we do have
an abundant supply of molybdenum,
In gold and silver we are no longer
among the great producers, but the re-
serve which we have makes production
Of these metals of little consequence
at present from the point of view of
war.
Such minerals as chromium, man
ganese, tungsten, nickel and molybG2-
mum, although not bulking large in
tonnage are critical war minerals be-
cause of the properties which they
confer upon steel alloys used in pro-
1ecties and armor-plate and in all the
engines of war The lighter alloys of
aluminium, mainly alundum-an ALLOW
Of aluminium, copper and magnesium
are OF course surprisingly Important
In airplane manufacture, as Is also
stainless steel, an alloy of iron, chrom-
ium, nickel and carbon.
without the mineral industry man. |
kind would still be blowing the ground |
with a sharp stick, reaping his grain |
with a cradle. threshing it with a fail,
wearing breechclout, and living in a
SKIN tepee. Correspondingly he would i
be making war with sticks and stones |
instead of airplanes, submarines, tanks,
plosives.
TT is an indisputable fact of history,