Montana oil and mining journal. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1931-1953, 1945-02-24

2. Those producing strategic met
ais, and alloys, including molybde-
mum, manganese, nickel, bauxite,
chromium, platinum, tungsten, va
nadium, anthony, fluorspar and
many, many others whose names
and uses are all but unknown to
most but needed and enjoyed by all
3. Those producing the so-called
precious metals, gold and silver.
The economists are pretty well
agreed that America stands upon
the threshold of the greatest era
in her glorious history. If this be
true, and feel confident it is, then
a more realistic attitude toward the
mining industry must prevail. All
of our modern material ways of
these machines are no better than
the metals out of which they are
fashioned. These metals come from
the good earth herself, the mother
of modern inventions. The union of
her bounties with the genius of
mans scientific mind gives the
fruitfulness we all enjoy. We ride
over shimmering steel rails re-
inforced with her elements. We
drive along highways in machines
where safety and precision of manu-
facture give to transportation new
meaning. We fly through the heav-
ems in devices whose structure, con-
troll and directional apparatus are
but the evidence of more of her
bounty and generosity.
Vast accumulations of buying
power and pent-up demand for
consumer goods are but signal of
the greater need for these bounties
of our soil
The thoughtless say there are no
new frontiers. Even If they refer
to new acres of our surface earth
they hardly tell the truth. For who
knows, when some prOSpector's
jackass paving through the snow
for grass to nfbble on, will uncover
another priceless deposit of galena
ore as happened when the great
Bunker Hill and Sullivan lead mine
was discovered in Idaho few years
ago.
But they forgot the millions of
cubic miles beneath the visible face
of the land. There are yet to be
found and developed vast treasures
not even now known. Yes, these
new frontiers are closer than many
suspect, far closer than the distant
mountains and stream beds where
visible geology displayed its treas
ure to the Impractical eyes of the
covered wagon pioneer. While these
early day proSpectors were strug-
Cling to cross the prairies to the
gold fields of Colorado and Califor-
MIA, iron waited undreamed of in
the MiSSabe range, lead lay under
the grasslands in Missouri, coal
ripened in Illinois and the now
known mineral deposits in Arkan-
sas were seeking release from their
prisons on the eroded slopes of the
Ozark hills.
Who then is to say there are no
new frontiers?
Who is there to say the mineral
resources of our land are exhausted,
just because they are not visaged by
the naked eye?
To us who supervise the flow of
capital into industry is thrown a
challenge. The responsibility is ours
to avoid the pitfall of the skeptic
or the morass of the thoughtless
That challenge is to clear our heads
of prejudice and aid in every lega,
way the encouragement of the eco
nomic welfare of an industry upoT
which our all depends.
There are among us those whC
c~1AAA Al tt1EA P&o(ES d1lO uIEG TIT
subsidy with American tax dollar
of foreign sources of mineral wealth
They would stifle our own hard
rock miner into the abandonment
of his hard-worked mine and exploit
the deposit of neighbor nation
whose labor cost of but a few cent
per day poses a problem of unfai
and unreasonable o m D G titiol
against our own citizens, and will
If carried out to conclusion, ten
TO eliminate a means of livelihoo
for literally millions of our ow
people. Labor costs In America
mines. / am advised. amount to
percent of production values, IN az
dition to all the legion forms {
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