MINERALS OF THE UNITED STATES — PEHRSON 197 



a prolonged shut-down. Also, the abrupt curtailment of mining would 

 present a serious social problem in readjustment of the population that 

 would be stranded in isolated mining areas. Huge capital losses would 

 be incurred. For these reasons, the proposal does not seem to merit 

 serious consideration. 



Our national security cannot rest entirely on stock piles. Experi- 

 ence since 1939 clearly demonstrates the fallibility of even the experts. 

 They cannot foresee with certainty the magnitude or duration of an 

 emergency. For this reason we need a second line of defense to provide 

 against mistakes in stock-pile planning. Our marginal and submar- 

 ginal resources can give us that additional insurance. Exploration for 

 new deposits should be carried on vigorously and methods for process- 

 ing these materials should be perfected and plans made for emergency 

 production. It is not unreasonable to expect that such a program 

 might lead to the development of new peacetime industries. Our large 

 deposits of manganese-, vanadium-, and aluminum-bearing materials 

 offer interesting possibilities. 



The program just outlined is essentially the same as that recom- 

 mended to Congress by the Army and Navy Munitions Board in its 

 recent report on strategic materials. 



While the accumulation of stock piles from foreign sources should 

 be a basic requirement for national defense, a large-scale stock-piling 

 program could also provide a reservoir into which domestic materials 

 might be placed in times of depression with resultant economy to the 

 Nation and benefits to the mining communities. Consider the advan- 

 tages that would have accrued had we kept a reasonable measure of 

 employment in the mining areas during the depths of the depression, 

 and stock-piled the surplus production for future use. Not only would 

 the effects of the depression in the mineral-producing areas have been 

 less severe, but we would have had a substantial inventory that would 

 have eased greatly the procurement problem of the last few years. 



Peacetime supplies. — Stock piling will provide for the defense of 

 the Nation but will not assure adequate supplies of minerals at rea- 

 sonable prices during peacetime. There are several ways in which the 

 Government can be helpful in attaining the latter objective. A fun- 

 damental requirement in dealing with this problem is more detailed 

 knowledge of the extent of our reserves. Our studies have revealed 

 many inadequacies in basic information necessary for the quantitative 

 appraisal of resources. The United States Department of the Interior 

 plans to remedy this situation. The mining industry can be very 

 helpful by making available to the Government the vast amount of 

 information of this type in company files. We realize that such data 

 frequently must be regarded as highly confidential and the reluctance 

 of some producers in the past to make them available is readily under- 



