THE NATION'S PRIDE 



591 



and California, manganese in Virginia, 

 Georgia, Arkansas, and California ; but 

 of these latter minerals, as of nickel and 

 some others of less importance, our sup- 

 ply is altogether inadequate for our con- 

 sumption.* 



We can build a battleship, or an auto- 

 mobile (excepting the tires), a railroad 

 or a factory, entirely from the products 

 of American mines and forests. To re- 

 plenish the soil, we have phosphorus in 

 abundance ; potash is known to exist in 

 the deposits of Searles Lake, California, 

 which, however, is not yet commercially 

 available, and in alunite, where it is com- 

 bined with aluminum, and deposits of 



* The adaptability and resourcefulness of 

 American chemists and engineers has been 

 proved during this war as never before. A 

 few illustrations will point this fact : Barium 

 salts, needed for a variety of purposes, were 

 formerly imported in large quantities, although 

 the raw material, barytes, occurs in extensive 

 deposits in this country. We now manufacture 

 these salts in California, Colorado, Illinois, 

 Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, and West 

 Virginia, the new industry not only meeting 

 the domestic demand, but also furnishing large 

 quantities of barium compounds for export, 

 and we are substituting domestic barytes for 

 the foreign material for all purposes. 



The substitution of sodium cyanide for po- 

 tassium cyanide in the treatment of gold ores 

 to the extent of more than half a million 

 pounds in Colorado alone illustrates how the 

 potash shortage is being met throughout the 

 mining States. 



Tungsten, an absolutely essential constituent 

 in high-speed tool steel, is being mined at more 

 points than ever before to meet the special 

 demand in the steel-working industry ; a tin 

 smelter has been erected to reduce Bolivian 

 ores ; cobalt, which is a recent and valuable 

 acquisition to the family of steel - alloying 

 metals, is now being produced in quantity suf- 

 ficient to lower the market price ; American 

 antimony is quoted in the metal market for the 

 first time, and from Alaska alone more anti- 

 mony ore has been shipped this year than was 

 ever before produced from American mines in 

 any one year ; cadmium, formerly imported, is 

 now an article of export, and in other minor 

 metals full independence of foreign supplies is 

 being worked out. Practically all the crude 

 platinum from Colombia and part of the New 

 Zealand output is coming to the United States 

 for refining. 



The position of American zinc in the world 

 market is most striking. In the first half of 

 1914 the exports from the United States were 

 $109,000, in the second half $8,650,000; and in 

 the first half of 1915, $11,963,000, or more than 

 a 100- fold increase over the same period in 

 1914, and the increase continues. 



which are found in several States ; and 

 nitrogen can be extracted from the air by 

 cheap hydro-electric power, as is now 

 done in Germany, Norway, and else- 

 where ; so that we can feed the earth and 

 keep it sustained. 



Our soil and climate are so varied that 

 we can produce all the grains, fruits, 

 vegetables, and fibers known to the Tem- 

 perate Zone and some found in the semi- 

 tropics. And to crown all these, we have 

 water power that can be made to generate 

 perhaps as much as 60,000,000 horse- 

 power. 



PUBLIC DOMAIN SHRINKING 



The public domain is rapidly growing 

 less, which means that it is being occu- 

 pied and used. Of the two hundred and 

 odd million acres left, 12,000,000 acres 

 have already been classified as coal bear- 

 ing, over 4,000,000 as probably carrying 

 oil, and 2,600,000 as phosphate lands. 

 The most valuable discovery made in re- 

 cent years as affecting the public domain 

 is that the semi-arid regions may become 

 abundantly productive under dry- farm- 

 ing methods. The Territory of Alaska, 

 containing perhaps 400,000,000 acres, is 

 now the great body of public domain. It 

 is heavily mineralized and is a land of 

 unknown possibilities. One gold mine 

 there has recently erected a mill of 6,000 

 tons daily capacity, with ore in sight to 

 run this mill for 50 years. 



The waters that flow idly to the sea 

 could be made to support not less than 

 50,000,000 people if turned upon the land 

 that otherwise will remain pasture land 

 or altogether worthless. The demonstra- 

 tion has been given that the lands of little 

 rain can be made more fruitful than 

 those where the rainfall is abundant. 

 Land and water we have ; the problem of 

 bringing them together is one only of 

 money. 



When the war in Europe shut off cer- 

 tain chemical supplies, one of our chem- 

 ists, Mr. Rittman, found a new process, 

 which has been given to the public, by 

 which benzol and toluol, the foundation 

 of aniline dyes and explosives, and gaso- 

 line may be made from crude petroleum. 

 Mr. Parsons and Mr. Moore have de- 

 vised and proved a process for the re- 

 duction of radium from carnotite ores. 



