20 BULLETIN 102, PART 2, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
ft 
ter of the stage. Then, with increasing demands for explosives, more 
and more Chilean nitrate was diverted to the manufacture of nitric 
acid, and the fertilizer industry had to compete the best it could with 
the imperative calls of war, backed up as they were with the price to 
pay. This country proceeded to work itself up to a pitch of excite- 
ment over the “ nitrogen situation,” as the realization came that 
without access to Chile the explosive industry could not be main- 
tained ; and finally toward the middle of 1916 a congressional 
appropriation of $20,000,000 was made to secure nitrogen inde- 
pendence. But the appropriation of money was one thing and the 
building up of a rational nitrogen situation another; and few under- 
stood why money, which purchased everything, could not buy that 
desired result. Potash had been lost sight of in an atmosphere 
charged with nitrogen ! The next shift of scenes brought sulphuric 
acid to the foreground; the submarine campaign developed, and it 
suddenly became apparent that the sulphuric-acid industry was abso- 
lutely dependent on shipments of Spanish pyrite. So pyrite assumed 
the stellar role among the galaxy of war minerals. And so the 
matter stands. All of this, of course, goes to show the unfortunate 
tendency to regard the potash problem, the nitrogen problem, and the 
pyrite problem as separate units, whereas, as a matter of fact, they 
are all parts of a larger fertilizer problem, which in turn is only one 
phase of a still larger problem embracing our whole industrial life. 
It is a basic necessity that we secure an adequate and cheap sup- 
ply of fertilizers. The responsibility for accomplishing this result 
is three-fold; resting not only upon the fertilizer industry, but also 
upon the Government, and likewise upon the people. Each can 
contribute to this end, both individually and especially through 
coordinated effort. 
The fertilizer industry is awakening to its responsibility. During 
the past few years, in particular, it has acted on the appreciation 
that closer cooperation and better understanding between producers 
and consumers were desirable. An interesting start has already 
been made toward this end through the work of the Soil Improve- 
ment Committee of the National Fertilizer Association, which is 
carrying on by means of lectures and literature an educational cam- 
paign looking toward a more extensive and scientific utilization 
of fertilizers on the part of the farmer. This is quite different from 
an advertising campaign merely, and the idea is to be commended. 
Another problem that will become more urgent as time goes is the one 
of transportation; for fertilizers are bulk materials and the freight 
charges not only form an important item in cost, but actually bar off 
much of the country from more active fertilizer participation. 
Here is a point of contact between two great industries, touching also 
governmental policy, with possibilities of adjustment by each; but 
