AMERICA’S ADVANCE IN POTASH PRODUCTION^ 
W. C. EBAUGH 
INTRODUCTION 
In a paper presented early in 1917,2 it was pointed out that 
the world faced an emergency of greatest consequence, due to 
its inability to get potash for agricultural and industrial uses, 
and the hope was expressed that the Great War might lead to 
cheap potash, just as the Napoleonic wars of the preceding 
century had led to cheap soda. Events of the last two years 
apparently justify the belief that this hope has turned to fact, 
and that economic independence, so far as potash is concerned, 
has been won by a victory no less remarkable in its way than 
that achieved by arms. 
The antitheses of war are striking. Men, women and chil- 
dren have pain, mutilation, starvation and death forced upon 
them, are torn loose from their abodes and possessions, and 
scattered broadcast as refugees ; yet never are bravery, coopera- 
tive action, fellowship of all classes, and self-forgetfulness more 
in evidence. Science and industry run amuck, labor on a gi- 
gantic scale is turned from constructive to* destructive work, 
the normal markets and trade routes are closed, and wastage 
is enormous; yet inventive genius, medical skill, sanitation, con- 
servation, substitution of new raw materials for those no longer 
available, and the introduction of new methods of manufacture 
and distribution come to a nation’s relief. National hate, greed, 
duplicity, rapacity, ruthlessness and cruelty find their counter- 
parts in love and sympathy for one’s allies, generosity to war 
victims at home and abroad, the introduction of ^Tlue sky 
1 An address prepared for the regular semi-monthly meeting of the Denison 
Scientific Association, December 17, 1918. 
2 W. C. Ebaugh, Potash and a world emergency. Jour. Indus. Eng. Chern.. 
vol. 9, p. 688, 1917. 
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