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Show NOTES DEFECTS IK WAR MINERALS BILL The war minerals bill, wliiuh has been under consideration for nearly a year, was signed by the president last week and is now a law. The delay has been Immaterial, Imma-terial, for the conditions in those minerals min-erals whereof there were shortages that it was sought to correct have steadily improved im-proved without any governmental interference. inter-ference. Indeed, the experience of the last six months has proved that no legislation legis-lation of this kind was necessary, and probably. the authorization that has just been given to the executive will not be used to any great extent, anyhow. - The bill that was introduced in the senate by Senator Henderson was a great improvement upon that which had previously previ-ously been passed by the house. Certain amendments that were made on the floor of the senate, however, did much to muss it up. One of these forbids reselling by the government at anything less than the purchase price or cost of production. The other limits salaries to the rates commonly paid in the executive departments-. The idea of an ordinarv executive execu-tive department going into the "markets, inflated as they are at present, to buy ores with the restriction that thev may not sell a t less than cost provokes a smile. The guiding principle of "safety first" would indicate that the only safety in these circumstances would be not to buy or contract for anything. Engineering and Mining Journal. |