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Show Bruchart' t Washington Divest j Official Washington Is Watching! Europe Events With Uneasy Eyej SlixXr. Df-partnicjit Voices Di-u-.t of American People At Hitler'a Da-stanJIy Actions; Our National Renounce Re-nounce of War Material Should Re Developed. By VILLIAM BRUCKART WNU Service, National frs Bldj., Wishlnjton. D. C. vA.';m.-i;To:J. Obviouiiy. offl ei.W Wa-.tiiriiil'.n, ai lr.-l.-fl the wh'le wrM. ijj brrn watchii.g whit has br.-ri "' tur'.(e in the last wrrki. Th-y have bn watch-Itiii watch-Itiii with more un-'isinria, more Kn Uifie f.-ar, how iiii:-r ha bctn -I.ufj.IiOK the Ki-I. h. truing, cru-.h-intf, traliiiK, new territory, uhju-KitidK uhju-KitidK ik-w propliM, l hu Insane arnhilion lead, him on and nn. Those chari-cl with olflciul responsibility have watchBil because there can be no mistake about the dangers Inherent In-herent in this wild remaking of the rn.ip of the world. Our government has had the courage cour-age to ieak out, thnxiHh its department depart-ment of state. It has said the Hitler action In overpowering the peoples of Kurope, the minority races. Is a dastardly ttnnr;. There was noth ini; el::e that could be done about it. Secretary Hull and Under Secretary Welles, of the department of state, have left no doubt in the minds of other nations, however, that we, as a people, are :ini;ry about what Hitler Hit-ler has done. But aKain: we can do nothing more than protest, because the United States has no business going to war ovrr some other nation's na-tion's troubles. Hut wtnle our state department has been getting on record with Its disjiust, and there has been a great to-do about strengthening our national na-tional defense Just in case trouble would break out and Involve us, Washington bureaucrats and some Bclllsh elements in congress have been foiling correction of our greatest great-est weakness. President Roosevelt has used his most patriotic voice to force action by congress in development develop-ment of airplanes for defense, in construction of new battle boats and has moved strongly for production of equipment, guns, and the like. Strategic War Materials That Must Be Developed Rut with all of this hullabaloo, we have not heard nor seen any plans for dovelopment of our national deposits de-posits of raw materials which are used in the stock pile of war resources. re-sources. It might not be so important impor-tant were it not a fact that a score or more of these materials have to be imported. I regret the necessity for being so bold, but it is proper to say that our war and navy departments de-partments have advanced not a single sin-gle program, or even a thought, as to how this nation could gain certain cer-tain raw materials if we were to be Involved In a war that would cut off importation of them. The war department has prepared a list of some of these "strategic war materials" and it has listed some of the most important, such as nickel, tin. manganese, rubber, etc. That is as far as it has gone. It Is true, and the swivel chair officers will stress the fact, that congress con-gress passed a law a few years back that was designed to encourage American production of these essentials. essen-tials. It was called, popularly, the buy-American act. It even went so far as to afford authority for payment pay-ment of premiums, up to 25 per cent above foreign quotations, in order or-der that American capital would go to work here on those essentials. But has anything resulted from it? The records answer, no. A congressional committee also lately has answered "no" by drafting draft-ing another bill to encourage production pro-duction in the United States of these war essentials. The house committee commit-tee on military sfTairs has reported a bill which Chairman May hopes will do the work, but even Chairman May is doubtful of its success. He is doubtful because, as he said, when the bureaucrats in the executive branch of the government do not want to encourage domestic production, produc-tion, they simply sit in their chairs and swing their feet back and forth. Officials Unwilling to Learn F rom Other Nations Those follows in the executive departments de-partments apparently ara unwilling to learn from other nations either. I came into possession of a document, docu-ment, for example, that made a confidential con-fidential report to the national emergency emer-gency council more than a year ago. It told that the British government had stored in warehouses enough nickel and tin for a three years supply to be used by industries manufacturing man-ufacturing war materials. This was done by the British government, notwithstanding not-withstanding the fact that London is the scat of the great International Nickel corporation which owns the largest nickel mines in the world and does S3 per cent of the world's trade in nickel. The British thought it was wise to have the essential material ma-terial available, when and if needed, and it had that conviction even with t'.ie largest nickel mine known now-located now-located on British territory at Suds-werth. Suds-werth. Ontario. Canada. Further according to that report, the British were unwiliir.g to leave the r.-.ain nickel retir.ery c:i United States soil. It was moved to a Canadian Ca-nadian svet where, according to the report, it weu'.d te "cut of c s-tan.ee s-tan.ee of any long range gv.-.-.s." The Eritisb royal commission which made the itudy added that while Ufy and the United Stat are friendly and none can ee any rea-lon rea-lon for that friendship ever to be disturbed, "no man can forecast the future." "The shortage of nickel." said the report, "might be a weakness sufficient suf-ficient to determine the issue of a war." I discussed this question of war essentials with various members of the house Representative Murdock of Arizona, Representative Francis Case of South Dakota, Representative Representa-tive Scrugham of Nevada, among others. To a man they said that the will of congress was being thwarted by bureaucrats who are unwilling to encourage American industry. Mr. Scrugham, for instance, a former governor of his state and a mining man, told how the bureau of mines had reported there was no worthwhile worth-while nickel deposits in Alaska. The sariie agency has found no reason to encourage American capital to develop manganese deposits in the United States. Mr. Case has been trying to get congressional action on measures to get some use of the metal deposits of South Dakota, but always selfish corporate interests, seeing no further ahead than the point of their red noses, have stalled the programs. Pleads for Money to Develop Mineral Resources Mr. Murdock, also a mining man, made a plea on the floor of the house the other day for congress to provide some money enabling realistic real-istic procedure with respect to our unknown and undeveloped metal resources so that we would know in case of war, if for no other reason. rea-son. "Since my school boy days," said Mr. Murdock in house debate, "I have been told that Alaska is a treasure house of natural wealth and economic resources. I believe we have been and are overlooking that fact in our dealing with that far off corner of our country. I feel that we ought to develop those resources; we ought to know more about them." Mr. Murdock's statement causes me to ask the question: since it is our national policy (at present, at least) to spend billions of dollars under the guise of making work, why not designate some few of the millions mil-lions for worthwhile national development? devel-opment? Reference was made the other day to testimony given two years ago before the senate finance committee. commit-tee. I looked it up and found that the late Francis P. Garvan, then president of the chemical foundation, founda-tion, had caused an investigation to be made of Alaskan metal resources. re-sources. The report brought in by a Wisconsin university professor, who did the searching and digging on the ground, makes one wonder what undercurrent of influence has prevented the development of metal claims, such as nickel and tin, up there. Very few of the national legislators leg-islators knew of the testimony. Buying for Reserves Would Start Brand New Industries In my conversations among Rocky Mountain congressmen, I could not avoid the conclusion that capital funds held in the United States will not be put to work on such things without some encouragement from officials in Washington. I know that some representatives and senators are of the opinion that the federal government ought to offer to buy these war essentials here and disregard disre-gard foreign sources. They believe that a commitment to buy for reserves, re-serves, if made by the federal government, gov-ernment, would start brand new industries in-dustries going in many, many parts of the United States. All of the while, however, we have the bureau of mines and th.9 war department sitting sit-ting back and making it hard for Americans to develop America. This whole situation would be hardly hard-ly worth analyzing were it not for the facts: 1. The federal government is spending billions for defense, along with other billions that are being wasted, and, 2. It is a measure of safety to have all. or as much as possible, of the things we would need, in event of war, where they can be handled by Americans for Americans. And it is more important, impor-tant, too. because numerous reports have reached Washington in the last year to the effect that German, or Belgian cr British capitalists have been making overtures to holders hold-ers of American mining claims for operating leases cn properties that yield such things as essential war metals. It is my belief that sooner cr later congress will learn that the bureaucracy, which it created, has wasted teo much time: it will learn that foreigners own ail of the metal resources here and we will be buying buy-ing back the frished material at the prices foreign monopoly cares to establish ;ust as we are now cuy- j Wess;ra Newsp.-.pep fruco. |