Show NEWS TH by PAUL MALLON released by western newspaper union FEAR beail OF exhausting ORES UNFOUNDED EXPERTS STATE washington the most startling advice which mr truman gave congress in lids his annual message was that oat we are rapidly becoming a have not nation a as 1 to many of our minerals he did not explain what is running short but just said we should do something about it A rather abstract picture thus was thrust forward for the co commentators menta tors to ponder in generalities erali ties A rather dismal non ob picture was drawn that we are losing ow our world superiority for or any coming international trade contests and we had better get busy also tor for national defense what this picture will turn urn out to be when the president finishes it Is a a detailed recommendation men dation for buying foreign minerals and lowering or abolishing the tariffs on the them to import them in greater quantities thus saving ourselves from mineral poverty indeed the state department Is known already to have a list ot of no less than 1300 products upon which it proposes to hold hear bearings ings t shortly to see it it cannot canno t do exactly that cut the he tariff and encourage buying the new republican senators are already murmuring the administration Is working up a hidden ball trick on them actually this nation is short of only two important minerals according to a mining engineer of long and expert standing who I 1 must confess is a republican these two are tin and nickel the tin we have never been able to get in commercial quantities relying tor for our supplies mostly upon the orient but nickel Is being furnished in desired quantities by canada an adjoining nation upon which we could rely GASOLINE FOR 1000 YEARS TEARS the actual have not situation is something like this many oil engineers agree this nation could never run out of fuel for its automobiles an engineer for one oil concern says we have oil in the ground in this nation tor for 1000 years another says the undeveloped shale in the rocky mountain states like colorado utah ind and nevada which has not been touched because of higher commercial hazards than those now tapped is more than we have consumed to date possibly no expert could estimate completely the amount of oil in the ground but it is certain the administration will get a big argument in any attempt to prove a shortage of this primarily necessary natural resource by and large the condition of importable minerals Is 13 somewhat like that of tungsten we did not mine much before the he war but when we needed it if japan had cut our supplies from china she might have come closer to winning the war we built up a domestic supply of 45 per cent of 0 our total production importing only 55 per cent now tungsten Is protected by a 50 cent tariff mr truman could rapidly make us a have not nation on tungsten by lowering or abolishing that tariff and his administration may be doing so now by the rather harsh disdain of his securities exchange commission for mining ventures in general interior secretaries krug and formerly ickes have built up the notion that we are mineral ly becoming have nots bots although ickes once wrote an article claiming we were all croesus or better because of our wealth share in our mineral deposits they somewhat perplexingly hew to both sides of the question but lean most heavily toward free trade purchasing abroad and stockpiling from foreign sources rather than trying to build up or protect domestic activity perhaps free trade might be a wise ultimate goal and perhaps the economically no backward nations do need our purchases but certainly domestic mining should be maintained first in lines where it can be encouraged SEN VIEW the first republican answer to all this Is likely to be the appointment of a new nevada senator george malone a promoter of a rocky mountain improvement organization called the industrial west as chairman of a public lands subcommittee to look into the matter he favors such things as renewal of the old forgotten flexible tariff provision by which the president today could call the commission and require it to establish the difference in cost of production of tungsten between china and the united states and establish that differential as the tariff rate he also wa wants ants the SEC to take a straighter outlook orl on mining ventures treating I 1 pining mining aa a speculative tive business rather than an investment enterprise an a a cessation of disdainful regu atlon aloni s which would it i done he claims loosen up venture capital |