Show f U S guards its strategic resources while haves fight with have nots bots by PETER BECK released by western newspaper union dadolf washington ASHINGTON when adolf hitler initiated his eighth year as nazi fuehrer he asserted intyre at ening the allies with total war war that this was a socia social I 1 war between nations in which the have nots bots are fighting the haves for fora a new division of the world it was an excuse as old as the first caprice of mother nature for scattering generous supplies of mineral and vege table resources in some spots of the earth and leaving others woefully barren nature created a world of haves and haven have n bots nots 0 ts and war h has as been going on somewhere ever since against dally daily reports ot of the pinch european nations are feeling because of blockades there stands in relief a more encouraging picture for uncle sam U V S pretty well off america is self sustaining to a degree defree free nearly equaling the total of the six other great powers in the essentials to a comfortable standard of living according to allcut col 11 D rogers chief of the commodities modi ties division office of the assistant secretary of war these essentials senti als colonel rogers writes in army ordnance are foods fibers power iron and steel machinery chemicals coal and petroleum the U S has one third to one half the worlds wealth and does one half its work colonel rogers roger says the average american workman has 13 horsepower at his command those of some other countries less than one for this reason he estimates the american workman to be worth two french or italian workmen nearly n e arly two germans or three and one half russians inventive genius and industrial science have cured many of americas cas material deficiencies and are working to cure what few there remain today the army commodities division according to colonel rogers now lists only 17 materials as strategic a tar far smaller number than that listed by other nations these are manganese ore tin chrome ore tungsten antimony manila fiber nickel quartz crystal quinine rubber silk mica mercury aluminum coconut shell char optical glass arid and wool plenty of aluminum not all of these are cause for general alarm aluminum for instance is perhaps the least 11 strategic gi 0 of f all maj G A roush writing in c I 1 in n military engineer states that there is no question of the ability of the reserves to meet even emergency demands some geologists have estimated that a considerable supply of high grade bauxite ore are of aluminum is still available hecq as a result of the long established policy of aluminum company oi of america to conserve its arkansas deposits for times of emergency although the U S was completely self sufficient in bauxite during the world war va r the richer arkansas supplies were we re heavily drawn upon causing the company to begin importing increasing amounts until today more than 60 per cent of its bauxite comes from dutch guiana leaving literally millions of tons of varying grade in arkansas Ho however holiver wiver to in any great emergency no great difficulty is anticipated in policing the ship lane from dutch guiana especially since any american defense program must include defense of the panama canal manganese safeguarded even in the case of manganese which authorities have labeled stra Z 0 UR position in agrical agri cul ture requires a small er percentage of our pop illation than other nations leaving the bulk of our workers free to engage in industry F 34 I 1 J g 1 r 71 material no 1 developments of the last few years have greatly reduced the possible danger of loss of supplies while it is true that domestic production from the low grade ores which are available in in 38 33 states is not being undertaken on anything like a scale equal to the demands of the american steel industry the cuban american manganese corporation an american financed company has perfected a flotation process for concentrating cuban ores which are similar to many of the american low grade ores most authorities feel that shipments ot of rubber from the far east are likely to be regular under almost t any conditions that can be visualized at this time meanwhile S L brous a qualified fled engineer of the B F goodrich company writing in india rubber world recently stated that with the expenditure of on a high speed research re program to develop synthetic rubbers the united states could in one year be made independent of foreign supplies of natural rubber nation makes optical glass lammot du pont font president of E I 1 du pont font de nemours and company says that thanks to american scientists this country is is now producing optical glass second to none whereas in 1914 we were dependent upon europe for this vital material needed in the manufacture of various instruments science has made us independent today in materials which were strategic in the past he points out we now take nitrates from the air recover potash from I 1 our own deposits make our own dyes through organic chemistry and produce our own camphor synthetically no one can tell how soon other materials will be removed from the strategic list by science the texas mining and smelting smelling Sm elting company now has a plant at laredo texas designed to make more effective use ot of anti montal ores from nearby mexico constant experiments are being conducted to improve the nations output of mercury tungsten and other materials one reason for the optimistic belief that science will find ways of supplying our deficiencies in strategic materials is that progress of bf american civilization makes makei demands entirely apart from the requirements quire ments of defense to quote colonel rogers again it is practically impossible to name a raw material which has a strictly military use and the same can be said of 0 f many manufactured articles |