Show MINING AND agriculture from the pen of H C cowles of the department of mining and metallurgical lurg ical research of the university of utah and the intermountain intel mountain station of the U S bureau of mines comes an article published in last weeks issue of the reaper dealing with the relations between and interdependence of mining and agriculture mr cowles explains how continued growing of crops depletes the soil of plant nutriment and how necessary it is to replenish the nourishing elements by application of certain mineral salts he cf the enormous deposits of such minerals that are arc found all over the united states and here we come to an application of his theories for our part pait of the country a subject that was dwelt upon by the reaper for years and years and should be continued to be dealt with until we come to the point that the almost inexhaustible deposits of alunite ores in our vicinity will be developed and profitably used by miners as well as agriculturists the value of these alunite ores has been proven beyond a doubt and still those millions or perhaps billions of real values are lying idle and undeveloped that profits can be derived from those deposits in sevier and diute piute counties wu was demonstrated durin during the war when the armour company profitably I 1 conducted a plant in marysvale Marys vale after the war when the channels of tr trade ade with europe had been opened again and french and german kalium and potash products could be imported cheaper than we were able to produce them here this promising industry died again we were not able to compete with the cheap i labor and low standards of living of those countries that up to now are considered the main sources of sac such li products in spite of the fact that our own deposits are larger and easier accessible than those of europe because ours can be exploited by quarrying yuanying qua nying and steam shovel operations while the european deposits have to be developed by deep mining it ought to be the duty of an enlightened government to preserve the home market for the american people the competition between foreign and domestic products is primarily a battle between standards of living in which the victory will inevitably go to the lower standard if production costs cannot at lea least st in some degree be equalized in some way and the best way known to our economists and in our way vav of thinking is a protective tariff relief in this respect has been delayed long log enough the amount of unemployment in the united states due directly to unfair foreign competition is an important factor in our present industrial situation the depression of agriculture on the other hand is due ir in no small part to failure to produce in the united states a vt vast quantity of raw material which cannot be produced profitably here because of higher costs due entirely entirely to higher american standards stand aids of living in the coming extra session of our congress tariff questions will be discussed and it would be a step in the right direction to attack the farm relief lelica question by a protective tariff on those mineral salts of which we have such enon enormous quantities now lying absolutely idle thus help will be brought to agriculture as well as the mining S so 0 well disposed are the american people toward the protective policy that in the last national carn campaign paig n declarations against it were absent from the national campaign there i has come to be a general realization that a protective tariff measuring I 1 the difference in N wages ages and standards of living at home and abroad depre 1 not special privilege but simple justice organized labor which a few years ago was divided on thel the I 1 question of a protective tariff is now united in favor of it wage earners mers have come to see that re 1 upon cheap foreign pro i j ducts stands on all fours with restriction of the immigration of those I who raise or make these products 1 and that unfair competition is as much involved in the one as in the other to protect the american farmers and the american wage earner depending on mining operations from disaster due to the inability of both to compete on his scale of pay and living livin with loer foreign standards is clearly a demand of social justice and of economic safety Resi resistance stence to a reasonable increase in tariff rates rate on commodities subject to unfair foreign competition is at this time only a weak orie one and congress should see to it that tariff rates are so adjusted that no american may be thrown out of a job or be corn compelled to work part time or accept a reduction in wages no american fanner should find his labor unprofitable merely because he c cannot annot stand up against the deadly weapon 0 of f a cheaper labor procured abroad by the sacrifice of human values |