The Nonpartisan Leader Newspaper, November 22, 1917, Page 9

2 AR RS Tl e ttempt to Corner Fertilizers Walsh Bill Would Turn Over t Phosphate Resources of the Washington Bureau 4 Nonpartisan Leader TANDARD Oil’s great drive in congress, for the capture of an -absolute monopoly of mechanical power in the United States, will not stop even with the waterpower and the coal . and oil resources, to which we have re- ferred in previous articles. of the waterpower means control of in- dustrial development, control of elec- trified railroads and street cars, con- trol of lighting. It means also the con- trol of the making of farm fertilizer - by the electric current process. Pos- " gession of the coal and gas and oil means control of the use of all ma- chinery, from the factory to the farm automobile, that must have oil or gaso- line or both, Looking far ahead, the central group of Big Business in this country sees that if it can get con- + trol of all the possible sources of - farm fertilizer it can control the productive power of the farm lands themselves! And in this Walsh bill, “to encourage and promote the mining of coal, phosphate, oil, gas, potassium and sodium on the pub- lic domain,” the way is opened for ._ Big Business to secure that monopoly. The Walsh bill pretends to be a *leasing” bill. Yet the fandamental point in each clause—whether coal, oil, phosphate, potash or sodium—is that it provides for giving the mineral lands » AWAaYy. . The phosphates, for instance. This {Walish bill provides that the secretary of the interior shall issue a permit, under certain rules and regulations made by the secretary, to any appli- cant who wants to prospect for phos- “ phates on a piece of public land, which shall not be greater than 2,560 acres, *in reasonably compact form.” The applicant may be a citizen, association of citizens, or a corporation. ‘When he has discovered phosphates on this land, he is to be given title to 640 acres, or one-fourth of the land © covered by the permit. The secretary_ ‘of the interior may then grant him a° lease, at nominal rental and royalty, of the remaining three-fourths of the land, for an indefinite period. The con- ditions of the lease are not to be re- vised for 50 years. ‘When this Walsh bill was reported from the senate committee it applied to the potash lands along with the rest. Since that .time Senator Pittman of Nevada has secured the passage through congress of a separate bill, ‘. which provides for the lease or the government development—at the choice of the secretary of the interior—of the potash deposits. Of course, there will be no government development until the farmers of the country definitely insist upon it. Now, the biggest single deposit of potash in the world, and the only profitable one of any size in America, is Searles lake—a lake of potassium salts situated in San Bernardino county, California. The interior department officials have estimated the value of this mineral lake at $1,000,000,000. The only concern that is evaporating the . brine, at present, is the Trona - company, back of which is a big British and Dutch owned corpora- tion which controls the borax sup- ply of this country. Every cake of soap on the market contains borax and the most of this borax comes from Searles lake and nearby de- posits, controlled by these British and Dutch capitalists. Yet, even this borax monopoly is a side issue. The main thing for which Searles lake and ‘this Pittman law are to be remembered just now, is that the lake contains enough potash, .at rate that potash was being used in the year 1913, to fertilize American farms for 40 years. A potash manufacturer” testified before the - senate committee that since the be- ginning of the war the price of potash had gone up from about $35 a ton to $375 a ton, since potash is needed for the making of ex- plosives. LITTLE CHANCE FOR . PUBLIC DEVELOPMENT So the potash is disposed of by the Pittman law, and under that law Sec- getary Lane will either permit a group of “prospectors” to form- a monopoly gor taking out this billion dollars’ Possession . Great farming areas in the United States now require fertilizer in order to produce crops. Sooner or later even the new lands of the great West will require fertilizer. Right now farmers would be using fertilizer on much of these lands if they could get it at a reasonable price. The people of the United States own great phosphate deposits—natural resources on the public domain that have not passed into private hands. The Big Interests are seeking to grab these deposits to make a private monopoly out of them, and to wring great profits from the farmers who need fertilizer. A start has been made in this plan. Bills-are ready to be passed by congress turning these, vast resources over to private interests. The government does not seem ineclined to develop these fertilizer resources for the benefit of the farmers and the people, without profit to private monopoly. To develop these publicly owned fertilizer deposits under public control would be one of the greatest helps for agriculture that could be conceived. Yet there seems to be little chance for public development of these re- sources. Read this article from the Leader Washington bureau. It will make you angry. It will make you Wwant to fight. Perhaps those who still doubt will see a reason in this article for sending Nonpartisan congressmen to congress. It is not too late to de- - feat this bold plan of Big Business. e — | worth of potash and borax, or he will arrange for the government to take out the minerals for its own profit. He has not yet announced which course he will take. In the senate hearings, Senator Pittman ' said, when asked whether government ownership and operation had been considered: “l have discussed that with Mr. Lane, to a very limited extent, and that did not meet with encourage- ment; in fact, | am satisfied that no bill of government ownership of that: character would pass through the senate.” Senator Walsh, who wanted all of the minerals included under his own bill, called upon John D. Pennock, gen- eral manager of the Solvay Process company, fertilizer manufacturers, to “express his views concerning the ad- visability of the government taking over and operating this Searles lake deposit itself.” S Pennock, speaking for his corpora- tion and as a member of one of the committees of big business men advis- ing the council of national defense, re- plied: “Of course, the government is not versed in the manufacture, and it would take a great deal of time to get an organization together by the gov- ernment to operate these plants, There are several already that have started to produce there; you have all the plaus, all the methods, and it is work- ing out satisfactorily on a limited scale.” : GOVERNMENT NOT TO HANDLE THIS RESOURCE “I may suggest also another objec- tion to it,”” spoke up Senator Pittman, according to the printed report of this hearing. “There are by-products that are produced at the same time—for in- stance, soda—and the government would have to build up the facilities for handling soda and possibly a cer- tain amount of borax, and it would re- quire the investment of a very large sum of money in the nature of an ex- periment, because the disposal of these ‘by-products is as essential to the suc- cess of the enterprise as the produc- ing of it, and the government finds that there are too many obstacles in the way of entering into the business of making a market for soda and borax, and yet both of these articles are pro- duced from this lake at the same time as potash. “The plan that the government has in mind, as I understand it, is that these lessees will be interested in the plant which will produce all three of these products, and that probably the Solvay company and some other com- panies, who are now particularly inter- ested in borax and soda, will probably market the whole product for the bene- fit of all the lessees and the benefit of the government.” And there you are. It will be a monopoly, operated as one plant, and the government can’t raise enough money to do it on public account, for public profit! But this Pittman law does not touch _the phosphate lands. They come under the Walsh bill. C. H. McDowell, presi- dent of the Armour Fertilizer works, testifying before this senate commit- tee, told of the vast mineral fertilizer resources of Germany, held under gov- ernment control, and then showed what the phosphate deposits in thig country may do for our food produc- tion. “Right now,” he said on June 17 last, “the state council of defense of Ohio has written the council of national de- fense that their experience shows that 100 pounds an acre, of phosphate, will Poor Wilkins McRocks is in sorry distress, and he’s telling his woes to the Profiteer-Press. ‘‘The war could be won in a month and a day,”’ the guests at a banquet heard this person say, ‘‘if only the farm- ers would wake up and do the things that are loyal and noble and true! 1 regret to observe when we have a parade the seedy old farmers are always delayed.”’ In an interview lately this patriot said: ¢‘The Rubes of this coun- try would better be dead. While driving today in my blue limousine I saw A Rube driving a harrow-machine. He had neither bunting nor banner nor flag on his harrow, his harness, himself, or his nag!”’ That night, as McRocks ate his lobsters and pie, the Rube of the harrow wiped tears from his eye. He was tired in his body and sad in his soul, for his labor increased not the size of his roll. All the money he made went to Wilkins McRocks, a renter of money and buyer of stocks. ‘Then too, the poor Rube missed his fine, husky son, who went on to France with a pack and a gun. And over his lobster the broker said, ‘‘Yes—these farmers are slackers, and misers I guess!”’ PAGE NINE o Private Monopoly the Publicly Owned United States—Directly Affects Farmers EWING |, Secretary of the Interior Lane, who is reported as friendly to the plan of turning the natural public resources of the United States over to private cor- porations and individuals for develop- ment. grow 4l bushels of wheat, and they are going to recommend 250 pounds per acre in the winter-wheat seeding thias fall. We can not supply that. That means 300,000 tons.” LARGE TERRITORY NEEDS FERTILIZER Senator Walsh asked him: “Would you say that a frequent treatment of phosphate would help out the winter wheat fields in Montaha?” “Decidedly; very much,” replied Mc- Dowell. ‘“That whole section and the Red River section has got to come to the use of fertilizers and quickly come to it. The yield decreases the cost per bushel of growing, and that is what You want for the farmer.” “And that whole North Dakota coun- try?” asked Walsh. “That whole section. Iowa is begin- ning to call for it. They have rich, fertile fields, but they are beginning to use it.” Still Senator Walsh asked questions: “There would be a market—you look for a market, then, for phosphate rock and phosphoric acid all over the north- western grain country?” McDowell assured him that all of the Eastern states had made tests, show- ing a progressive decrease in cost of grain per bushel as the amount of phosphate used was increased. In a report by Director Manning of the bureau of mines, and Director Smith of the geological survey, to Bernard Baruch of the council of de- fense, which was presented to the senate committee, these officials said: “The greatest deposits of phosphate rock in the world are situated in the ‘Western states, especially in Montana, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Most of this rock is now unavailable, being held in the government phosphate re- serve. MONTANA POWER MAGNATE IS ON DEAL “In this same general locality thou- sands of tons of sulphuric acid are go- ing to waste in smelter fumes—being not simply a loss of valuable material but a positive nuisance. It is believed that if the phosphate deposits can be- come available under proper lease, the sulphuric acid as well as the phosphate rock can be utilized for the production of fertilizer.” McDowell told the senate committee that he thought five and a half billion tons were estimated in one particular section of this phosphate rock deposit in the public lands in the Montana- Utah-Wyoming field. The ordinary market price when made into fertilizer was $2.50 to $2.75 per long ton. Later, Senator “Walsh brought out the statement from McDowell that the Anaconda Copper corporation was pre- paring to go extensively into the fer- tilizer business, treating phosphate rock with sulphuric acid produced at the smelters, and that it would sell the fertilizer to the wheat farmers of the Northwest and-the orange growers of California. One of the men most active for the ‘Walsh leasing bill, which would give Big Business full control of the coal, oil and phosphate resources of the West, which now belong to the people, (Contined on page 14)