The Economic Aspect of Geology

by C. K. Leith

CHAPTER XIX

GEOLOGY AND WAR

GEOLOGY BEHIND THE FRONT

The experience of the great war disclosed many military applications of geology. The acquirement and mobilization of mineral resources for military purposes was a vital necessity. In view of the many references to this application of geology in other parts of this volume, we shall go into the subject in this chapter no further than to summarize some of the larger results.

As a consequence of the war-time breakdown in international commercial exchange, the actual and potential mineral reserves of nations were more intensively studied and appraised than ever before, with the view of making nations and belligerent groups self-sustaining. This work involved a comprehensive investigation of the requirements and uses for minerals, and thus led to a clearer understanding of the human relations of mineral resources. It required also, almost for the first time, a recognition of the nature and magnitude of international movements of minerals, of the underlying reasons for such movements, and of the vital inter-relation between domestic and foreign mineral production. The domestic mineral industries learned that market requirements are based on ascertainable factors and that they do not just happen. Large new mineral reserves were developed. Metallurgical practices were adapted to domestic supplies, thus adding to available resources. Better ways were found to use the products. Some of these developments ceased at the end of the war, but important advances had been made which were not lost. One of the advances of permanent value was the increased attention to better sampling and standardization of mineral products, as a means of competition with standardized foreign products. For instance, the organization of the Southern Graphite Association made it possible to guarantee much more uniform supplies from this field, and thereby to insure a broader and more stable market. Such movements allow the use of heterogeneous mineral supplies in a manner which is distinctly conservational, both in regard to mineral reserves and to the human energy factors involved. In another war the possibilities and methods of meeting requirements for war minerals will be better understood.

In these activities, geologists had a not inconsiderable part. The U. S. Bureau of Mines, the U. S. Geological Survey, state geological surveys, and many other technical organizations, public and private, turned their attention to these questions. One of the special developments was the organization by the Shipping Board of a geologic and engineering committee whose duty it was to study and recommend changes in the imports and exports of mineral commodities, with a view to releasing much-needed ship tonnage. This committee was also officially connected with the War Industries Board and the War Trade Board. It utilized the existing government and state mineral organizations in collecting its information. Over a million tons of mineral shipping not necessary for war purposes were eliminated. This work involved also a close study of the possibilities of domestic production to supply the deficiencies caused by reduction of foreign imports.

Other special geological committees were created for a variety of war purposes. In the early stages of the war a War Minerals Committee, made up of representatives of government and state organizations and of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, made an excellent preliminary survey of mineral conditions. A Joint Mineral Information Board[60] was created at Washington, composed of representatives of more than twenty government departments which were in one way or another concerned with minerals. It was surprising, even to those more or less familiar with the situation, to find how widely mineral questions ramified through government departments. For instance, the Department of Agriculture had men specially engaged in relation to mineral fertilizers and arsenic. Sulphur and other mineral supplies were occupying the attention of the War Department. Mica and other minerals received special attention from the Navy Department. The Tariff Board, the Federal Trade Commission, the Commerce Department, even the Department of State, had men who were specializing on certain mineral questions. All these departments had delegates on the Joint Mineral Information Board, in which connection they met weekly to exchange information for the purpose of getting better coördination and less duplication.

The National Academy of Sciences established a geologic committee, with representatives from the U. S. Geological Survey, the state geological surveys, the Geological Society of America, and other organizations. This committee did useful work in correlating geological activities, mainly outside of Washington, and in coöperation with the War Department kept in touch with the geologic work being done at the front.