—With zirconium must be considered monazite, a mineral which is the source of thorium and mesothorium. Thorium nitrate is used in the manufacture of Welsbach mantles for gas burners; mesothorium is a by-product of its manufacture from monazite, and is a radioactive substance used as a substitute for radium in making luminous paints and for therapeutic purposes. The zircon minerals and monazite typically occur together in river or beach sands. Like the zirconium minerals, monazite comes mainly from Brazil and India; although it has in the past been mined successfully in the United States, the industry is now extinct.
The thorium nitrate industry of the United States is closely controlled by two companies, the American Welsbach Company, and the Lindsay Light Company. During the war they furnished thorium nitrate also to England and France, thus exercising a world-wide control.
THE MAJOR NON-FERROUS METALS
Copper.
—The United States stands out predominantly as the world’s great copper producer, producing in 1917 60 per cent. of the world’s output. No other country produces one-sixth as much as the United States. American capital controls (in part through control of refining) 78 per cent. of the world’s production.
Germany has been one of the largest consumers of copper, though not a large producer. Because of this, German interests have in the past secured a considerable control over copper supplies, as well as those of lead, zinc, and other metals, through refining and selling contracts with mining companies. Such control does not as a rule extend to ownership of mines or smelters. Thus for many years companies affiliated with the great German Metal Combine (Metallgeselschaft) were influential in the copper business of the United States. There were three of these companies in the United States, the American Metal Company, L. Vogelstein & Co., and Beer-Sondheimer & Co. Recently the first two have consolidated; and all were Americanized during the war.
The commercial control of the copper in the world, as based on ownership of mines, is, in even figures: United States capital, 69 per cent. (entirely in the Western Hemisphere); British capital, 13 per cent. (in both hemispheres, but mainly in the Eastern); Japanese, 8 per cent. (entirely domestic); German, 6 per cent.; and French, 2 per cent. It will be noted that of the present production three-quarters comes from the Western Hemisphere (North and South America) and only one-quarter from the rest of the world. It is probable that this is a fair index of the relative wealth. The future production of South America will probably increase more rapidly than that of North America, which was earlier developed. It is necessary for the permanent control of the copper situation by the United States that American capital should continue to be foremost in the development of South America.
Lead.
—The United States is the largest producer of lead in the world and has large resources. Next to the United States, in the order named, come Australia, Spain, Germany, and Mexico. Three powers—the United States, British Empire, and Spain—produce 76 per cent. of the total; and of these the United States and Great Britain produce 60 per cent.
The most striking feature about the lead industry is the fact that as the German system of far-reaching commercial control under government auspices—through smelting, refining, and selling—was destroyed, this system was at once adopted by the British and French. In other words, they found that the German plan had been so effective that they not only blocked it permanently so far as their own countries were concerned, but organized similar commercial-political combinations which should not only take care of all their own lead business, but, like the German organization, should reach out into other countries. The German combination still remains active outside the territory of the former Allies.