The strategic mineral the U. S. needs worst and for which it is most dependent on foreign imports is manganese, a coal-like substance essential for hardening and toughening steel. As the world's No. 1 steelmaker, the U. S. has imported as much as 911,919 long tons a year (1937), all but a pipsqueak percentage from Russia, the African Gold Coast, Cuba, Brazil, India, the Philippines. Like rubber, manganese has to travel a long, war-periled route to Pittsburgh and Chicago. Enemy control of the seas would put the great steel industry, vital for...
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