Business & Finance: No Need to Import?

Beside the long-abandoned Maclntyre iron mine in New York's Adirondack vacationland—of all places—National Lead Co. last week put the finishing touches on a mill that will make the U.S. independent of imports in two critical materials and crack wide open two war-effort bottlenecks: vanadium and titanium.

The Indian who discovered the mine back in 1826 got $1.50 and a pouch of tobacco for his pains. The State of New York got 10¢ an acre for the land. Even so, for 116 years it was a bad investment. The mine went through the wringer many...