RAW MATERIALS: Going, Going . . .

Honest Harold Ickes’ Department of the Interior has long fretted over the war’s extravagant use of U.S. minerals. After a careful survey, his department geologists solemnly warned the U.S. that: “We are far from being a ‘have not’ nation . . . but the time has come to realize that we cannot keep up the present pace indefinitely.”

Some not too distant shortages:

¶ In the rich Lake Superior region, the steam shovels are biting close to the bottom of the vast open-pit iron ore mines, including those in the famed Mesabi Range. Within 17 years the steel industry will have to depend on low-grade iron ores.

¶ The domestic reserve of copper will be mined out in less than 34 years.

¶ If consumption continues at the prewar level, U.S. reserves of sulphur will be exhausted in 55 years; zinc in 19 years; gold in 14 years; silver in eleven years.