Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1919 — Industry Rose to Needs of War [ARTICLE]

Industry Rose to Needs of War

Great Britain Becomes CompleteProducts. NOW MEETS ALL DEMANDS (Before the War Germany Had Control of Much Raw Material That Was Vital—FlndFwajT to Sup. ply Potash. London. —A remarkable story of liow British industries formerly dependent for their life blood on Germany have under the stress of war’s demands arisen to a state of complete Independence was told by Mr. Kelloway, parliamentary secretary to the . British ministry of munitions, at a recent meeting of the industrial reconstruction council. Britain la now first In the world in almost every sphere of (Industrial effort, he said. Beginning with raw materials, Mr. Kelloway showed that mica, absolutely essential to the electrical industry, •was so controlled by Germany, although half the world’s supply came from India, that when the war began the world’s market was on the point of being transferred from London to Hamburg. But Indian mica now can be exported only to London, and the British- electrlcat Industry has taken the place Germany once held and is now the first in the world. Before the war the British empire

produced 40 per cent of the wolfram ore from which tungsten (essential for ' high speed steel and in metallic filaments) is made, but so successfully had Germany captured the trade that no British manufacturer was able to establish the. industry in this country. To this position Germany owed her great superiority in munitions production in "the earlier stages of the war. All that has been changed. Britain is now able to produce air the high speed eteel she needs and to export at a reasonable price to her allies. Controlled Australian Zinc. Australia has practically unlimited supplies of zinc ore, but Germany obitained control of them, and 77 per cent of British pre-war supplies came from Germany, Belgium and Holland, Germany being Britain’s largest supplier. •But now Australia’s output has been diverted, permanently, he hoped, to Great Britain.

Great Britain used to depend entirely on Germany for potash, essential for fertilizers, dyes, drugs and glass production. The war revealed that 50,000 tons of potash was going to waste here every year in the dust or fumes from blast furnace gases. That is now being collected. Germany had relied on her practical monopoly in Europe of naturar deposits of potash to enable her to bargain for the recovery of her world markets. She will disappointed. British enterprise and judicious government assistance have taken that power from her. Machine tool production looked like ■an almost insoluble problem at the beginning of the war, but so greatly has production increased that before long the power of the engine will be the same as its weight in pounds, i. e., one pound per horse-power. The British position in 1914 in regard to the production of magnetos was very grave, but, thanks to a display of "grit in the face of almost insuperable difficulties, of resource and of patriotism as fine in its way as that shown by her fighting forces, the British ifiagneto position has been established and made unassailable. The war was nearly lost because the British were almost entirely dependent on Germany and Austria for scientific and optical glass, essential to success. ' It is humiliating, Mr. Kelloway continued, but it is the fact that at the Outbreak of war a considerable part of our artillery was equipped with gun Bights exclusively manufactured in Germany. Two British firms started making sights, but the position was (exceedingly serious when the ministry Jof munitions was formed. Recently (these two firms were producing 250 a (week. The sight is a beautiful and

delicate piece of work, and its production in such numbers and In a perfec--tioa--whieh Germany never -exceeded- Isa triumph for British skill. Before,the war the British optical and scientific instrument industry had degenerated into a collection of middlemen who mainly sold Instruments completely manufactured in foreign countries. All that has been swept away by the bitter necessities of war. and Britain is now self-supporting. Her dependence on Germany and Austria for the glass for her miners’ safety lamps very nearly landed her in disaster. The position was so serious that the home office had to relax the conditions as to the quality and dimensions of lamps. Now Great Britain is producing sufficient supplies of the right quality. Before the war three out of every four electric light bulbs in use in Great Britain came from Germany or Austria. She is now manufacturing sufficient to meet her essential needs.