Mr. ROGERS. Let me ask you this, Mr. Merrill; in order to expedite the situation: Do you have any particular phase of this that you think should be brought to the attention of the committee at the present time?

Mr. MERRILL. It seems to me that the production record for tin is of importance. All of the tin that has been produced in the United States, including Alaska, would be enough to supply current consumption in the United States for about 3 weeks. So that gives you an idea of what a small contribution American resources have made. Mr. BARTLETT. Would you repeat that, please?

Mr. MERRILL. The total production of tin in all-time in the United States would not be enough to supply consumption in the United States at the current rate for more than 3 weeks. That figure is a little over 2,000 tons. Alaska has been the principal contributor historically, and the outstanding contributor at the present time to United States production.

Mr. ROGERS. Do you have any approximate figures on Alaskan production at the present time?

Mr. MERRILL. Our preliminary figures for 1954 are 175%1⁄2 long tons; for 1953, 49.4 tons; 1952, 81.9 tons; 1951, 68.6 tons. And if you want further figures for the record

Mr. ROGERS. That is sufficient. Do you have any questions, Mr. Bartlett?

Mr. BARTLETT. Yes.

Mr. Merrill, is the Bureau of Mines in a position to state an opinion on the potential of the Alaska tin districts aside from what the production has been to date?

Mr. MERRILL. That is a question that lies more in the field of the Geological Survey, and in view of the fact that Dr. John Reed is here, with your permission I would like to defer that question to him.

Mr. BARTLETT. Surely. Would you agree, Mr. Merrill-I assume you would-that if a worthwhile tin production situation could be arrived at in Alaska it would be helpful.

Mr. MERRILL. It certainly would be helpful.

Mr. BARTLETT. Not only locally, with respect to employment and general business, but to the Nation itself insofar as it could be used to free us from dependence upon foreign sources?

Mr. MERRILL. That is correct. The significance locally, of course, would be very much more substantial than it would be nationally, but that could be said for any small area against the whole of the United States.

Mr. BARTLETT. Thank you.

Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Rhodes.

Mr. RHODES. The figure of 2,000 tons which you gave represents what?

Mr. MERRILL. That is roughly the total production of the United States for all time.

Mr. RHODES. For all time?

Mr. MERRILL. For all time.

Mr. RHODES. What is the annual production of the United States and Alaska?

Mr. MERRILL. For 1954 it was 180 tons.

Mr. RHODES. And I think you said about 175 tons of that came from Alaska?

Mr. MERRILL. That is correct; 175%.

Mr. RHODES. There are only about 5 tons a year produced in the Continental United States?

Mr. MERRILL. That is correct, sir.

Mr. RHODES. What is the annual consumption of tin?

Mr. MERRILL. About 55,000 tons.

Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Merrill, we will have you come back in a little bit. The Chair wants at this time to recognize the Honorable B. Frank Heintzleman, Governor of Alaska. I did not see you sitting there, Governor. If you will come forward, you will be recognized. I probably should have recognized you first because I think it is something you will probably want to make the case on.

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ROGERS. We are very pleased to have you, Governor.

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. I should like to make a short statement, if I may.

Mr. ROGERS. We want you to make any statement you wish, and there are several questions I want to ask. The other members will also have questions.

STATEMENT OF HON. B. FRANK HEINTZLEMAN, GOVERNOR OF ALASKA

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. This is pretty much a general statement, Mr. Chairman. We have people here prepared to talk on the technical features and the commercial features better than I. I think in the interest of clarity and brevity I will read my statement. It is short.

Mr. Chairman, it is evident to all, I believe, that from a national standpoint we should make a special effort to find out the location and extent of our domestic sources of strategic minerals such as tungsten, manganese, chromium, and tin.

From the standpoint of the economic welfare of Alaska, it is highly desirable that the strategic minerals long known to occur in the Nome area, that is, the second judicial division of the Territory be studied and developed. The Nome area as everyone knows was long a heavy producer of the precious metal, gold, but the rising costs of everything and the fixed price of gold for the past 20 years have wiped out most of the gold mining there and seriously crippled the economy. In fact it might truthfully be said that the second division of Alaska no longer has an economy and we in charge of public administration in Alaska are faced with a serious situation in solving the welfare of some 15,000 natives and white inhabitants of the second division unless we can give that region a new source of livelihood.

The known occurrence of strategic minerals, especially tin snd tungsten, in a highly mineralized area of about 1,000 square miles in the Nome area, might well provide such a new base for the local economy, and I strongly urge that every effort be made to determine the extent and volume of these minerals by the United States Geological Survey, the United States Bureau of Mines, and Territorial department of mines. Also that Congress and the Federal agencies which are charged with the responsibility of seeing that our country has ample supplies of strategic minerals at all times to meet the needs of military defense as well as for domestic purposes, give a reasonable amount of public assistance to developing the local source of stra

tegic minerals in the Nome area. This is especially true for tin, as we are now almost 100 percent dependent on foreign imports for our tin supply.

I am not a mining specialist, but I have been informed by many geologists and mining engineers who have studied the Nome area that prospects for the development there of new sources of tin and tungsten, especially tin, are excellent, and they enthusiastically hold the view that more public assistance to build up production there could be highly beneficial to the Nation and the Territory.

They advocate specifically:

(1) The establishment of an ore-purchasing depot for Alaska area, to be located close to the mining area of the second judicial division. This would provide for early financial returns and for a rapid turnover of the mineral production funds. This would stimulate prospecting and mining. Ore-purchasing stations for certain minerals are maintained in other parts of the United States, and this same facility should be provided for Alaska.

(2) The Federal Government should provide an assured market for Alaska tin, at a living price, to stimulate the exploration for and the building up of production facilities in this region, a region which apparently offers the only chance to give our country a substantial domestic supply of this important metal.

I know that our stockpile of tin is presently very large but I think that the Government should look ahead to help meet possible emergencies and unforeseen developments, especially as the cost would not run into high figures. Support prices for domestic tin in the same proportion as that which has been extended to some other scarce minerals such as tungsten and manganese should be sufficient to make tin production in Alaska commercially attractive.

The Alaska Legislature in recent session, passed two memorials addressed to Congress and Federal agencies, urging that ore purchasing depots for strategic minerals be set up in Alaska and that an assured market at a living price be established for domestic tin.

I heartily concur in this action by the legislature and again wish to point out the importance of such measures to the welfare of the local people, especially Eskimos and Indians who live in the undeveloped northwest section of Alaska. Unless we can find some source of livelihood to replace the dwindled gold mining industry and arrange to take over as the military defense projects there are completed, the Federal Government will have a continuing public welfare problem on its hands more costly than this proposed program which we are advocating to encourage mining in the Second Division of Alaska. That is all I have to say.

Mr. ROGERS. Thank you, Governor. There may be some questions.

Do you have any questions, Mrs. Pfost?

Mrs. ProST. No questions.

Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Rhodes?

Mr. RHODES. Governor, could you point out on the map the area that you referred to?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Yes. Here (indicating) is Nome to which I referred a number of times. The Second Judicial Division of Alaska extends north of a line running through here (indicating), which is south of Norton Sound, northeast over to the Canadian

boundary, takes in the whole northern and the extreme northwestern section of the Territory.

I spoke of a highly mineralized belt of 1,000 square miles in the Nome area. That is on the Seward Peninsula, the peninsula on which Nome is located. I think it is one of the most highly mineralized areas of Alaska. You can see it is quite a remote area, and therefore it has never been thoroughly prospected or even superficially prospected, I might say, for anything with the exception of gold. Of course the gold mining industry has been in the doldrums for the last 20 years in Alaska.

Mr. RHODES. Is there sufficient labor up there to support a fairly widespread mining industry?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Certainly there would be enough labor there to take care of the needs for common labor of the tin mining industry. This section of Alaska has some 15,000 people-north of Bristol Bay-and I should say about 12,000 of those are Eskimos and Indians who live in the country and are content to live there and stay there, and many of them are good workmen, as some of the men here will tell you, I am sure.

Mr. RHODES. How are they living now? What do they do for a living?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Some of them down here in this Bristol Bay section have been fishing, and others from the more northerly sections come down to Bristol Bay area to work in commercial fisheries during the summer months, but in the last 2 or 3 years the commercial fisheries have been dwindling too. Some of them are working for defense projects which are scattered along this enormous area. Last year we had to take care of a great many of them. I had the Presi

dent declare a disaster area of this section, Bristol Bay and to the north, and we had to furnish food and clothing and medicines and one thing and another to take care of these people. That has been over the last 2-year period.

Mr. RHODES. You say there is tungsten there as well as tin?
Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Yes.

Mr. RHODES. In fairly large quantities?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. I do not know.

Mr. RHODES. That is all.

Mr. ROGERS. Mr. Bartlett.

Mr. BARTLETT. I want to thank you, Governor Heintzleman, for having appeared.

It is correct, is it not, that the Eskimo has been employed in mining for many years and they make excellent workmen?

Governor HEINTLEMAN. Yes, that is correct.

Mr. BARTLETT. And also they are adept mechanically?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Very much so.

Mr. BARTLETT. Governor Heintzleman, you spoke about the depressed economic conditions in that area. Would you say they have come about chiefly by reason of the decline in gold mining?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. I should say that is the very large contributing factor; yes.

Mr. BARTLETT. And there are now very few gold mining operations as compared with many before the war?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. Yes; that is correct.

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Mr. ROGERS. Governor, you said you were not an expert on mining and that there were experts in the committee room who can answer a lot of questions. But to what extent do you think the tin resources could be developed in Alaska insofar as making a major contribution. to the needs of this country?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. That is pretty hard to say, but I think someone said and I checked that I remember we are using about 55 or 60 thousand tons every year of tin in this country. I do not know how much of that can come out of Alaska, but I do know that tin is found over this 1,000-square-mile area of Alaska, and it seems to me that if we could make a contribution of only one-tenth of that it would be a fine thing for the United States, which is absolutely devoid of tin, so far as I know, in any other part except Alaska, and also that even 5,000 tons a year up there would contribute quite substantially, I think, to the economy of that section of the Territory at no great cost to the United States.

Mr. ROGERS. I know your desire to do everything possible for Alaska. The thing I had in mind was this: Do you think that the present production could be measurably increased if we provide some type of Federal program that will create an incentive to those people to go in there and develop it?

Governor HEINTZLEMAN. The information I get from the mining engineers who are working up in that section of the country leads. me to believe it could be very substantially developed and established. Someone said it only amounts to about 175 tons a year now, Mr. ROGERS. Thank you very much, Governor.

The Chair will now recognize Mr. Henry Benson, Commissioner of Labor for Alaska.

STATEMENT OF HENRY A. BENSON, COMMISSIONER OF LABOR FOR ALASKA

Mr. BENSON. Mr. Chairman, I do not know how much more I can contribute. I think Governor Heintzleman has summarized it pretty well.

I know nothing about tin. I do know about the people who live in this area and, as the Governor pointed out, this particular area has been classed as a distress area for the reason that the people have had no opportunity for employment other than what has been imposed by direct Government grants.

The major economy, if you can call it an economy, in that area is welfare payments, and it is our feeling that the program which has been outlined by these people who are ready and willing to make substantial investments in tin operations, granted some opportunity for stability, will provide employment for approximately 2,000 people out of the 15,000 people that Governor Heintzleman mentioned.

Now you can see that over the period of years as the gold mining industry has, you might say, collapsed-in other words, from 54 gold dredges down to where we have 4 dredges operating-what that means in the employment picture. The result of it is that you have the entire area of the Territory impoverished. Anyone who looks at the Territory as a whole must look at it in its practical aspect. We have boom areas in the Territory. We have very profitable areas where high wages, high earnings, are experienced-the Fairbanks, Anchorage,