LAKE COUNTY .EXAMINER
THE
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O. D. MORGAN, Manager, LAKE VIEW, OREGON
POS TOFFICK BOX 143 FMOMKtTt
WALLACE & SON
iWm. Wallao; Coroner for Lakm County)
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Goose Lake Valley Meat Market
R. E. WINCHESTER, Proprietor
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supplied with
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County which In any way, affect Real Property In the county.
We have a complete Record of every Mortgage and transfer
ever made In Lake County, and ever Deed given.
Errors Found in Titles
In transcribing the records we have found numerous mort
gages recorded In the Deed record and indexed; and many
deeds are recorded in the Mortgage record and other books.
Hundreds of mortgages and deeds are not Indexed at all, and
mwt difficult to trace up from the records.
We have notations of all these Errors.
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bunting up these errors, and we can fully guarantee our work.
J. D. VENATOR,
SHAMROCK STABLES ;otir
CON BRECN, Proprietor
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met
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BUILDING
rianager.
Buying Meat
isn't us ililTcrent us you may
think, It is Him ply a cave of
selecting the right market.
Such us this one, for instance.
We sell only ehoh e grideH ami
so you are fterfei-tly safe wheu
you deal here.
Lakeview
Meat Market
HAYES t GROB. fROfS:
OREGON
THE EXAMINER
WHAT DEVELOPMENT OF
LAKES MEANS TO OREGON
State Should Invite Capital By Leasing Sum
mer and Abert Lakes in
This County
The following, under the caption
' Review of Action of State Land
Hoard In Turning Down Develop
ment of Salt and Soda Industry in
Southern Oregon," whs published in
the current number of the Pacific
Coast Manufacturer at the request
of C. M. Sain, who is now in Port
land. The Oregon State Land Hoard re
cently refused on offer of a million
and a quarter dollars made by New
York parties for a lease of Summer
and Abert Lakes, the payments to
extend over a period of years.,
Mr. Jason C. Moore, of New York,
came here with three million dollars
to. invest in the development of these
lakes. He agreed to spend a million
dollars a year for the first two years.
The State Land Board declined to i
entertain Mr. Moore's proposition. j
In other words it begged the ques-
tion hv nassine the matter ud to the
I egisluture and withdrew the lakes
from the market.
Mr. Moore left and is now investi-
gating the alkali deposits of Cali
fornia. If he finds what he wants in i
i that state he will not return to
Oregon. As matters now stand I do
! not expect him to return.
I Let us inquire If the State Laud
Board did a wise thing in rejecting ,
this offer to develop these Oregon :
lokes. The action of the board was
virtually to drive three million dol-
Sodium chloride....
Silica
Sodium carbonate. .
Sodium bicarbonate.
Potassium sulphate
Potassium chloride.
Sodium sulphate. . .
Totals
I had to do considerable figuring
in order to make the total come out
even 40 million. I gave the area
of the lakes as 83,200 acres and
the average depth as seven feet.
Since that time I have charted the
bed of Summer Lake and found the
average depth Ih only four feet.
Lake Abert will probably suffer a
similar reduction in tonnage, but
for promotion purposes I left them
at 40,000.000. ' However, when Dr.
Lazellt the Portland chemist, ex
perted the property for McArthur
Bros., who turned it down, his es
timate of the tonnage was
about half this amount.
By the simple expedient of mu!
tiplying by ten we arrive at the
large figure of 400.000.000 dollars
And if the state gets a dollar a ton
royalty its treasury will be enrich 3d
by forty million, dollars. There are
two ways of looking at this proposi
tion and this is one of them.
There is in the Coos Hay field 300
million tons of coal. If we sell this
coal at ten dollars a ton It would
bring into the state eight billions of
dollars. Why not do it?
There are billions of tons of ni
trogen in the atmosphere over Ore
gon. It Is absolutely free to any
one who wants it. Nitrogen Is our
ruont valuable fertilizer and it 1
worth three dollars a ton before Its
! fixation to calcium or sodium. Why
not Mill this at three dollars a ton.
However, if it costs four dollars a
ton to get it down out of the sky
something more than a blue sky law
Is needed to make both ends meet.
However, let ns keep to the salts.
The census of 1910 tells us that
about Ave million tons of table salt
is consumed per year in the United
States and the average price Is about
two dollars. That Is about ten cents
per capita. In Oregon this would
mean an outlay of $75,000.
We would use about a million tons
of sodas annually and spend about
$18,000,000. This Is about 20 cents
per capita, or $150,000 for Oregon.
The highest quotations for potas
sium sulphate is $43 per ton, and
we spend about ten millions a year
for potash salts. This Is ten cents
per cupl'a or $75,000.
Thus If supplied the home demand
for these salts at the prevafting rates
we would get $300,000 a year. Mr.
Moore's proposition was to pay the
state at the rate of $75,000 a year
for the first ten years after the
works were In, In order to do this
It is evident he would have to raise
the price to Oregon people, Increase
lam out of the State of Oregon to be
Invested In California.
In this exposition I do not mean
to question the good faith and hon
esty of the members of the board.
Hut we have a right to ask If in
their wisdom they have served the
best Interests of Oregon.
it Is true that Oregon still has
the lakes and therefore has lost
nothing. It may stl'.l have these
lakes In a hundred years Just as they
are today. And In this century of
time It may never receive a dollar
in benefit from these lakes Just as it
has had no benefit from them In the
Inst sixty years. Is this what Oregon
wants, to keep those lakes? Or does
It want them developed for the bene
fit of Oregon's people of today?
The action of the board was
doubtless prompted by the pnbiica-
tlon of sensational reports of the
fabulous wealth contained in these
lakes. The lakes were suld to he
worth 40Q million dollars and to
It was agreed that if the state got a
dollar a ton royalty It would received
4 0 million dollars for Its permanent
school fund
It was no news to the
Informed that these
board to be
lakes contained 40 million tons of
salts. In my original application
to the board three yeitfs ago for a
lease of these lakes I gave my esti-
mate of their tonnage, accompanied
by certificates of analyses of the
waters, as follows:
Sum. Lake Lake Abert
Totals
3. 90S. 000 14.880.000 18.785,000
. . 122,000
. . 6.231.000
. . 2,869.000
531.000
342.000
.14,000,000
!
55,000
7,769.000
2.397,000
863.000
36.000
177,000
14.000.000
5.266.000
1,394.000
36,000
342.000
26,000.000 40,000.000.
the home consumption beyond the
percapita rate or find a market be
yond the state line.
To go beyond the state boundary
means competition with other pro
ducers of these salts. It is proster
ous to think of shipping the table
salt from Oregon to Sun Francisco
or to the Atlantic coast where it Is
worth only a dollar and a half a
ton.
Oregon by no ineuns' can expect to
monoplize the soda business. The
artificial sodas are produced on the
Atlantic ( (iast at a cost of seven to i
Just nine dollars a ton. The Oregon so
das must first be transported from
the lakes to tide water, COO miles.
If tha rat. Im ririf rf.fit ntr trtn-nfilp
If the rate Is one cent per ton-nfile
the canals urn expected to charge
not less than four dollars a ton. If
the free tolls clause is repealed that
means another dollar.
This allows nothing for royalty,
interest or capital, cost of separation
and refining and sacking and noth
ing for marketing. What chance
then does Oregon natural soda stand
in New York market in competition
with a great trust that can produce
the artificial soda for seven dollars
and has millions of capital for a
war of extermination 7
Other western states also have
natural soda. California has more
than ten times as much soda as Ore
gon.. Mono lake alone has more
than 900 million tons of the carbon
ate of soda. Why doesn't the state
sell this and get 900 million dollars
for permanent school fund.?
Owens lake .according to Dr. Rus
set in Lakes of North America, con
tains 22 million tons of soda car
bonates. The late O. O. Mills spent
millions of dollars developing the
soda industry of Owens Lake. I un
derstand that the plant Is now idle.
Wyoming has millions of tons of
natural soda similar to the occur
rences in Oregon. At Green River
is a plant costing hundreds of thou
sands of dollars. It has been shut
down for two years and the super
intendent, Thomas M. Skinner, Jr.,
has been writing to me for a Job Jn
Oregon. Why is this plant shut
down? It produced a flue grade
of caustic and soda ash. It has no
royalty to pay. It has railway trans
portation and cheap fuel. Still it is
shut down simply because it does
not pay to operate.
The same Is true of the soda
plants In Nevada. The U. S. cen
sus for 1910 and Mineral Industry
for 1912 makes no mention of na
tural soda producing in the west.
On the "other hand the Mineral In
dustry describes a lake In East Af
rica that contains 35 aquare miles of
"solid soda." It Is said that East
African deposits arc sufficient to
supply the world for 700 years.
They pay no royally.
Wonderful changes are taking
place In the chemical world. The
Hooker Chemical Company of Nia
gara Falls has a secret process to
produce theso salts by the use. of
eloctrlclty. Manager Hush of this
company came out to look at the
Oregon lakes and condemned them
The highest prlco ou caustic soda Is
about $40 per ton. Mr. Hush told
me that In the manufacture of
bleaching powder they produced
caustic soda as a by-product that
cost them absolutely nothing. He
said they could afford to give this
caustic away if necessary to keep up
the price of bleaching powder.
In California they are spending
three million dollars building a rail
road Into Searlos lake. They are
after the potash and expect to deliv
er soda at Tidewater practically at
the mere cost of transportation.
They have no royalty to pay.
My original proposition was to
pay the state a dollar a ton royalty
on its soda and fifty cents a ton
on the table salt. After spending a
hundred thousand dollars I found it
was utterly Impossible to promote
the lakes ou this basis.
Hut l"t us get nearer home for a
comparison. Just north of Lake
Abert lie (he four Alkali lakes.
These are mainly dry deposits held,
by two California companies as min
ing claims. One is the John l.
Spreckles group and the other the
Cilhert-Wlllls. These lakes contain
about five million Ions of the purest
soda In the known world. It runs
as high as 98 per cunt. Alkali has
the edge ou both Summer and Abert
In the cost of production. Alkali
lake hus soda enough to supply the
present demand in Oregon for more
than five hundred years. It pays no
royalty to the state, not even taxes.
Yet no crocodile tears are shod be.
cause California parties came here
and gobbled up this vast natural
wealth of the state. And Summer
and Abert lake sodas are expected to
compete with alkali soda and pay a
dollar a ton royalty.
There remains but one salt to be
considered and without this the Ore
gon lakes would not be considered
of any value whatever, This Is pot
ash. A sensational article was pub
lished saying that this potash was
worth 56 million dollars. If you
take a pencil and figure It out you
will see that the potash salt in Lake
Abert Is 3.79 per cent. In Summer
Lake it is only 3.46. The Century
dictionary tells you that the ocean
Itself contains one-twenty-tlfth of
four per cent.
Thus the ocean Is richer In pot
ash than either of these lakes. Sea
water Is absolutely free to any one
who wants It. All you have to do
Is to set up a plant and take out
your own potash. You would have
to pay no royalty to tin' state. It
would cost you nothing to get to tide
water with your product. You can
figure out a hundred billions worth
of otaH , ,K,lt. Tll only trou -
i.i.. i.. !... i .. .1.1
ble is that It would
co-ti you more
to get It out than
t'i pi.l'fll, Is
worth.
K. K. Kree, J he V. S. government
geologist recently spent three week
at Summer and Abert Lakes Investi
gating them as a possible source of
potash supply and condemned them.
I have passed fourteen of the best
years of my life in trying to promote
these lakes as a potash proposition.
A score of times when I thought I
was on the eve of success exports
have turned the thing down. The dif
ficulties in the way have been the
lack of transportation, the cost of
separation, the engineering problems
to be overcome and the uncertainty
as to title. The state does not own
the beds of these lakes. They be
long to the national government.
Yet it refuses to take a million and a
quarter dollars for. the lease of its
rights to a thing that it does not
own.
Not until I fell In with Mr.
Moore was there any substantial
progress. Mr. Moore worked for a
year with expert chemists and dis
covered a secret process for the se
paration of the salts, and I after
sleeping with the proposition tof
thirteen years found a solution'' to
the engineering problems. A score
of other expert engineers had tried
and failed. Then we raise three mil
lion dollars for the development of
the lakes and State Land Hoard
turns us down.
Let Os see where Oregon loses by
driving this capital away from the
state. Why is it that Oregon with
greater natural resources than Cal
ifornia or Washington has less de
velopment, loss population than any
of the others? "Is ltbecause of its
attitude towards capital?
What will tbo people of Califor
nia do if Mr. Moore flndsi a soda de
posit that suits his purpose?. Will
Ita commercial cluba tender Mm ban
queU or will Its people hurl brick
bats at him through the public
pross? If I lived In California and
after fourtoen years of constant ef
fort auccoodod In raising three mil
lion dollars for the exploitation of
one of Ita numerous soda lakes
would I be regarded as a public en
nmy? Any royalty that Oregon receives
from those lakes will bo a mere tithe
In comparison wllh the goneral bene
fit that will result. In order to make
these lakes profitable there must bu
development of collateral enter
prises. These salts enter largely in
to other manufacturers.
The United States produces an
nually 267 million dollars worth of
paper and "wood pulp. The best pa
per Is made from our Oregon plu
by the soda process, a ton of sod
to 20 tons of paper. The paper in
dustry of the United Status now em
ploys CI thousand persons. With
cheap aoda Oregon will become tho
greatJ.it paper manufacturing sU's
In th Union.
Woolen textile manufacturers
amount to 435 million dollars a year
and use nine million dollars' worfli
of chemicals, mostly soda. The In
dustry In the United States employs
175 thousand persons. Here should
bo manufactured Into fabrics all of
our Oregon wools.
Instead of shipping our beef cattle
from the Oregon ranges to Chicago
and the cauned meat tack to Alas
ka we should have our packing
houses here in Portland. The to
tal yearly output of our meat pack
ing houses is more than a billion and
a quarter dollars. The industry em
ployes I OK thousand persons.
One of the problems of the pack
lug houses Is to dispose of the tal
low and oilier grease. The soap
manufacturers of the United States
pay 23 million dollars a year for
tallow and other grease To work up
thls tallow Into soap use more than
five million dollars worth of soda.
The total soap output of the coun
ts 1 1 1 million dollars a yenr and IX
thousand persons a year are employ
ed. The glass manufacture In the
United States amounts to 92 million
dollars a year and the Industry em
ploys 72 thousand persons. Soda and
potash are essential ingredients In
the manufacture of glass and Oregon
Is said to have a flue quality of
glass sand.
Kxploslves manufactures In the
United States amount to 40 million
a year and employ seven thousand,
persons. These chemicals are used
largely in the making of powder.
More than 21 thousund persons
find employment In the fertilizer
mills and the total output is 10:t
million a year. These salts are the
basis of the fertilizer manufacture.
With cheap soda and potash and
cheap hydro-electric power Oregon
should secure a lurge shure In all
of these manufacturers.
Oregon could well afford to give
those lakes away as u subsidy for
the sake of getting these industries
established In the state and
the Increased population they would
bring. Hut Mr. Moore did not ask It.
l u m,,,,',,, piiy wllBt any falr
minded man must say was a reason
able royalty for the use of the wat
ers of these hikes. This is all that
the state has to sell. We care noth
ing whatever for the land In the
beds of the lakes. It Is entirely
useless for our purpose and the state
or the I 'nl ted States may well' kwep
that.
II. N. Lawrle, chairman of the
Oregon Bureau of Mines anil Co-iIokv
In an address on why taxes aviate,
delivered at the Reed College 1915
conference, last Saturday, gave as
the reason the lack of development
of our natural resources. Mr. Lawrle
estimated that Portland alone was
importing ten million dollars a year
in building material and said: "If'
such industries were well established
here it Is also evident that the In
crease In population alone would
tend to lessen the tax burden by sub
division of the total expenditure."
He was not speaking of the alkali
Industry and the establishment of
soda manufacturers would do mora
than all the others to bring popula
tion and distribute the tax burden.
Moreover the lease of these lakes to
Mr. Moore would put directly Into
the treasury a million and a quarter
dollars.
I am satisfied that Mr. Moore by
the use of the process he has dis
covered and my secret engineering ,
plan is the only man who ran de
velop these Oregon lakes and make
them pay. If Mr. Moore gets estab
lished in California the industries
that will follow In his wake will go
to California and not to Oregon. Mr.
Moore at the head of the powerful
syndicate which he has organized
will then be a formidable barrier
against the' development of these
Oregon lukes and they will stay
just as they are for the next hund-
( Continued on Page Sevea)