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4 - 1844 WO R K S PROGRESS A D MI N I S T R A T I O N For release to newspapers Saturday, December 3, 1938 MECHANIZATION IN PHOSPHATE MINING REDUCES LABOR REQ,UIBEMENTS : PRESE1JT SOURCES S::ii:EN .A.DEQ,UATE FOR SEVERAL GENERATIONS Productivity in the phosphate mining industr~ has improved during the last 50 years to the point where one workman today produces as much as 14 men did in 1880 . Chiefly res ponsible for this development are a variety of mechanical improvements, the concentration of production in t he largest, most mechanized mines, and the rapid growth in the use of mechanical power . These are the principal facts estaoJ.ished in a study of 11 Technology, Employment a..11.d Output per Man in Phosphate Rock Mining, 1880-1937 11 recently completed by the National Research Project of the Works Progress Administration in coopere.tion with the Federal Bureau of Mines and released for publication today by WPA AQministrato r Harry L. Hopkins . With respect to the phosphate reserves of Florida - where 75 percent of the present production comes from - Corrington Gill, Assistant Administrator in charge of all WPA research , points out in his letter of transmittal that , "exhaustion is not likely to occur for several generations, even allowing for a sizable increase in the rate at which they are mined" . 11 Although known r eserves of the WeBtern states , and particularly of !daho 11 , he continues , 11 are many times gr eater than those of Florida, Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1844 - 2 - these tremendous phosphate reserves have not been extensively tapped . partly because little fertiliz er has Deen used on t he a 6 ricul tural le.nds of the ~est •• •• It is expected that increased consumption of f er - tilizer in those areas will De aided Dy achievements of the TVA and research conducted under other auspices in developing lo~-cost processes for manufacturi~g concentrat ed phosphntic f ertilizers which have lower ship-ping costs per unit of plant food 11 • The report states that whereas 2, 500 workers were employed in producine 210 , 000 tons of phosphate rock in 1880 , only 3,500 men were req_uired. to ;1roduce 4 , 260,000 tons in J.937 . 11 Technological im~i rovements were primarily responsiDle for this more than fourteenfold increase in output per man" , the report concludes . adding that du:ring the next decade production will increase enoueh to offset further gains in productivity so that employment will average near its 1937 level . The principal factors which are expe ct ed to make for increased production in the future , the report points out , are increased consumption of agricultural products resultin6 from population growth ; continuation of the tr end in our national diet that has Drought greater demand for such agricultural products as fruits and vegetables v:hich require large quantiti es of :phosphate fertilizers; the exprmsion of fertilizer consumption to counteract the depletion of soil fortili ty ; t he pr obabl e de cline in the price of fertiliz ers ; and a consideraDle expansion in the non- aericultural uses of products obtained from :;:ihosphn.te rock. The repo rt is published as a booklet of 130 pages with nu..'!lerous illustrations , charts and tabl e s . It was propo,red by A. Porter Haskell , Jr .• Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY 4-1 844 and o. E . Ki os s lint: of the Federal :Buroau of Min8s . Dr . Kiessline; is in clmr go of t ho min t:; r ,;-1,l t ocrinolo [.:Y s tud.i er; of the Nati onal Research Proj oct on Reemr, loym(mt OpY.Jo rtuni ti e s and Rec ent Chnngos in Indu.stri c.l Te chniciuc s d ir 0ct oci by Dav:i.d We intraub . 000 0 000 Digitized by Original from NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
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