Our country has a number of serious problems, two of which particularly bother me. Money and mining.

I think our money problems have been created in part by the fact that far too many in our government have forgotten or don’t know where money comes. All new wealth comes from the ground. It’s created when we harvest food and resources from the earth. This wealth is expanded when products are treated and manufactured into more useful products for mankind. Everyone else makes a living by distributing or selling these essential products. All others in our country make a living by providing a service for others or working for the government.

Just living on printed money is going to backfire on us one of these days as it will be declared worthless and our creditors will demand payment in gold or solid goods. Thus, our basic industries are the foundation for our economy. Farming, ranching, fishing, timbering, oil recovery and mining are absolutely essential — and mineral recovery is the most important.

We cannot manufacture one thing without using minerals, either in the product or the tools and machinery needed to make it. Our country has all these minerals except one — tin — and we could provide our industries if we would let our miners work.

The sad fact is that we are completely depending on China for 25 minerals and partially for seven more. If they wanted they can bankrupt and shut down our country in a few weeks. The only reason it hasn’t happened already is that we are their biggest customer.

To add to all this, Congress is thinking of rewriting the mining laws. These laws worked well for 130 years until the Clintons and the secretary of interior started changing environmental regulations and stopped funding the Bureau of Mines. This group of explorers, mining engineers and metallurgists advised and directed government actions to develop and produce the essential metals that made it possible for America to win World War II and the Korean War. This created many jobs and a great deal of wealth for our country.

Government agencies — Forest Service, BLM, DEQ, NEPA water quality, etc. — have used environmental laws to regulate our mining and other industries out of business. All mining law, including the Federal Land Management Act, and many Supreme Court decisions directly forbid agency actions. The Forest Service, BLM, etc. have very little expertise in mining and they have shut them down or driven them overseas. We are buying our timber from Canada, our minerals and other things from China, our oil from Russia and the Middle East.

Let’s re-establish the Bureau of Mines and start producing our own resources and making wealth for our country.

Kenneth Anderson

Baker City