r
pjtGsroua
Hm OBEGOIi STATESMAN. Salao, Oregon. Frfdor Moraine Jxm iX 1842
.
"No Favor Sways U$; No Fear Shall Awe"
from first Statesman, March 28, 1851
KB US
THE STATESMAN PUBLISHING CO.
CHARLES A. S PRAGUE, President
Member of The Associated Press
The Associated Press Is exclusively entitled to the use tor publication of ail
news dispatches credited to it or not otherwise credited In this newspaper.
WUMMB MM
Rubber; Scrap und Synthetic
President Roosevelt announces a scrap
rubber drive to be conducted in a two weeks
period starting soon, with the oil companies
taking supervision. Though it is uncertain
whether the scrap rubber collected will be
used for civilian or war- purposes and this
should make little difference in the enthusiasm
with which the drive is carried on the presi
dent intimates that upon its results will depend
to a large extent the decision for or against
nationwide gasoline rationing.
Previously the president had refused to
view as glumly as had most of the experts,
the prospect for keeping the nation on rubber
tired wheels. He declaredtiiai American in
genuity would produce asoTution. His faith
has not by any means been fully confirmed by
events but there are hints. James Zeder, chair-rnc-i
of the tire committee of the automotive
and rubber industries, heading up efforts aim-
ed at development of a successful retreading
material for civilian tires which will not in
terfere with the synthetic rubber program
which must be devoted almost entirely to the
war effort speaks hopefully though not too
definitely. What has been done is a closely
guarded secret, but it is revealed that every
body concerned is cooperating and that the
solution has been narrowed down to a few
promising formulae.
Nevertheless we are convinced that two
factors, conserving tire carcasses now in use
and success of the scrap rubber drive, will
loom large in the final determination as to
whether gasoline is to be rationed and what
is more important either way whether our
rubber-borne economy is to survive the war
or collapse in a series of resounding economic
blowouts. You know that depressing siren-like
"swish' that follows a blowout? If you don't
want it to happen to business save your tires
and turn in your old rubber!
In the first place, there is no such this as
synthetic "rubber." For all their skill, chemists
do not know the exact chemical composition of
rubber and they cannot produce it synthetically.
The best they can do is something which has
most of the same properties; they haven't been
able to capture all of them. Only God can
make a tree and that applies to rubber as well.
Well, you know how Americans are. Give
them a ' game to play, free competition, and
they'll do wonders. Fortunately, there is com
petition for the final synthetic "rubber" solu
tion. Unfortunately, it is not entirely free,
being under government supervision and
hedged all about by priorities.
i: . .1 tT.. c ...kink "Col-Klin r t
Germany first developed. Standard Oil (New
Jersey) got it through that much-maligned
cartel; thanks to a consent decree ies use is
thrown open to the industry. It's made by
polymerization in a soap solution of butadeine
with styrene. Butadeine could be produced
from alcohol as the farm interests demand
the Germans get it from acetylene but we
re getting it from petroleum, with gasoline of
which there is. a surplus, as a by-product.
The shortcoming of Buna-S is that by it
self, to date, it hasn't made fully satisfactory
- tires. All these synthetics have a tendency to
utrvcriUftJ Mitciim iicab. aiic uciiiiaiio aia. critbijr
use it about 50-50 with natural rubber, a solu
tion which will stretch the rubber supply but
fill be dependent upon it. Nor does Buna-S
n-ake a' satisfactory 'inner tube.
Meanwhile Standard Oil has been work-is-;
on another synthetic, "Butyl," produced
much more simply from isobutylene, the source
of which is the refinery gas stream. It has
also the advantage of continuous production in
contrast to the "batch" production of Buna-S.
But with Butyl, the catch is that its properties
have not been fully tested. It seems to promise
more than Buna-S in the way of tire production
without the use of natural rubber, with which
it will not combine successfully, and it may be
the answer for inner tubes.
And finally, or almost finally, there is
DuPont's "Neoprene," first commercially suc
cessful synthetic ever produced in 1931. To
- date it has been quite costly and there is an
other catch; its raw materials, hydrochloric
acid and acetylene, may also run into wartime
shortages. On the other side of the ledger.
Q p
Neoprene in more than a decade has proven
itself to be better than rubber for a great
many purposes, and at least equal to rubber
j for tires.
With these three substitutes for rubber
competing among themselves while chemists
still seek others it looks as though the prob
lem will be solved if government will get far
enough out of the way to "let 'em go to it."
'in the matter of volume, be not misled.
The most optimistic figures do not indicate that
there will be any synthetic tires for non-war-essential
purposes. Meanwhile there seem to
have been no tests of the efficacy of reclaimed
rubber when combined with Buna-S. If this
: combination will work and if the results of the
crap rubber drive are sufficiently imposing,
certainly meeting the war rubber needs will
be simplified and there just might even be
eome left over for civilians. Their best hope
so far however is the rather unsatisfactory one
of retreads made from reclaimed rubber or
some material now in process of testing.
; Operations of the Pacific coast petroleum"
Industry are tending more heavily to the pro
duction -of fuel oiL with corresponding per
: eentage drop, . though slight mathematical
gain, in gasoline production. Which reminds
Us that though; thx projected nationwide gaso
' line rationing which may be initiated July 1
was still uncertain at latest report, fuel oil may.
be a more serious problem here in the Pacific
Northwest, come winter.' The problem here is
transport, and the more, gasoline transported,
the less cargo space for oiL And so, though it
may be an unpopular proposal, we suggest that
gasoline for "this area be curtailed to whatever
degree the supplying of adequate amounts of
fuel oil necessitates. Unpopular, we say, be
cause we suspect some families would rather
have gasoline in the auto's tank than fire
in the furnace.
"General commodity taxation and price
control just don't go together," says Leon Hen
derson. By "general commodity taxation" he
means a sales tax. About the theory involved
he wouldn't know. But imagine the poor re
tailer, held down to his March maximum prices;
then reuired to add a sales tax. He'll be in
twice the stew he is in now.
"Dutch Harbor was bombed. Will Puget
Sound be next?" Or words to that effect, pon
ders the daily Olympian. Guess it was John
Kelly who opined no community liked to
admit it was too unimportant to be bombed.
Salem, we think, is different. When bombings
are being parceled out, we don't care how
insignificant our town is.
News
The News
By PAUL MALLON
(Distribution by King Features Syndicate. Inc. Repro
duction In whole or in part strictly prohibited.)
WASHINGTON, June 11 The idea that a
country which possesses unlimited supplies of pe
troleum and alcohol and a process for making rub
fc tf AH
PaaJ Halloa
vivm
E ir l Jig JJ
Behind
ber from either one, and yet
cannot make enough rubber
tires to satisfy its needs, is dif
ficult to explain.
If it were not officially of-
fered Dv various government de-
you would not believe it. It is
the only great confession of in-
adequacy this government has
made during this war, unless
you consider the related subject
of gasoline.
The government got started
early enough. Back in the spring
of 1941, a Polish diplomat tipped
Leon Henderson's office about the Polish formula
for making synthetic rubber from alcohol. The
Poles had 1500 agricultural alcohol plants making
synthetic rubber, and there were 36,000 in Ger
many and many in Russia way back in 1938.
Henderson's office turned the Polish formula
over to the agriculture department experts who
found the key catalyst was missigg. It was so
secret it had never beenlin written form.
The Polish inventor, Waclaw Suzkiewicz, was
then a refuge in Italy. Thereafter he escaped to
Rio de Janiero, where Henderson's men even
tually found him.
After five months of arguing with the state
department over a visa, he came to this country.
But all that was done with him and his formula
was to install him in a large alcohol plant in
Philadelphia to make synthetic rubber on a small
scale.
Then after Pearl Harbor, Jesse Jones got
busy and January 12 started a synthetic rubber
program for 400,000 tons a year. It was to be
made from a petroleum refining by-product
(butadiene gas) then sent to Akron and other
rubber centers to be made into the synthetic
rubber buna.
This butadiene gas can also be made from
corn, wheat, molasses and many farm products
of which we have enormous surpluses, but Jones
claims the war production board did not think
there would be much alcohol available for syn
thetic rubber, so this phase was not pushed.
People came into the WPB from the mid-west
urging that agricultural products be used, but
WPB said no steel and building materials were
available to build new plants. This western group
then showed that it could lay its hands on 80
per cent of the materials in second hand junk
shops and idle plants, but WPB would not give
them the needed 20 per cent to go to work.
The accepted estimate was that it would cost
$26,000,000 for the first 200,000 tons of capacity and
thereafter $30,000,000 of plant expenditure to make
each 100,000 tons of synthetic rubber annually
from alcohol so that only about $6,000,000 worth
of new building materials would be necessary for
each 100,000 tons, not enough to build the back
end of a battleship.
But WPB claimed it would take copper tubing
and copper tubing was short. Ahe agricultural peo
ple showed that they could use steel and wood for
tubing, and concrete for vats.
All that WPB has authorized, however, was
the making of 200,000 tons from alcohol by con
verting distilleries and existing alcohol plants. It
would not allow any new plants.
The WPB said only enough alcohol was avail
able to make 200,000 tons of rubber, but the
westerners promised they could make enough
more in four or five months to stop all talk of a
nationwide gas rationing.
By this time Jones had stepped his plan up
200,000 tons and it then called for 800,000 tons
a year not enough. His limiting factors too are
all priorities, not petroleum.
By the end of this year he thinks he will have
100,000 tons capacity ready, by next July 250,000
tons and two and a half years from now he will
have 700,000 tons. (He does not even promise to
produce that nuieh in 1943, only that he will have
capacity for that production by the end of that
year.)
His plants cost more than three times what
the alcohol systems cost about $100,000,000 for
each 100,000 tons capacity. Furthermore, the alco
hol plants can be built in eight months, the Jones
petroleum plants require 15 to 18. Costs of the
synthetic rubber' itself is immaterial because all
are within reason and" what we want is rubber
at any price.
After all these months of arguing, the experts
at WPB say that if everybody does all that is
planned, there still cannot be a new tire made
during this war for civilian use, that only mili
tary needs can be filled. When this nation's tires
wear out, it will be on the rim. That's the prospect.
Does that explain everything to you? It does
not to me. It sounds to me like each official,' Jones,
Henderson, ' Nelson, Ickes, et at has only ex
plained that somebody or some other thing be-
x yond his Jurisdiction is to blame. . . :.
' - They have not explained that anyone who
wanted this country to have tires and had single
headed authority to go bout getting them, could
! not wade through this mass of conflicting authori
ties and interests, and get them produced.
S f " .
'In Dutch' Harbor
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Today's Garden
By LILXJE U MADSEN
Here is one might term an
unpatriotic gardener. She writes:
"My victory garden is a fizzle.
I planted it early in the spring
when victory gardens were first
spoken of. It really started nice
ly but the rain, and the hot
weather got it down. Most of
the time we have rain. The few
days it didn't rain it was too
hot to get out into the garden
and weed and hoe. Is it too late
to start another garden or are
victory gardens as important as
at first thought?"
Why start another one if it
has already been- too hot to get
out and care for the one you
have? We are very apt to have
even hotter weather.
We were warned in the be
ginning that unless we were
willing to get into the move
ment for the "duration" we had
better stay out and not waste
seed and soil and fertilizer.
Gardeners have no uniform
other than the common rather
messy old clothes universally
seen on real gardeners. There
are no badges or medals other
than a well-grown carrot or
turnip or potato. Gardening is
too frequently just plain hard
work. But some of the experi
ences the boys out there are
going through aren't nearly as
glamorous as they sound in
print. Helping produce a har
vest here at home, whether it
is one's own garden or in the
fields of farmers, may not be
Clamorous but it is certainly one
way of soldiering and a very
much needed way. The boys
cant quit because it is too warm
or too wet or too something
else. If they could or would,
rather most of them would be
kiting home - faster than they
were kited out From a number
of sources, I rather gather that
the victory gardens are a little
more important than at first
thought It is just too bad we
can't grow our own sugar, cof
fee and cocoa. But we can grow
our own honey, milk and vege
tables if need be.
If you have enlisted in the
victory garden move, don't be
a deserter when the warm
weather comes.
Plan Celebration
Scio The local - Czech-American
alliance will observe July 4
with a celebration at Richardson
Gap, according to present plana. -
By KTRKE L. SIMPSON
Wide World War Analyst
For The Statesman
Formal understandings be
tween Russia, Britain and the
United States bearinf on crea
tion of second front in Europe
this year are now revealed in
cident to disclosure of the se
cret visit of the soviet com
missar for foreign- affairs, Vya
cheslav Molotov, to Washing
ton and London.
The significant part of those
official outgivings Is neither the
fact of Molotovs visits, the post
war commitments contained in
the new London-Moscow pact,
nor even the military discussions
which paralleled the political
talks. What does stick up like
a sore thumb is the phrase "a
second front in Europe in 1942."
The rest could have been tak
en for granted more or less. But
the formal statements that sec
ond front measures for 1942, this
year, not at some indefinite fu
ture time, formed the main
theme of the discussions with
Molotov have a meaning all
their own .
The British war planners
have taken a leaf from Hit
ler's own wax-of-nerves man
ual, and enlarged and expand
ed en It They are deliberately
telling any German radio lis
tener who dares Hitler Ire to
pick It eat of the ether what
they propose to do and when
they propose to do It They
conceal only the where and
how of projected operations.
No German who has defied
Hitler to marken to British or
American radio news broadcasts
can have much doubt about the
situation. Such listeners have
more than the wreckage of Co
logne and Essen by which to
judge second front possibilities
of the near future.
They have been told, for in
stance, that those thousand-
'Crime at
By EDITH BRISTOL
Chapter 32 Continued
I thanked him and left. At last
I had found what Lance had
been looking for so long!
, So Harry Craven had been
cheating on the cement deliver
ed at the dam. Diverting sup
plies. Selling them. Keeping the
profits. No wonder he wanted to
alter the records!
No wonder he wanted to get
at those specifications to doctor
the lists of materials so that he
amounts of cement ordered for
the dam would tally with the
quantities actually poured!
I was stunned at the meaning
of what the shambling little man
had told me at the auto camp. I
gasped as I drove back to Cast
away, thinking of Craven's du
plicity. He cheated his employ
er. Tried to bribe me to give him
access to the papers of the firm.
And this last I only assumed
tried to break into the cabinet
to cover the traces of his own
dishonesty.
But I offer it in evidence of
my own great ignorance of
everything that went into the
construction of a dam that I
thought only of its effect on Har
ry and on Walter Gregg never
once, at that stage of the story,
did I think of what his thefts
would mean to the structure of
the dam!
I suppose the man who would
cheat on the sale of a spotted
coach dog would cheat on the
delivery of a carload of cement
I concluded as I reached the
ranch-house.
Sheriff Allen was already
there, ready to tell us of the fu
tility that was the only result
of his stay in San Francisco.
"I was in town all day yester
day," he said, "checking out that
trailer sale. It's the confound est
thing! The trail of the. trailer
fades out just like every other
clue we've been trying to fol
low." Completely chagrined, he told
us of the search. The trailer,
standard model of , a popular
make, designedfor two persons,,
had been ordered a week before
by a young man who said he was
the driver for an elderly woman.
"Did you ask the salesman
what the driver looked like?"
Martha asked.
"That's part of the jinx," Al
len answered. "The salesman
who took the order and deliver
ed the trailer left a couple of
days ago for his vacation, some
place in Canada. Nobody knows
exactly where. Nobody; else no
ticed the customer particularly.
Except to say that he was a
young man with dark glasses in
a chauffeur's uniform and cap.
Paid - cashr those bills and
drove away."
"What about the license num
ber?" Sydney spoke up.
"He covered that too. Thought
of everything. He save a name
and addressMrs. Daniel; J."
. Greenbridge at an apartment In
Pacific Avenue as the owner ot
: the car, and the license is made '
out in that name. No such per
son as that in the apartment -
planes-a-night shots are but a
starter to test out the technical
arrangements for air warfare en
that unprecedented scale. They
have been informed by highest
British and American authority
that American air power will .
toon gang up with the British to
double or treble the force of
the air attack.
They know, also, by allied
ajuMuacenaents, that a oasld
eraUe American anay Is ta
the British Isles training; ta
ewnmaaxie tactics, which
means invasion tactics. They
were promptly Informed of the
arrival in London of an Amer
ican army-nary staff charged
with the exeevtlon of second
front plans. No secret waa
made, quite the contrary, of
the arrival in British waters
of a powerful American
naval task force, inctadtng
craft heavily enengh gamned
and armored to deal with Ger
many's pewerfal Yea Tirnits.
That disclosure was particular
ly disheartening for thoughtful
Germans who heard it It meant
that Japanese intervention to
involve this country in two-front
war had not diverted American
attention from the Atlantic to
the Pacific exclusively.
Exactly what either Washing
ton or London may know about
the state of public morale in
Germany at this moment is not
revealed. There have been whis
pers from Scandinavia and
Switzerland, particularly since
the bombing of Cologne, of
growing resentment that Hitler
has depleted his western de
fenses to attempt renewal of his
Russian offensive. They seem
credible, nor can it be doubted
that whatever else is to come
in second-front operations in the
months ar??d, a formidable al
lied attack on German nerves
as well as German war industry
and communications is already
in full swing.
Castaway'
nor in the directory, either."
"But the plates on the car that
took the trailer away," Sydney
insisted. "Tou can't take a trailer
away in your pocket'
"Covered that, too. He was a
smart one. A closed car called
for the trailer. Ordinary car. The
salesman, just as routine, enter
ed the numbers of the plates of
that car on the entry of the sale
of the trailer. Seems they do that
Those plates were stolen from a
school teacher out in the Sunset
She parked her car in an alley,
went to a movie. Somebody came
along and lifted her plates just
long enough to cover a getaway.
Can you beat it?"
If it was Craven by now I
thought it must be he had mat
trailer, hiding out safely some
where. He'd wait until the right
time and drive it away prob
ably under other license plates.
Was there no way to catch him?
I was desperate.
Issu broke in on our discour
aged conference. He was stand
ing in the doorway.
"What is It Issu?" Martha
asked.
"Please I telling you some
sing. He grinned, as he always
did when he was embarrassed.
"Out here"
Martha left the room a few
minutes, and returned to us with
a slightly worried frown.
"I think 111 have to ask one of
you to come with me up to the
cottage in Hidden Cove. I'm not
sure that Florabelle looks after
Pauline's meals as she should.
Issu just came back and he says
Pauline is alone there and very
sick.
"Isn't Mrs. Hunt there?" I
asked. "She was there when I
left"
"Issu says there's nobody with
Pauline, that she seems dread
fully sick. He was quite alarm
ed. I don't know how much to
depend on his judgment but itU
only a few minutes ride up therV
One of you come with me?"
"IU go," I volunteered. Allan
looked at his watch. "I'd like to
help you," he said, "but I'm late
for an appointment in Gallina,
as it is." v
"Tou run along and keep your
date, Nate," Martha commanded
with that matter of fact manner
she used in taking over any situ
ation. "Sydney, you come with
me." He started for the door.
"You, Gerry, you get a room
ready. Let's see I hate to put
her in Estelle's old room. Better
make it the room Craven always
has. He hasn't been here enough
lately to make it worth while to
keep it ready for him. All right
Sydney, let's go."
I thought of that trailer, as I
gave orders to the houseboys to
prepare the . bedroom. Some
where, safely hidden away, I was
sure there was a trailer waiting.
Waiting for Harry. Was It wait
ing for JflorabeUe Hunt too?
What was their relationship? It
could hardly be mother and son.
What was it?
(To be continued) '