Monday, Mar 20' 1957
MEDFORO (OREGON) MAIL TRIBUNE FIVE
Red China's Five-Year Plan in Trouble As Shortages and Grumbling Dndocaie
By WENDELL S. MERICK
United Press Correspondent
Hong Kong (ffi Adminis
trative mistakes, shortages of
goods and grumblings among
the people have forced Red lead
ers to slow the pell-mell eco
nomic expansion of Communist
China.
In its final year, China's first
five-year plan is in trouble. The
Communists blame floods and
drought but they also admit that
they tried to do too much too
fast. They confess that they
made errors and failed to win
the wholehearted cooperation of
the people.
Not Utter Failures
The overhauling of what Pei
ping hoped would be a mam
moth economic juggernaut
should not be construed as a
sign the Reds are utter failures.
That is not so. They have made
tremendous strides. But they
have now been forced to cut
rback their ambitious goals.
- Attempts will be made this
year to strike a better balance
between industrial production
and output of consumer goods.
The revised program does not
mean, however, that the man-
in-the-street will necessarily win commodities," Chia said.
a higher standard of living.
Both industry and the public
will have to settle for less.
Shortages Upset Public
China's 600 million inhabi
tants are leveling more and
more criticism at the regime, re
ports from the Communists
themselves indicate. The public
is upset by rising prices and
shortages of food and consumer
goods.
But Chia To-fu, vice chairman
of the National Economic com
mission, told a conference in
Peiping, "The people's liveli
hood can only be improved
gradually, on a small scale and
with low speed."
The 1957 program calls for
cuts in capital building because
of a steel shortage which led to
a reduction in the manufacture
of machinery and building ma
terials. Production of oil, coal,
iron, steel, copper and cement
"had to be cut," Chia said.
Other Shortages
He admitted such other short
ages as cotton cloth and yarn,
edible vegetable oil, paper and
timber.
"Certain gaps are found to
appear in the market supply of
Is That So?
By EUGENE BURNS
Ranger-Naturalist
Perhaps the lowliest of man's
allies in World War II was the
one-footed, common garden-va
riety, gray, shapeless slug who
leaves behind him a tattletale
silvery trail of slime.
His battle duty? Gas detection.
Of all "gas detectors" used by
man in tunnels, underground
munitions plants, submarines,
and trenches, these backbone-
less slugs are by far the most
efficient.
Where white mice,, rats, ca
naries, goldfish and cats may de
tect up to one part of gas in
4,000,000 parts of air, our one-
footed slug can detect one part
in 12,000,000 three times as
efficient.
What an important ally to
have helping us against being
taken by surprise by one of
man's most terrifying weapons
modern poison gas which
blinds or kills by destroying the
blood, the nerves, or by suffoca
tion men exposed to the latter
type "of gas have clawed their
throats open in their maddened
frenzy to get air.
(Horses, mules, camels, oxen
and elephants, incidentally, can
withstand a higher concentra
tion of most poison gases than
man without sustaining serious
damage.)
To be sure, poison gas is to
day outlawed among decent na
tions. But all nations must be
ready: and it is no secret that
all powerful nations had it in
large quantities during the last
war Germany, Russia, Italy,
France, England, Japan and the
U. S.
Has long History
Poison gas has a long history.
In the Peloponnesian war be
tween Sparta and Athens, 431
404 B.C., Greek used suffocating
gas against Greek; in the past
century, shells containing gases
were used during the siege of
Charleston in the American civil
war; and today poison gases
have been perfected which are
i,too terrifying even to contem
plate except by the realistic
against their use. God forbid
that they, with the H-bomb will
ever be unleashed. But yet, if
they are, standing defense be
tween a helpless city population
and a ruthless terrifying "sur
prise" gas attack may be our
lowly cold-blooded slug who can
scarcely count one human friend
in the world. But then, slugs
are not social-minded beast.
Besides being a warm friend
in warfare the slug stands guard
over many lives in peacetime
in tunnels, coal mines, and sub
marines, giving warning wher
ever accumulating gases can be
come harmful to man.
Another Advantage
In addition to being more
"sensitive," our slug has anoth
er decided advantage. Other
"gas detectors" usually succumb
after the first attack not
through the gas itself but be
cause it usually gives them
pneumonia from which they die.
Not so the slug. It curls up
tightly, shuts off air-intake, and
stops breathing until the lethal
attack is over. Thus, without
gas-mask, he lives to detect gas
another day.
Dr. Paul Bartsch of the Smith
sonian Institution first enlisted
the slug for gas detection. In
experimenting with slugs in his
home, he found that they could
detect his wife's cooking at in
credible distances. Following a
hunch, the doctor released some
slugs 70 feet away from a boiled
potato and sure enough without
an hour's hesitation, they single
footed it for the potatoes oozing
along on their slippery under
side at something like 0.07 miles
an hour.
So come the next war, count
upon our garden slug with the
keen olfactory apparatus to be
on the ready.
(Copyright, 1957.
by Eugene Burns)
(Released by
McClure Newspaper Syndicate
To counter the surplus of cash
which will appear in consumer
pockets with few goods to buy,
Chia warned that wages would
be frozen or, as he put it, "con
trolled in a well-planned man
ner." '
Stocks of cotton cloth will be
more strictly rationed to pre
vent a shortage next winter.
Coal and firewood ' must be
used sparingly. Farmers have
been urged to use natural fer
tilizer to conserve chemical
fertilizer.
To increase production, stu
dents who are not headed for
higher educational institutions
are being put to work in factor
ies and farms. But at the same
time tens of thousands of farm
ers irritate'd by shortages in the
rural areas are flooding into the
cities.
Reports from the mainland
say the farmers are being driv
en back at gunpoint if neces
sary. Heavy drought crippled farm
output in many areas last year
and now floods have come along
to plague Peiping's planners.
Heavy rains in central China,
especially in the Yangtse valley,
threaten to wipe out the winter
what crop.
Much as they may blame na
tural calamities, the Commu
ters. They say low-level officials
have failed to .apply Commu
nism "properly." ;
To counter this, Peiping has
ordered a nationwide "rectifica
tion" program so Red cadres are
better equipped to explain mat-
nists admit there are other fac-ters to the man-in-the-street.
1
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SISTERS
Worcester, Mass. (IT) Whep
Mrs. Joseph Pratte went to
Hahnemann Hospital to have a
baby, she Vas surprised to find
that her roommate was Mrs.
John Bugan, a sister. The sisters
had their babies within 24 hours
of each other.
RIGHT CHOICE Califor
nia's dairymen, planning a
month-long campaign to
push their healthy bever
age, have designated June
as official "Dairy Month."
They got off to a good start
by naming San Francisco
State College Angela Mich
aels, 19, their official "Milk
Maid."
41
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Del Monte Medium Prunes I lb. pkg. 28e-2 lb. pkg,
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