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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 3, 1942)
Synthetic Rubber Industry Achieved Within One Year Speedy Adoption of Rubber Manufacturing Program Shaves 24 Years From Time Required to Launch New Industry. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 II Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. By the time this is written or shortly thereafter, announcement will be made of the creation of what may become one of the world’s greatest industries— synthetic rub ber manufacturing. By that time probably ten plants will be assured of operation—the three biggest will make synthetic rubber out of alco hol, which means a market for the farmer's grain. If the program marches accord ing to schedule, the United States will have achieved within one year what usually takes a quarter of a century to accomplish—the building of a new industry. This is the message that William Jeffers, president of the Union Pa cific railway, now rubber adminis trator in Washington, gave me. Mr. Jeffers presides at a desk in one of the offices of the War Produc tion board and appears to be one man taken out of the American busi ness world who believes that you can get things done even within the government. He looks like what he is. A rail road man who came up from the bottom, still carries a union card and usually mentions it He is stocky—bull-necked, slow spoken, a prophet of the practical, skeptical of the theoretical, who talks about his "two-fisted” organization of success ful “business men” who "know their stuff.” I asked him first if he found much difference between working for the government and running a railroad. "Yes,” he answered. Then he smiled and took his time before he went on. "This is a democracy—1 suppose the delays are necessary. But I haven’t had much trouble.” He looked up. ”1 make my own deci sions. I got that Ford plant over night.” (He engineered the negotia tions for the Ford tire manufactur ing plant in Detroit for shipment to Russia.) Using What We Have "I have a top-notch organization of two-fisted businessmen who know their stuff. We are going to do what we are supposed to do on schedule. On our own schedule. We have the information we want and in a few weeks we’ll know just how many plants we are going to have, what their capacity will be and the order in which they will start producing. *■ "My first Job,” Jeffers went on as he lifted his 220 pounds and walked around the desk, "is keeping the country on rubber with what we’ve got That means reclamation and conservation. Then it’s to produce the synthetic rubber we need to keep going for the duration. Mean while I watch that stock pile of pure rubber we have, like a hawk. "Here are the ABC’s," he said, motioning me to a chair beside a table on which was standing what looked like an open sample case. It contained a number of bottles and a few other objects properly labeled. He pointed to the first bottle. "This is full of shreds," he said. "It is part of a whole tire, casing and all, cut up.” He pointed to the next bottle. “This," he said. "Is the same stuff after it has been soaked in oil and acid and the pieces of casing floated out. You can see the pieces of metal in it still." He showed me a screen with pieces of metal on it "Here is the filter which strains out the metal—a lot of metal gets into a tire." There were a lot of pieces sticking to the bottom of the filter. "These next bottles," he went on, "show the way the stuff looks after each successive process of refining. And here is the reclaimed rubber," he said as he picked up a black strip. Then he pointed to a new tire leaning against the wall. "This tire is made of reclaimed rubber." I felt it. It seemed normal. I said so. "It isn't as good as the tires you get today." he said, "but it is as good as the ones you got ten years ago." Rubber Production Then we came to part two—part two of his job, which is the produc tion of synthetic rubber. He showed me a yellowish object which felt like rubber. "This is neophrene—synthetic rubber made of carbide. It is better than rub ber, but it is very expensive." There are two bottles, the contents of which looked Just alike to me—a milky substance. One was the pure latex from the rubber tree. The other was a synthetic product made from alcohol of petroleum. "I am not a chemist," Jeffers said, ‘‘and I don’t intend to be one. Those are Just the ABC’s.” He went back to the immediate problem before him, which is to keep America rolling until the syn thetic factories start to work. "Are you going to be able to do that?" I asked. "It is not impossible if everybody plays the game," he said. “I know you can’t regiment the American people and I am not in favor of trying to do it, but when the people understand what we are trying to do for them, I think they will co operate. I have gotten splendid co operation already from big busi ness, little business and Individuals. It is reassuring to learn how people react when they know what we are doing. I get all kinds of letters—and I answer all of them. "When the people realize how im portant it is to help us help them save rubber, they will co-operate. In the last war we had a lot of flags and parades, went down to the train to see the fellows off with a band. There doesn’t seem to be any of that in this war. It might be a good thing. But when the people realize that the most vital thing in our war effort is saving rubber, we are going to see something tan gible." At that point Mr. Jeffers dropped an aside, one of the little human remarks that are typical of him, tinged though it is with a touch of irony—"Maybe if the people didn’t run around so much they could visit their neighbors and they might make friends and get better friends that way.’’ Rubber and Economics "Rubber affects the social life of the people, no doubt—the whole American economy, rightly or wrongly, is built on rubber and we can't change it. Look at the farm er. We have to have food. The farmer can’t go back to the horse and wagon. If he could get the horses, we couldn't build the wagons now. He has to get the crops to market—it all comes back to trans portation. "We’ll keep them on rubber. Gas rationing is rough justice. It works hardships on some. Some take ad vantage of it—it's the man who has three gallons more than he needs and uses them to ride around the country that is the waster. But I think we’ll get co-operation." I went back to problem two: the building of the synthetic industry. The government will own the plants,” I said, “won't that make post-war problems?” He said to me, “Yes, the government will own the plants and the product will be manu factured on what amounts to a ‘man agement fee’ basis. A lot of other things,” he said, "will be made un der the same conditions.” "But I’m not Interested In post war problems," JefTers went on, “my job is to help win the war. Un less bugs develop that we can’t take care of, we'll do it. And if we do, we'U accomplish in a year and a half what it usually takes 25 years to do.” Co-operation will do that—and keep the country on rubber mean while—and co-operation means big business, little business and the folks "who eat in the kitchen” as Mr. JefTers puts it. “They have the balance of power,” he says. • I I About Watted Coal According to the United States Office of the Bituminous Coal Con sumers' Counsel bituminous or "soft” coal is the backbone of America. It supplies industry with more than one-half of the power and energy required to produce the weapons of war. Creates nearly 55 per cent of the electricity used in our nation. Heats more than 50 per cent of the homes of America Four out of five of all the railroad loco motives of the country get their power from bituminous coal. Twenty-five million tons of "soft" coal will be wasted by the domestic consumer this year unless more than usual care is exercised in the operation of home heating furnaces. BRIEFS • • . by Baukhage What do they do with the ends of the pants tailors have cut off (or short-legged people now that culls are forbidden? Don't worry, the cloth is turned over to the Red Cross and rewoven. • • • The death penalty can be pro nounced on Belgians who slaughter animals without German permis ■ion. Women in some branches of the military service are taking special courses in jiujitsu. lit We may get some of those wooden nickels we used to hear so much about after all. Senator Wagner has introduced a bill allowing the treasury to make coins under ten cents out of "any kind of material." —Buy War Bonds— WHO’S NEWS This Week By Lemuel F. Parton Consolidated Features.—WNU Release. NEW YORK.—Just after he won the world heavyweight cham pionship, Jack Sharkey was dining at Tait’s restaurant in San Fran . cisco. The Psychological By- waiter Products of North brought Africa Mount Daily one claw missing. Jack wanted to know about that. The waiter ex plained that two lobsters had been brought together in a crate from Martinez; that they had a fight and this one lost its claw. "Take this bum away and bring me the winner!" bellowed Jack. The quite human desire to string with a winner is mani festing itself in Latin-American countries, and perhaps else where, since the U. S. A. cut loose and started swinging in North Africa. Dispatches from several countries tell of senti ment shifting to the Allies, and away from the Axis. More specifically, Argentina’s distin guished hair-splitting legalist, Sr. Enrique Ruis Guinazu, is caught off dead-center for just about the first time in his long and amiably noncommittal ca reer. As foreign minister of Argentina, he cables to the 11. S. A. his felicitations and his expression of Argentina’s "solidarity" behind our North African campaign. There is the rumble of the band-wagon as well as of guns throughout the world. During the Pan-American confer ence at Rio de Janeiro last Janu ary, gleaners among the senor’s learned and bland evasions could not find so much as a straw in the wind. Seven months earlier, he had been elaborately fetad at Wash ington, with state dinners and a big, jovial stag party by the President, and as time passed it appeared that we might not even get our bait back. Our later cultural phalanxes moving on Argentina, seemed equal ly ineffective. Argentina remained our hardest nut to crack. Perhaps General Eisenhower has cracked it. Representing Argentina at the League of Nations for many years, Sr. Ruiz Guinazu was an eminent personage in the great academic tournaments which deplored but sidestepped the oncoming Axis jug gernaut. He was president of the League of Nations council in 1935, and in that year voted with the op position when it was proposed to throw a switch on Mussolini, en route to Ethiopia. He is a veteran of Argentinian statesmanship, pro foundly learned in International law, and political theory, for several years ambassador to Switzerland. Cautious and cryptic, although al ways gracious and smiling, he is at last on record—for ‘‘the safe guarding and security of the Amer icas,” as he cables Secretary Hull. IT WAS nearly two years ago that Robert D. Murphy, then counsel lor for our embassy at Vichy, started on a little publicized tour of North We Have Had a Lawrence of North Africa on the Job Africa, in spec t i n g our con sulates," as the cautious little newspaper handouts of the time would have it. There were subsequent trips which made it clear that Mr. Mur phy’s interests were not confined to consular efficiency. General Eisen hower supplies additional and final proof in leading the greatest sea and air borne invasion of all time— strategically and politically read ied by Mr. Murphy’s preparation. As to the bournous and all the other traditionally romantic fix ings of such enterprise, it’s quite the reverse so far as Mr. Murphy is j concerned. He is a trim-rigged dip | lomat, whose genial and ready smile, as well as his name, sug ' gests his Irish antecedents. He has been correct and dependable in dip | lomatic punctilio. Much of Mr. Murphy’s activity seems to have been adroitly political. He rallied Free French adherents everywhere and he made strategical use of American food and clothing sup plies. The latter was, of course, denounced as appeasement of Vichy, with an insistence that the supplies would find their way into German hands. The Germans put us right on that, if we were reading their Paris newspaper Aujourd 'Hui, of February 10, 1941. They villl tied Mr. Murphy as a conspira tor working with the DeGaulIe forces. Born and reared in Milwaukee, Mr. Murphy attended Marquette academy and George Washington university. He entered the career service of the state department in 1917. Stationed at consular posts in Europe and Africa, he frequently was entrusted with strategic and scouting missions. Department in siders have long known him as a quiet, cagey, political explorer, with a camera eye and a nose for inside news. For the preparatory work Mr. Murphy has done in North Af rica, he deservedly takes a bow along with General Eisenhower. Released by Western Newspaper Union. DENTAL INFECTION When we read of the great per centage of recruits rejected for army service we are apt to be dis couraged about the health of our Dr. Barton young men. When we read further and find that the cause of the greatest number being rejected is in fected teeth we are apt to give a sigh of relief because “ev erybody has some bad teeth.” What we are for getting, however, is that, while infected teeth are common and “apparently” cause little or no harm to the body, it is known to physicians and den tists that infected teeth are the cause of a great many symptoms and even diseases and result in pain and a great loss of time from work. In an article “Dental Infections and the Industrial Worker” in the Journal of the American Dental As sociation Dr. Ernest Goldhorn, Chi cago, states: “Statistics reveal that, regardless of age, sex or economic condition, 80 per cent of the people suffer from one or both of the two classes of dental disease, tooth de cay and pyorrhea (inflammation of the gums).” Dental infection has long been recognized as a predispos ing cause of rheumatism, arthritis, lumbago, neuritis, particularly sci atica. Sometimes an industrial worker will have a fall or slight injury to the joint and the pain and disability which follow is considered due en tirely to the fall, whereas infection from the teeth or gums is already present in the joints or in the epds of the muscles moving the joint (flbrositis) and, of course, the injury or fall aggravates the condition. On the other hand, a joint that has been injured is often the first spot to which infection from teeth and gums is carried by the blood. “Dental infections may cause ul cers of the stomach and intestines, colitis, appendicitis, gall-bladder in fection and even cancer." Most physicians feel that it would be safe to say that there is not an organ or tissue in the body that cannot be damaged by infection from teeth and gums. In these days when industrial workers, all o^ us, in fact, should be at our best physically and men tally, and we know that nothing makes one quite so tired or “lazy” as infection, then the commonest in fection known—dental infection— should not remain so common when a visit to our dentist twice a year will prevent it. • • • Change of Life Common to Men Physicians are often asked why it is that men do not undergo a change similar to the menopause in women. Women undergo the menopause and in practically all cases there are some symptoms aside from the stop ping of the monthly period. In some cases the nervous and emotional dis turbances are so severe that care in an institution for months becomes necessary. As a matter of fact, men pass through a similar period, but as there are few outstanding symp toms, such as with women, the “change” in men is so gradual that it is not suspected by the individual nor perhaps by his family. The av erage age for the beginning of the change in men is about 50 but may be years later, and may last for years just as with women. One common symptom in men is the increase in weight, particularly, in lower abdomen and often a loss of fat and muscle also about the chest and shoulders. Instead of wide shoulders and narrow or medium hips, he becomes pear shaped in appearance. Other symptoms noted are exces sive perspiration, nervous instabili ty, failing memory, irritability, gradual lack of interest in business, lodge, sport and other affairs in which he has always been interest ed. Just as women at the menopause suffer with more aches and pains than before, so also do men, al though there are not as many cases of crippling arthritis as in women. Other symptoms of the "change” in men are dizziness, headaches, rapid heart beat, increase in blood pressure, chilliness alternating with excessive perspiration, lack of con fidence, lack of concentration, anx iety states, insomnia, mental and physical fatigue, disturbance with urine and bladder due to enlarged prostate gland. * • * QUESTION BOX Q.—Other than the discomfort oc casioned by sinus trouble has it any serious effects? A.—Sinus trouble with no pus for mation and no complications is not a serious condition. With pus for mation there is danger of infection of joints and other parts. In the dry form of catarrh from sinus trouble there is halitosis. Argyrol has been used for many years. It should be used under the supervision of a physician. I SEWING CIRCLE _ ___-ax' 8234 8232 Stream-Lined Pajamas /'")UR government wants us to ^ conserve materials, even in our lingerie. We’ve stream-lined these pajamas to save on fabric but we haven’t skimped on their allure! Colorful strawberry appli ques are suggested for corners of the neckline and for the pocket— so there’s glamour galore in this handsome sleeping suit. • * * Pattern No. 8234 Is In sizes 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 and 40. Size 14, short sleeves, re quires 4',2 yards 35 or 39-inch material. 3 yards bias fold. Blouse and Jumper /^UT down in the bodice so that it shows a good portion of the contrasting blouse beneath it, this jumper has an extra measure of charm! The front buttoning makes it extra convenient and the belted waistline makes it extra flatter ing! ( * * Pattern No. 8232 is in sizes 12, 14, 16. 18, 20 and 40. Size 14 jumper takes 27s yards 39-inch material; 2 yards 54-inch. Contrasting blouse, short sleeves, 1*4 yards 35 or 39-inch material. Send your order to: SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT. Room 1116 211 West Wacker Dr. Chicago Enclose 20 cents in coins lor each pattern desired. Pattern No. Size. Name . Address . ASK ME 7 A quiz with answers offering ANOTHER: information on various subjects . a_A_A. A. At A A. At At At A. A. A At At At At At At At At A At A* At At At ^V*t At At A* At At At A* At A The Questions 1. Where is the natural home of the penguin? 2. What is the binnacle on a ship? 3. What country was called “Seward’s Folly”? 4. How many figures on the Rushmore memorial in South Da kota? 5. What king of England signed the Magna Carta in 1215? 6. What is called the root of all evil? 7. “The Star Spangled Banner” was inspired by the defense of what fort? 8. From where is genuine mo hair obtained? The Answers 1. The Antarctic region. 2. The case for the ship’s com pass. 3. Alaska. 4. Four—Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. 5. John. That Magna Carta laid a foundation for English political and personal liberty. 6. The love of money. 7. Fort McHenry (War of 1812). 8. The Angora goat. Up to This Time Judge Had Not Been Suspected A man was being tried in th4 local court for misappropriating 4 pig, and a conscientious witness, to whom the accused was said t| have confided, was on the stand, being examined. “Now then, can you repeat the exact words in which the prisoner confessed to you to taking the pig?” asked the counsel. “He said, sir, that he took the pig,” replied the witness. The judge tried to simplify the question: “Did the prisoner say, ‘He took the pig,’ or did he say, ‘I took the pig’?” “Oh, no, your honor, he said that he 'took it. Your honor’* name wasn’t even mentioned.” RS'HES'SZ’H* Relieve fiery itching and allay further irritation with active, specially medicated ib '£S/m* --1 Needed Solitude Solitude is as needful to the im agination as society is wholesom* for the character.—James Russell Lowell. SNAPPY FACTS ABOUT RUBBER Until restriction* were placed on gasoline consumption, tires were wearing out eight times faster than they ware being replaced. We've all heard of wooden tires, hut tires made of concrete have been, at least in one instance, sub stituted for the conventional rubber. A Parker Dam engineer had cast re inforced concrete tires on the rim* of a portable welding machine. They worked. As the temperature Inside a tire Increases, tha pressure goes up, but it is poor rubber economy to "Meed” or let the air out of the tire when it is hot. To do to means under-inflation—and rubber waste —when the casing cools. In 1911 a tire for the then popular make of car cost the motorist $25.30 and gave about 2500 miles. A com parable tire for the present day popular makes of cars can be had (with ration certificate) for about $15. Properly handled it wil return close to 25,000 miles of service. BEGoodrich SING A SONG OF KITCHEN THRIFT SINK YOUR DIMES IN WAR SAVINGS STAMPS VRAor Lost, a cough due to a cold—thanks to the sooth ing action of Smith Brothers Cough Drops. Smith Bros. Cough Drops contain a special blend of medicinal ingredients, blended with prescription care. And they still cost only 5( a box. Yes, a nickel checks that tickle. SMITH BROS. COUGH DROPS ^ BLACK OR MENTHOL— 5* i MAKKj THE T-ZONE" WHERE CIGARETTES ARE JUDGED The 'T-ZONE'—Taste end Throat —is the proving ground for cigarettes. Only your taste and throat can decide which eigarette testee best to you... and how it affects your throat. For your taste end throat are individual to you. Based on the experience of millions of smokers, we believe Camels will suit your •T-ZONE" to ■ "I." Prove it for yourselfl •‘Wallde Talkie” operate* two-way portable radio— •peed* front-line communication* i FIRST IN THE SERVICE With men in the Army, Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard, the favorite cigarette is Camel. (Based on ac tual sales records in Post Exchanges and Canteens.) CAMELS FOR ME! THEY SUIT ME TO A 'T' ALL ALONG THE , LINE L
