Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1940-12-31
Defense
Cooperation
Ships Prices
Traders Help Re du c e
Cost Of Vital Zinc
BY PAUL MALLON

WASHINGTON. Dec. 81
w Leon Henderson, the price
holder-downer of the defense
commission. has shipped about
20 per cent off strategic zinc,
with nothing more than a little
inside cooperation. You might
say it was done with a telephone
call.
Zinc futures had been trend
ing upward for several weeks,
finally reached 10.cents a pound.
whereas spot prices were still
down around SEVEN or eight
cents. g
Rumors were coming in here
Dthat the Japanese were buying
for future delivery. Henderson
called the board of governors of
the New York Commodity Ex-
change and asked them to CO.
operate in investigating. They
took the ball and ran down each
large purchase of zinc in recent
weeks.
What the Commodities Ex-
change unearthed in its conf
dental search was not the
Japanese. but some very bad
bookkeeping. The buying of
open contracts or futures had
apparently been all bona fide
hedging. Metals manufacturers
generally buy futures to protect
their purchases of zinc against a
price decline while they are
manufacturing it with an alloy.
Otherwise, they might find their
zinc alloy product selling for
less than the price of the raw
material.
EVEN so, you might ask how
IL come the futures were so
high. So did the board of gov
errors. Their investigators found
many cases in which -hedgeF
had sold his futures zinc, but at
the warehouse where the zinc
was supposed to be stored, the
release had not been registered
on the books, or the zinc had
been bought long since by some
one else, or the buyer had died
or what not.
The blame for the high price
of zinc futures seemed to the
board to lie with the manner in
which books were kept.
Presto, price of flu tn res
dropped back to the level of spot
prices at Z or s cents. 1t has
remained there the past few
days since the report was COM
pleted.
Henderson, the price con-
troller, did not have to use pub
licity, power or pressure. He
and his assistants profess to have
their fingers still crossed, be-
cause it seemed almost too easy.
"a Fact is it established what can
be done with real cooperation in
this defense emergency.
AT LEAST three officials in
"A three different departments
(who do not want either their
names or their departments
used) have been heard to say
lately that the British should
furnish us some accounting of
their shipping as they did their
finances.
In all politeness, if not COM
mon fairness, these three Amer
lean official experts in the ship
ping line have been expecting
the British to insist on making
some showing of need for ships
as they did to Mr.. Morgenthau
for money.
Their expectation is based on
the knowledge that the British
are still running ships around
the world outside the lifeline
traffic to Britain. Some go from
New York to China, Japan,
Manila, Dutch East Indies and
the Malay Straits and return to
New York with tin and rubber.
1t would be feasible for United
States ships to replace these and
thus release British vessels for
the lifeline traffic in the opinion
of these officials.
The number of such ships fly
ing the British fias is compare
lively small talthough signifi-
can't but the number operated
by the British under charter
from the Dapish, Norwegian,
Dutch, Latvian, Estonian and
other governments is larger.
Some of these are running be-
tween New york and the east
coast of South America. Four
Canadian ships are still trading
with Hongkong and Australia.
Exact information on the situ-
alton has not been available in
this government. Until ii can
be fully produced the feeling will
not be suppressed in several
official quarters that the British
are not making the utmost use
of the ships available for their
war effort.
THAT well-backed new mo
i foreign war" committee,
started in New York, is almost
entirely the product of the ex-
ceptional energy and unselfish
interest of one man While
others were talking about the
way the William Allen White
committee was running off with
the show, the nationally known,
dynamic Cedar RAPIDS. Ia,
publisher. Verne Marshall, de-