The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-09-27
rD6ajal|laqta,

DEFENSE JAM-BUSTER


executive of the Sears, Roebuck
mail-order house, now has become
one Of the chief log-jam busters Of
national defense. Officially his job
Is director Of procurement for the
United States treasury = in other
words, in charge Of government pur-
chases.
Recently the navy department
sent very important order to Beth
lehem Steel corporation with pref
erence number to expedite it for the
earliest possible delivery. The next
day word came back from Bethle-
hem: Sorry, but you will have to
wait"
For some unexplained reason the
navy said nothing to the defense
commission about Bethlehem's de-
lay, even though the commission has
the power to compel compliance. In
stead the navy tried to handle the
situation itself. But after two weeks
of unsuccessful effort, the navy final
ly went to Nelson, who in addition
to his procurement duties aids the
defense commission.
Nelson reached for telephone,
called Walter Tower, secretary Of
the American Iron and Steel insti-
tute, and said, II hope we don't have
to get tough, but when an order
goes out marked expedite it
means just that. / want immediate
action on that order"
Twenty minutes later, Eugene
Grace, potent boss of Bethlehem,
personally te1ephoned Nelson and
assured him 1t was all a mistake.
#. ID. r.. AND ARGENTINA
There has been lot of publicity
regarding Roosevelt's conference
with Argentine diplomat Leopoldo
Melo over buying Argentine beef.
Actually the conversation covered
lot of things besides meat.
Roosevelt promised that this coun-
try would substantially increase it's
imports of Argentine products; first
because Argentina has suffered
heavy loss of her European export
market and faces an acute depres-
sion; second, because Argentina con-
tinues to buy from the United States,
but this buying must fall off if she
cannot sell here to obtain dollar ex-
change for purchases.
Discussing these problems, the
President told Melo that the defense
program would require heavy pur-
chases of wool for uniforms, hides
for shoes, and canned beef for the
commissary. Though the govern
ment would not buy direct from Ar
gentina, the buying from domes-
tic sources would create a new de-
mand for imports, substantially ben
citing Argentina.
There was also discussion of using
a part of the new Export Import
bank fund of $500, 1000, 900, about to
be voted by congress, for trade with
Argentina.
N0te-Latest export figures show
that Argentina has now become the
leading foreign purchaser of Amer
lean passenger cars.
BRITAIN'S FOGS
The most important development
during the last few days of bombing
London is the realization by British
and American observers that bad
weather is not going to help the de-
tense of London, but instead will
hinder it.
Second important development Is
the realization that Britain's only
real defense is retaliatory raids
against Berlin. This means, Of
course, more long-distance bombers
almost all of which are now OBJ
tanned from the United States.
It has been generally expected
that with the arrival of foggy wealth.
er, London would be safer because
Nazi raids would have to abate.
However, there was considerable
cloudy weather over England last
week, and during it, Nazi bombers
had a field day. What they did was
to use the clouds as a shield and
drop their bombs, without aiming,
all over London.
On clear days they had tried to
aim at military targets. But at
night, and during cloudy weather,
the Nazis gave up any pretense Of
taking aim.
What happened was that when
British planes went aloft they could
not find the raiders. The Nazis were
hidden in cloud banks, dropping
their bombs Unfortunately. I'm
der these circumstances, there was
only one way for the British to To-
cate the enemy bombers-by means
Of sound detection and radio direc-
tions from the ground.
However, these radio directions
must be three dirnensional to be eff
fective, and there is such a wide
margin for error that looking for a
bomber in the clouds is like looking
for needle in haystack. That is
why British planes simply did not
60 into the air when the weather was
too cloudy.
It is important to note that the
same handicap applies to Berlin. In
other words, the British raiders will