Imperial Valley press., 1941-11-25

WASHINGTON. Nov. 25 = The
way Harold Ickes has been carrying
on about Jesse Jones and the con-
tracts made by the Defense Plant
Corporation for production of alum
mum for defense purposes YOU may
have gained the impression that
Harold thinks Jesse is such a low
down, contemplate, anti-New Deal
rascal that he would be guilty of
hauling his eggs to market in gov
ernment car during gasoline
shortage.
The truth of the matter is that
the simplest way to start fight in
Washington these DAYS is to walk
into any group of defense experts -
which includes everybody in town
and say "Aluminum!" real quick.
like that The argument will start
at once, and end up no telling
where, for the subject is SO broad
and so complicated that people will
be writing books about it for the
next generation.
The scrap goes back to April 1887,
when the government began its
antitrust suit against the Alumi-
mum Company of America. which
suit the government lost. The de-
fenSe angles date from about No
vember, 1910, when the first of the
famous underestimate OF defense
requirements for aluminium was
made.
HISTORICAL HEIGHTS
The dispute is still on, but the
climax Of hysteria on the subject
came in September when Ickea
screeched into the picture with a
letter which attempted to give Jones
unshirted, public hell for S52 mil
lion contract Jones's Defense Plant
Corporation negotiated with the
Aluminium Company for conStruC-
tion and operation of one 400 mil
lion pound alumina plant in Ar
kansas, and three aluminium plants
at MasSena. N. Y, Bonneville Dam,
Ore, and some place in Arkansas
the combined output of which
would be $40 million pounds Of
aluminium a year. Alumina, as you
know, is the intermediate stuff
made out of bauXite clay, from
which aluminium is made
IckeS charged that this was a
"damnable contract" because its
provisions did not protect the gov
ernment's interest. but instead
strengthen and extend the monop-
olistic position of the Aluminium
Company of America. Jones has
not made public his reply to the
Ickes letter.
Privately. Mr.. Jones states that
this is one of the best contracts the
government ever made. Instead of
extending Alcoao's monopoly a
monopoly which a United States
court has now declared non-eXiSt
emit is Jones's position that this
contract finally gives the govern
ment power to control national
production of aluminium, and there
by to break whatever control Alcoa
had on production and price At the
time this contract was made, Jones
also negotiated an agreement with
Alcoa to cut the price on aluminium
ingot cents a pound to save the
government and other consumers
from SIS million to s25 million a
year.
PLANTS TO SPARE
The Jones theory on which this
battle-Scarred aluminium contract
was negotiated is that for normal
business purposes the country is
now building excess plant capacity.
In 1899, the company's total alu-
minum consumption was 300 mil
lion pounds. Defense plans call foy
a total annual production capacity
of five times that amounts by lG43.
In this aluminium contract. the
company leasing the government
owned plants agrees to keep the
plants operating at the same rate
which the firm operates its own
plants. Thus, if demand for alumi-
nun after the war is only so per
cent of the defense requirements,
both Alcoas plants and the govern
ment plants will be operated at
half capacity instead of the govern
ment plants closing down and per
mitting Alcoao to get all the bust
ness. If demand should fall to 40
per cent Of capacity, or below, the
lease may be Cancelled, but there is
nothing to prevent the government
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