Evening star., 1942-05-17
Americas Problems:
Rubber and Shipping
By OUen L. Scott.

country today grow out OF shortages in
rubber and in shipping. Neither is yield
ing to treatment in a way that gives
ground for optimism that these prob
lens soon will be solved.
The situation briefly is this:
In the case of rubber. there is de-
mand for rubber for military uses, in
cluding lend-lease, for essential civilian
uses and for export. of more than 100000
tons in 1912, and of more than 100000
tons in 1943. That does not count in an
ounce of rubber for automobile tires.
There is a supply of new rubber from
imports of natural rubber and from syn
thetic rubber of under 100000 tons in
each Of these two years. A rubber stock
pile gathered by Jesse Jones' as head
of r. F. c., will make good the shortage
through this year and half of next year.
After that what happens will depend
upon the ability of American industry to
make synthetic rubber. Mr.. Jones has
provided funds for construction Of rub
ber plant capacity capable of making
100000 tons Of synthetic rubber each
year. However, this is an entirely new
industry and the actual translation of
these funds into plant is moving slowly
and is creating many misgivings
In the case of shipping, the immediate
demand for ships is immense and grow
ing. Yet German submarines are con-
tinuing to sink ships faster than they
are being built. A shipbuilding program
that had called for 100000 tons of new
tons. However, actual construction Is
tagging and it is doubtful If the first
goal will be reached.
Oficials responsible for shipbuilding
now are talking about how they expect
to build between Is ,000, 900 and 20, 900 900
tons of ships in 1e43. 1t happens, though,
that the need for ships is immediate in
this year which talk about what is to
be done in 1943 cannot fill.
There is much public misunderstand-
ing both of the problem Of rubber and
that Of shipping.
The rubber problem is basic-not only
in the military effort but in the every
day lives of a people which has built
its whole economy around the rubber
tire. When Japan defeated the British
and Americans in the South Pacific she
struck a blow that hit in vital spot
Her conquests shut off the source of
rubber for this country and Britain.
: The biggest stockpile of rubber in this
country is on the wheels of American
automobiles. That stockpile. except in
the East where gasoline now is rationed,
is being burned up at rapid rate. much
of it for useless purposes. Men who are
responsible for seeing that this country
wins the present war are aghast at the
failure of civilian officials to crack down
on all but the most essential driving ev-
erywhere in the Nation. They see the
time when it may be necessary to strip
the tires from American pleasure cars
in order to obtain rubber with which
to continue the war and they do not want
those tires to be worn out beforehand.
An argument is being advanced by
some people that the Army and Navy
are far overestimating their real needs.
The argument centers around the claim
that if the services will just avoid waste.
the vast demands for rubber that they
are making can be cut down. The an
swer the services give is that war it
self IS waste of everything from man
power to gunpowder. No army or navy
can base its plans upon a carefully cal
culated program of rubber conservation
or any other kind of conservation. It's
calculations must be on the basis of max
lmum losses in battle or through losses
at sea. Otherwise, the war might have
to be called off one day when there
would be no new tires for airplanes or
trucks or no new treads for tractors
The services contend that it is time
to stop arguing about whether or not
military demands for rubber are too
big and time to mobilize the best brains
OF the Nation to speed up construction
of plants that can give the country the
rubber it needs.
At the same time that there is a rub
Der problem to solve there is an equally
basic shipping problem to solve.
AS in the case of rubber. there has
been delay and argument. At least one
official responsible for shipbuilding con-
tended until recently that there were not
enough brains in the United States to
build the volume of ships that were said
to be needed. Now the needs have ex-
panded greatly and more brains than
ever have to be found and utilized.
1t remained for man who had never
built ship before in his life to point
the way toward solving the shipbuilding
problem. He is Henry J. Kaiser, con-
struction engineer in the West. Mr..
Kaiser first was given shipbuilding job
by the British. He had ideas for mass
producing cargo vessels which old-line
| shipbuilders scoffed at However. the
Kaiser yards right now are building ships
| twice as fast as they are being built by
old-time shipbuilding concerns.
Here were brains that the Govern
| ment's shipping officials had not known
about and they were not discovered in
the shipbuilding industry. This may
| show that a real search for brains
| and ability and willingness to break
| with previous methods may enable the
| country to solve not only its shipbuild-
ing but its other problems as we'll
The trouble, however, is that it prob.
ably is too late to overcome the ship
building lag in 1912. That lag has been
cumulative for the first four months
Of the year and is continuing into the
fifth. 1t is a lag in ships actually de-
livered for use. It Is vital lag in a
| crucial war year