Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1942-09-23
Give Bumper
Drive Needs
A Promoter
is Hieh-Grade Ste e !
and Easy to Get
By WESTBROOK PEGLER

WE HAVE q lot OF men ana
w women in this country who
make a business of hopping up
public enthusiasm over such
causes as the Presidents birth
day bali, China Relief and all
such, and we could well use the
services of such a one just now,
for free, of course. in the direc-
tion of the campaign to collect
the high-grade steel contained
in useless automobile bumpers
which. so far, isn't campaign
at all but a mere suggestion
that might come to nothing
much.
There is an awful lot of high
grade steel serving no useful
purpose in these bumpers and
learn now that some men had
the same idea long before it oc-
CURED to me, way back in
June, in, fact.
They estimated that a total
collection would yield not 300
600 tons, as 1 figured, but more
nearly half million tons.
On June 25. Chris Chenery. a
brother of Bill Chenery of Col
lier's, wrote to one OF our gov
eminent departments about this,
stating that the thought had
been handed on to him by Joe
Carreau. a Wall Stree fellow.
Chenery said In his letter to
Washington that the yield would
be more than equivalent to the
amount of metal required for a
pipeline TO the Atlantic sea-
board, although he didn't say
from where and, of course, the
pipe wouldn't require that kind
of steel.
The reply from Washington
indicated that they had already
had an eye on these bumpers.
but summed up as a brush-off
and nothing got done.
pUT there are a lot of difficult
- ties in the way of CONVEX
sion of that kind of scrap to fight
ing metal which have interfered
with the work all along and are
still causing delay.
Scrap metal is property and
the collectors are businessmen
who rate decent margin.
People contributing scrap
through the channels OF this In
dustry expect pay for their metal
all the way down the line to the
little kid with two pounds OF
old stove lids and leaky wash
boiler haggling with a peddler
for a closing price somewhere
between 10 cents asked and s
cents bid.
Here is an illustration OF the
delay in acquiring and convert
ing ordinary scrap.
MRS. GUTZOM BORGLUM.
w the widow of the noted
sculptor who used to 20 around
carving faces on mountains. has
an old steam boiler weighing
perhaps a ton and a couple of
tons of old steampipes in her
late husbands studio near SIAM
ford. Conn.
She offered all this. free, and
the junkmen figured on the cost
OF dismantling and carting and
reckoned that II would not be
worth their bother.
So il stays in the old studio,
whereas a collection OF bump
ers would bring an equal weight
OF better metal from just few
OF the neighbors around about.
delivered TO the railroad for
easy loading and free.
We can all be sure we are
going to throw that steel on
the pile sometime, anyway.
The New York World Tele-
grams appeal. part of the
general newspaper campaign for
scrap, says that in normal times
4 there is always enough scrap
going back to the mills through
the regular scrap industry, but
that now. with the mills work.
ing practically at capacity,
seven 24-hour days a week.
the normal supply isn't nearly
enough.
If the normal supply falls too
far below capacity, then these
bumpers will be condemned as
a hoard and taken, anyway, al
though, OF course, at price.
|
DEOPLE who are afraid Of
L damage TO their radiators
and tail lights might be reas-
sured by a letter from j. D..
Young of Market Service. Inc,
: highway transport specialists Of
Pittsburgh. apparently a truck
ing company. who says two by
six plank can be shackled in
place of the steel bumper and
recalls that. for some reason. a
taxi company in Springfield,
Mo-, equipped its whole fleet
with wooden bumpers several
years ago.
But if this is TO be a cam
paign II needs expert direction.
1t needs pictures of the White
House cars being stripped of
their bumpers; IL needs an In
dorsement from old Dan Tobin.
the president Of the Transfers
union, and a picture of his car
wearing plank bumpers, or non.
at all. instead of steel, and some
cheesecake shots of movie cuties