The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-10-30

 strategy and the like. Instead, they were advised to leave everything to the experts. But get load of this:
 When the War Production Board announced 1t was authorizing the Republic Steel Company to operate sponge iron furnace at Youngs- town, O., to make artificial scrap, WIPE Chairman Donald M. Nelson made figurative deep bow from the hips and admitted that much of the information which influenced the board in making this decision was based on findings of the Senate Special Committee Investigating National Defense.
 This is the group of 10 senators none of them experts-headed by Sen. Harry S, Truman of Indepen- dence, Mo, who gives the body its popular name of the Truman Com mittee. Not much has been heard from the Truman Committee in the last few months. But the senators and their staff of investigators un- der Chief Counsel Hugh S. Fulton have been digging quietly into all manner of things, including three or four -months' investigation of the iron and steel industry and all its ramiflcations, including the scrap situation and sponge iron.
 WHY SPONGE" IRON?
 First get a clear picture of what sponge iron is. The name comes from the fact that the material is porous. It isn't solid metal, like a pig iron ingot, but full of holes, like sponge. Sponge iron is made by reducing iron ore as 1t comes from the mines to & spongy mass, by heating the ore to temperatures be- low the fusing point of iron. The oxygen in the iron ore or iron OK ides is removed at the same time by mixing the iron ore with pulverized coal, which burns of the oxygen, or by passing through the heated ore a reducing gas which combines with the oxygen. The theory Is that sponge iron can be used as a sub stitute for scrap iron to mix with pig iron for the making of steel.
 Now this sponge iron situation has been kicking around for some time. Sen. Joseph 0. O,Mahoncy of Cheyenne, Wyo., first kicked oil on this subject last June. He was interested primarily in seeing some of the low grade iron ore deposits of his state used in the war produc- ton program. O'Mahoney was tackled hard by practically every steel "expert" in the country. Hadn't Judge Gary of United States Steel spent millions of dollars back in the l9o0s trying to develop sponge iron, and hadn't the big steel corporation abandoned sponge iron as impracticalp
 NOSE OUT THE FACTS
 But that didn't stop the Truman Committee. The senators and their investigators followed their own noses. They went out into the field and looked things over for them- selves. They talked to Republic and U. s. Steel and Ford and H. G. s Anderson of Muskogee, Okla, who had built and put in operation a sponge iron plant in Japan. They looked into the American Academy of Sciences reports on sponge iron and the projects of Missouri and Texas grouj; interested in develop ing the low-grade iron ore deposits in those states.
 Then the scrap situation became more and more critical.
 The War Production Board iron and steel experts called on the Tru- man Committee for their informa- tion on sponge iron. The experts finally had to come to the ama- teurs, the people who couldn't pes sibly understand one of these high ly technical subjects.
 The result is not only approval ol Republic Steel's sponge iron project but the creation within WIPE of g high sounding Steel Using Industry Advisory Committee to consider thS scrap shortage and other spong' projects.
 Now this should not be taken a! any blanket indictment of all ex perts, nor a guarantee that ever! sponge iron project will work. Blu at least it has been demonstrates that you can't always leave every thing to the experts. As Genera Knudsen says. "An expert is just mechanic away from home"