Evening star., 1942-04-05

later emphasized that never In 20 years.
experience had he been confronted with
a request from any Navy representative
for such information.
Allegations that Standard had re-
tarded synthetic development in this
country brought an indignant disclaimer.
In January, 1939-"eight months before
even the European war started and
nearly three years before Pearl Harbor,"
Mr.. Parish told the committee-Standard
sought OUT the Army and Navy NUM-
tionS Board and furnished full informa-
ton on synthetic rubber development.
both buna and butyl. From that time
forward, he said, there has been tho
closest cooperation. At the very outset,
according to the Standard president, the
Government was urged to act promptly
If there was any possibility that rubber
supplies might be cut of in the event OF
war" All the information on butyl was
being obtained from laboratory pilot
units until the middle of March, l94l,
when engineers were ready to say they
could design q commercial unit that
would operate satisfactorily. At the
time of Pearl Harbor, according to the
witness, Standard had a $4,500 900 in
vestment in butyl and was on produc-
tive basis Of 1900 tons annually.
Experimentation Held Hampered.
Another of the Government allega-
tions dealt with the stumbling blocks
reputedly put in the way Of experimental
ton in this country by the patent
licensing restrictions imposed by Stand
ard, and the further refusal Of the COM
pany to furnish samples Of butyl to other
companies No license has been issued
under butyL patents, according to the
Government, and Standards own state
ment shows only five companies as
having received samples for exploratory
work-Firestone Tire g. Rubber, United
States Rubber, Acushnet Process Co.,
General Electric and United Carbon
before the Rubber Reserve Corp. took
over the ALLEGATION. The Army and Navy,
Bureau of Standards and two university
professors working on defense products
likewise had received samples.
Correspondence introduced into the
record showed that In the earlier stages
of this development, at least, Standard
was unwilling to distribute samples for
fear they would be productive Of what
Mr.. Howard described as nuisance pat
ents" that would be sought by dozens
of people sitting around trying to md
some use for the product"
That Standard presumably still looks
upon butyl as an "if" proposition was
indicated by Mr. Farish's statement to
the committee discussing it only as q
possibility for the Government program.
In the case of buna, company officials
acknowledged that an effort was made
in 1s39-40 to prevent individual COM
panies from undertaking development OF
the product for use in tires, but insisted
that this policy was due to the belief
that production on . large scale could
be achieved only by cooperative action
Of the large companies.
Two Types Of Buna.
There are two types Of buna. one
known as perbunan, q specially rubber,
and the other. Dumas, the tire rubber
Rubber companies agreed, Standard ofd-
cials said, that the high-priced perbunan
was the only product that had CONNER
cial possibilities at that time, and that
the tire rubber could not be produced
without q considerable Government
subsidy"
The first thought was to organize
concern owned jointly by all participate
ing companies, but on advice of counsel
that the project would run afoul OF the
antitrust laws, the idea was dropped.
Three rubber companies, however, &C
cording to Mr.. Parish, were interested
in producing perbunan, and licenses were
offered to these with the proviso that
the manufacturer would use his plant
to turn out tires If the Government so
asked.
The licenses permitted the companies
to manufacture only for their own needs.
ANY surplus produced was required to be
sold to Standard for resale to producers
of rubber goods generally, the company
contending that it had right under its
patents to occupy this field. THESE
licenses were described by Mr.. Parish
as a stop-gap device until an industry
wide. unified venture could be under
taken. The Army and Navy Munitions
Board believed the best results could
be obtained by joint venture, rather
than individual experimentation, Mr.
Parish said in this connection. The
consent decree ends licensing restric-
tions, and does away with patent royal
ties until after the war.
Federal Attitude Cited.
Expanding on the efforts Of Standard
to interest the Government in synthetic
rubber, Mr.. Parish told Of interchanges
in 1939-40, and recalled that the pro-
gram of the Government itself was re-
duced from 100000 to 10000 tons in
December, 1910. Coming eventually to
July, 1s41, Mr.. Parish said that in con-
formity with an arrangement by the
Reconstruction Finance Corp, details
were submitted covering a 10,000-ton
butadiene (the raw material for butyD
project, and one Of $1,000 tons. A few
days later, the company was instructed
to drop plans for the smaller plant and
60 ahead with the larger. Two months
later, work on this was ordered sus-
pended for q year. Standard, however
went ahead at IT. own expense ane
4 /