Evening star., 1942-09-27
Hunt for Scrap Must
Be Sped With Utmost
Vigor, Steel Men Say
Moy Not Have to Top
Home Sources Again
If Drive Succeeds
By the Associated Press.


NEW YORK, Sept. 2e.-If Aneri-
cans make an extraordinarily
thorough job Of digging up every
DIT OF scrap metal from homes and
farms in the drive now getting un-
Ger way, steel men said TODAY 1t
may not be necessary to tap those
sources again.
ihey explained. however, that time
IN the battle against the Axis is of
the essence, and it was absolutely
essential to the national security
ana Tor the protection of lives of
millions of American soldiers and
sailors. that the scrap job between
now and January be done with all
the vlgor that can be put into it.
This explanation was made on the
eve OF the Nations newspapers in
tensive three weeks drive in most
States-it Is already under way in
some and in the District of Columbia
Ito bring out every bit of metal
that Is not now essential. Every
thing Is wanted from old keys, but
ton hooks and bread tins to big
Things like idle steam engines. Moth
ing can be overlooked.
Press Is Valuable Ally.
Irving S. Olds, chairman of the
United States Steel Corp, said:
The newspapers of America are
an indispensable ally of industry in
fulfilling the unprecedented demand
for steel to win the war. The vital
steel industry needs scrap to make
materials to seal the doom of our
Axis enemies.
Without whole-hearted cooper
alton OF the newspaper publishers of
America, the industry's very urgent
need for scrap could not have be-
come known to the public. The
newspapers OF America currently
are launching a remarkable cam
paign to bring the scrap out of
hiding"
Steel experts who explained the
current crucial need for scrap metal
said householders and farmers need
not fear they will be pressed into
endless metal scrap campaigns If
between now and January ! a suf-
ficient scrap pile can be accumu-
lated to last the steel mills through
the winter.
War Effort Cannot Wait.
That does not mean, they ex-
planned, there will be any slacken-
ing between now and the wars end
to root out every available bit of
scrap metal from plants. factories
or business establishments.
By next spring, they said, the
industry will have new blast fur
naces which should enable the
mills to produce steel with the help
of more pig iron and the scrap OBJ
tanned from sources other than
farms and homes. But meanwhile,
the war effort cannot wait a minute.
This is how they explain it:
In peacetime steel mills get prac-
tically none of their junked metal
from farms and homes, depending
almost entirely on scrap recovery
from within the mills themselves,
users of steel, old automobiles and
other places such as wrecked build
A1leS dllQ l1ldtlllllc ollOpS.
Because of war production the
picture changed in 1912.
Scrap Recovery Dwindled.
Millions of tons of lease lend fin
1shed steel products were shipped
abroad, thus depriving American in
dustry of scrap recovery from that
source: other millions of tons are
going into ships and tanks may be
lost at sea or on foreign battlefields.
This means that the mills recov-
cry of scrap this year dwindled to
an alarming degree-loss of a mil
lion tons of scrap affects war pro-
duction drastically-and the proof
Is this:
The mills this year had facilities
to produce 90,000,000 tons of steel
but will produce only IS 100000 tons,
principally because scrap is short,
even though that ,o00000-ton
output was in itself a record, call
ing for more scrap than was ever
used before.
So, to keep production from lag
ging fatally and try to build the
scrap supply up to make full capac-
ity production possible, a Nation
wide search began for metal junk
into sources never tapped before:
Farms and homes.
Depending on Householders.
In all of 1s41 the mills used ap-
proximately 100000 tons of scrap
they will use 100000 this year
at least-obtaining all of it except
100000 tons from within their
own precincts. That 100000 was
bought on the outside from usual
sources, practically none of it COM
ing from farms and homes.
But, and steel men emphasize this,
because Of the war and the increased
production needs the mills will need
at least 100000 tons of scrap be-
tween now and January i, of which
at least 100000 tons must come
from farms and homes. Scrap COL
lection falls off in the winter.
Since the mills will be using more
than 100000 tons of scrap a month
between now and January !, that
needed II 100000 tons will allow them
to have a scrap pile of 100000 tons
at the years start on which they
can draw to make up the difference
in tagging scrap collections for the
rest of the winter.
The new blast furnaces coming
into operation in the spring will
turn out 100000 tons OF pig iron
for steel, thus helping bridge the
5,0o0,000-ton gap between what
farms and homes must produce now
and what the mills will be adding
in the form of pig iron when the
new furnaces are completed.