The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1942-08-06

Charlie Horn, president of Federal
Cartridge Company, which operate the
Twin Cities Ordnance Plant at New
Brighton, not only has done a top
production job on ammunition, but has
been outstanding among war con-
tractors in another respect. He has
done one of the best jobs in the ma
ton of utilizing the productive capa-
bilitieS of Negroes in the Twin Cities.
There is no question but that many
war contractors hesitated long time
about hiring Negroes for better jobs.
In justice, 1t should be said that many
of these contractors Disseminated
against Negroes because they feared
trouble with white employees rather
than because of any prejudice against
Negro workmen.
Mr.. Horn decided from the begin
ming to utilize Negroes to the fullest
extent possible. He was wise enough
to enlist the aid of the Urban leagues
in the Twin Cities and they helped
him a great deal in employment sell
ection Now he has Negroes working
in the plant in just about every poss-
ible capacity. Relations are fine and
his example is being followed by other
contractors in the Twin Cities area,
with the result hiatt morale of Negroes
in our state, which was low at one
time, now is fine.
Don Nelson, chairman of theWPB,
was talking plain horse sense when
he told Senate committee that the
synthetic rubber program could not be
overturned and replanned every time
some inventor or company turned up
with a new process for making syn
thetic rubber, without creating chaos
and long delays.
The point which a great many of
those who are criticizng the govern
ment's synthetic rubber program over
look is that the program was first
formulated back in the fall of 1941 and
was definitely set and engineering and
construction work begun way back in
February of this year. At that time,
the government agencies concerned
acting on the advice of their chemical
and engineering consultants, adopted
program utilizing the processes and
raw materials which at that time had
been developed and proven out most
and gave the best promise of synthetic
rubber in the shortest time.
AS might be expected, the fall of
Singapore and cutting off of our
crude rubber sources stimulated virtu-
ally every business concern big enough
to maintain research laboratory ex-
perimenting on synthetic rubber. Each
one hoped to discover some cheap,
speedy process that not only would
solve the nations No. / material
shortage but also would put that par
ticular concern into profitable bus
mess in a big way One Twin Cities
concern has been working for months
on synthetics.
AS a result of this tremendous slim
illus to research, and the pressure for
speed and more speed in production
of rubber substitutes, all kinds OF
claimed new and improved processes
began to bob up all over the country
a couple of months ago. Too-zealous
hackers tossed charges of discrimin-
alton around loosely in order to draw
attention to their claims, and they
were not too bashful in making their
claims.
1t must be admitted that govern
ment officials in charge of the pro-
gram have been slow to clear up the
confusion resulting from all these
claims and charges. But Don Nelson
went to the heart of the situation |
when, after admitting that some mis-
takes may have been made originally, |