Evening star., 1942-12-03
Shortage Of 19 Million
Tires Seen Next Year,
Jeffers Tells Forum
Rubber Director and
Associates Discuss
Rotionine Necessity

The United States will have 49,
100000 less tires next year than
ordinarily are required for replace
ments, William M. Jeffers, rubber
director, said last night in Nation
al Radio Forum round table discus
sion of the rubber outlook.
Col. Bradley Dewey, deputy rubber
director. recounting the progress of
the synthetic program, said that "it
will be another six months before
any one can say for sure how our
drive to produce synthetic rubber
will turn out"
H. J. Klossner, president of the
Rubber Reserve Co., telling of the
plan to get natural rubber in South
America, said that the Amazon
Basin now is producing only about
10000 tons of crude year, and lit
would be unwise to indulge in too
much optimism as to the results of
our efforts"
The forum, arranged by The Star,
Is a Blue Network feature broadcast
locally from Station WMAL.
Asks for Tolerance.
Director Jeffers took up the ques-
ton OF national mileage rationing at
the outset of his speech. and be-
spoke tolerance by the public until
the rough spots" are eliminated.
ANY program put into effect with
the speed of this one will necessarily
have its rough spots" he said.
Let me assure you that I am mov-
Ing as rapidly as I can to get these
difficulties and annoyances stopped
so the program can work smoothly
and fairly. testified before the
Truman Committee of the Senate
last week that common sense would
be the governing rule of mileage ra-
tioning. I repeat that now"
The speaker said he recognized
that there would be great tempta-
ton, in the Midwest particularly.
to buy gasoline on BLACK market"
but he added that to yield to this
would defeat the entire purpose
of rubber conservation. which is to
keep this country on wheels"
ITO be perfectly frank, the task
of keeping this Nation on wheels
until synthetic rubber production is
sufficient to meet all demands is
not going to be easy Mr.. Jefers
continued.
Estimates Tire Supplies.
Present estimates are that we
will have, in 1943, about 100000
passenger car tires from present
stocks and from receipts under the
Idle tire purchase plan. We will aug
ment these with some 100000 tires
made from reclaimed rubber and
with recapping material, made from
reclaimed rubber, for some 1000 900
carcaSSes.
That is the limit of our re-
placement stock for 1943 insofar
as we can determine now. Com
pare that with the 100000 new
tires We normally put on our cars
and the answer Is obvious. The
vast majority of our 100000 pas
senger cars are going to have to
survive on their present tires"
Mr.. Jeffers urged against owners
putting up their cars for the dura-
ton and depending on public trans
portation, emphasizing that the COM
mercial carriers could not handle
the added load. Car-sharing, ne
added, must be more widely adopted.
Col. Dewey said that the output
of synthetic rubber for the first half
of 1943 will be "small-50,00O tons at
the best. After that, if all goes we'll,
production will rise rapidly"
Military Demands Are Large.
But the demand of our armed
forces for rubber is so great that the
fall of 1943 will find us dangerously
short of rubber and all the synthetic
we can produce must be used to
bolster our supply. When that is
accomplished, we can begin to
allocate important quantities of
synthetic for the manufacture of
civilian tires, some during the late
spring or summer of 1914"
Col. Dewey explained that the
synthetic industry was started from
scratch, and that the first of three
plants for the production of butadine.
the basic ingredient for synthetic
rubber, will be in operation some
time in January.
Mr., Klossner said that some peo-
pie have an idea that there is an
unlimited supply of rubber in the
Amazon Basin and that all that
needs to be done is to offer a suff-
ciently high price, and presto, we