Evening star., 1943-11-28

Clle immaculate 1uCure 10 prevent an eX-
tension of the present shortage. The
requirements of the armed forces absorb
the first and largest percentage of new
production
To bridge the crisis in domestic trans
portation which this situation implies
and keep their industry in operation
the truck and bus industry must CO.
operate as never before. Overlooking
and speeding, especially on hot pave
ments. must be eliminated, and every
tire carcass which can be saved by re-
Gaping must be preserved"
But perhaps Joe Nonessential Driver
wants more details on some of those IN"
words in the rubber picture.
Experts Are Shifted.
First, the m" for muscle or man.
power:
The rubber industry points out that
when the war began, many trained tire
makers had to be put to work making
other rubber goods needed in the war
such as bullet-sealing gas tanks and life
RATS.
tires halted because of lack of rubber,
many workers took jobs in other indus
tries.
Many trained tiremakers were called
to the armed services.
Now, when production of synthetic
rubber has made it possible to make
more tires, and when both military and
civilian demands are on the increase,
the workers are hard to find.
Use of woman workers can't entirely
solve the problem because most jobs in
a tire factory-like juggling big tires
for trucks and bombers-call for men of
substantial physical strength.
The rubber industry is consulting War
Manpower officials in the hope of re-
trieving workers who have taken other
jobs. They even entertain the idea of
seeking recall of trained rubber work.
ers from the armed forces.
Then there's the machinery and equip
ment angle.
At the start of the war, many facilities
of the tire-manufacturing plants were
converted to making other rubber prod
ucts OF war, also to making nonrubber
products such as ammunition and guns.
Equipment not being used in tire manu-
facture early in 1912 was moved out of
existing buildings and stored.
Now that synthetic rubber is available
and the demands for tires are sky
rocketing, this machinery has to be put
back into use. Besides, manufacture of
synthetic tires requires more machinery
than tires from natural rubber.
New Plants Under Way.
Because of increased demands, the
industry has set about expanding its
existing facilities. A couple of new
plants are being built. Also the Army
has returned to the industry two big
plants which were being used for max
ing ordnance items.
The expansion program calls for in
vestment of 100000 900 by the industry,
and while the go-ahead has been given
for the new facilities, they can't come
into operation overnight.
Rubber Director Dewey says it will
take year before the full effects of
the program are felt, but the rubber
industry says every month will see some
relief from the pinch.
The next six to nine months will be
the most difficult" Dewey says of the
whole picture
While he is almost in the position of
having so much synthetic rubber that
he doesn't know what to do with it. he
isn't fixed so well on rayon cord used
to reinforce the synthetic tires. He
says that the less rayon cord available,
the more he has to draw on the precious
stock Of crude rubber to augment syn
thetic in heavy-duty tires.
However, more rayon and cotton cord
has been promised he says
Dewey also gets a lift" when he
thinks about another item called camel
back. That's the compounded rubber
tread stock used to retread tires. This,
he says, "is still bridging the gap in tire
production" But he adds:
For a long time to come, recapped
tires must continue to carry much of
the transportation burden"
What does Joe Nonessential Driver
get out of all this?
Some advice, mostly. 1t might be
summed up by paraphrase of the old
New England dictum to
Make it do do without"
IL e tn NE