Askov American., 1943-09-30
False Impressions.

world. ana as l mentlOneQ ABOVE,
most advertising claims are fair and
justified.
Nevertheless, the big advertising
campaigns of the large corporations
engaged in war business represent the
diversion of tens of millions of dol
lars of the taxpayers money to the
benefit of such corporations. But
worse than that in some instances,
this corporate advertising is used to
create false impressions or to counter
act criticism which has legitimately
been directed at the corporation.
For example, the ss-Wright
Corporation, well known ,manufac-
turers of airplanes and aircraft parts,
holds more war contracts than any
other company with the exception
of General Motors Corporation. The
total is nearly five billion dollars.
Part of this tremendous sum repre-
sented contracts to manufacture dive
bombers for the army and navy.
At Columbus, O., the government
paid S27, ,000,0 900 for the construction
of plant to build these dive bomb
ers. Further millions of government
funds were allocated to build these
planes at other production centers.
Nearly SlO0,000,000 has been spent
at Columbus and yet not one single
dive bomber has been produced under
these contracts which the navy can
use in combat
The particular dive bomber in
question has been advertised as the
Hell Diver" and advertising head
lines have boldly reported it to be
the best dive bomber in the world
Likewise, news stories have been
printed praising this "superlative"
weapon.
Curtiss- Wright Claims.
This same Curtiss- Wright Corp. is
also the originator of the well-known
P-40 fighter plane. Here again thous-
ands of dollars were spent in adver-
tising the combat ability and strik-
ing power of this airplane. Now, the
fact of the matter is that the P-40 is a
usable plane and has done good work
at the front. However, the P-4O is
regarded by the Russian, English, and
American forces at the front as, at
best, second choice plane. It would
seldom have been used had facilities
been created for increased produc-
ton of the better planes which we
have.
In still another instance, at the
Wright Aeronautical Corporation
plant, wholly owned subsidiary of
Curtiss-Wright Corp. built at gov
ernment expense at Lockland, o,
failed to inspect engines and parts
in accordance with government speci-
fications. Nevertheless, the Curtiss-
Wright Corporation has inserted
thousands of dollars worth of glossy
paper advertising space, seen by mil
lions of readers, pointing to the ex-
cellence of Curtiss-Wright engines.
In 1912, the Curtiss- Wright Corp
oration spent 1888 900 for advertis-
ing. This year it will spend total
of $872,8 Almost all of it will be
at the expense of the taxpayer.
U. S. Steel. Standard Oil.
The behavior of the Curtiss-W Wright
Corporation is not an isolated in
stance.
In March of this year, the Special
Committee of the United States Sen
ate to Investigate the National De-
fense Program, of which l am chair
man, brought out the fact that the
Carnegie Illinois Steel Corporation
at its Irwin plant in Pennsylvania was
producing steel plate which did not
meet the specifications of the Navy
Department, the Maritime Commis-
sion, and the Treasury Department
to which it was being sold.
Sworn testimony before the COM
mittee proved beyond question that
not only were chemical analyses
faxed and falsified, but physical tests
to which the finished steel was sub
jected to determine tensile strength,
were also faxed. All these falsifica-
tions and fakings were designed to
indicate that the steel plate, did, in
fact, meet government specifications.
Following the committee disclos-
ures the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Corp
oration and its parent corporation,
United States Steel Corporation,
placed many advertisements in news
papers and periodicals. 1t seems
reasonable to suppose that one of the
purposes of this campaign was to
offset the criticism which had justly
been rendered against the Corpora
ton.
Similarly, the Standard Oil Com
pany of New Jersey was shown to
have entered into cartel agreements
with Germany with respect to syn
thetic rubber. This action on the part
of Standard very materially retard-
ed the development of our synthetic
rubber industry in America. Yet
Standard has spent a lot of the tax