The Wilmington morning star., 1946-01-30
Fair Enough
Bv WESTBROOK PEGLER

| A congressional investigation is being made
| into the activities of Abraham N. Spaniel and
the International Latex Corporation of which
he is president. During most of the war this
| company published a series OF new deal and
| left-wing political advertisements in large
| list Of newspapers in the guise of public
| service. republican senator and repre-
sentative have been gathering data and, in
| the War Department, precautions have been
| taken lest documents in the record of Inter-
nationals dealings with the Army and the
| smaller war plants corporation should disap-
| To this end, the War Department has pre-
pared a duplicate file and a third copy has
been obtained for his own records by Brig
Gen. Albert J. Browning, recently separated
from the Army. General Browning previously
had served as director of purchases for the
Army Air Forces. He recently accepted a new
position in the Department Of Commerce.
When General Browning was asked recent
ly whether unusual care had been exercised
to keep a scrupulous record Of the CORE
spoadence and conferences relating to Spaniel
and International Latex, he said this was the
fact. When he was asked why, he replied:
We smeHed rat.'' With reference to rela-
lively small voluntary refund to the govern
ment by Spaniel, General Browning said: He
knew he was coming up for renegotiation."
Colonel Phillips w. Smith, still on duty at
the War Department, said that Matthew j.
Fox, formerly Of Universal Pictures, for some
time an employee of Smaller War Plants Cor
poratlon, later a major in the Army, told
him, when they were in Europe. that ''there
was White House pressure behind the in
slstence OF Smaller War Plants that Spanels
company be awarded a contract for buoyant
llfesaving devices for the Army Air Force
at an excessive price.
The congressional inquiry will extend to the
records OF the Rubber Reserve Corporation 10
Irn %l.n r
Latex surrendered to the government con-
siderable supply of liquid latex or pure rub
Der which Spaniel had laid in before Pearl
Harbor. An article in high praise of Spaniel,
published in Golfers last Feb. 4, under the
by-line of Lester Velie, said "Spanel had mil
lions OF pounds of latex stored in his under
ground labyrinth, liquid treasure which
money could not buy
"Spanel surveyed it fondly," Mr.. Veie's
story said, ''but not for long. The govern
ment needed it and Spaniel gave it up"
That suggested to me, at the time, an act
OF extraordinary and voluntary patriotic altru-
ism. Others take the view, however, that while
Spaniel did surrender his supply he did only
as all holders of such reserves were required
to do and got a fair price for his latex
One authority asserts that he made a good
profit after rejecting the price offered by the
government and carrying the case to arbi-
tration.
1.-THE government may have tried to drive
a hard bargain" said man who was in
touch with the controversy, 'but anyway,
Spaniel won and he got a good price"
An authority in the War Production Board
declares that Spaners stock was not millions
Of pounds" of latex but 1,835,065 pounds and
that Henry Ford gave up 27,000,000 pounds
of rubber and U. S. Rubber and Ball Brothers
of Muncie, Ind, gave up huge stocks, at cost.
Mr.. Velies article said that Spaniel ode
signed an assault boat whose impact has been
felt all over the world, floating stretchers
which have saved the lives of thousands, and
secret equipment whose story cannot yet be
told He related that an earnest young Army
captain appealed to Spaniel for collapsible,
lightweight boat and that Spaniel took his prob
lem to his laboratory and sin a feverish
month"; produced the boat on a daring princi.
pie, using plastic bladders covered with
fabric.
The principle, if daring, would seem not
to have been necessarily original.
Long before the war, when commercial
pilot named Dick Merrill and Harry Rich
man. the night club entertainer, flew to Eng
land and back, newspaper stories reported
that they were carrying thousands Of ping
pong balls in the wings to provide buoyaacy
if they had been forced to come down at sea.
Mr.. Velie did not give sufficient details of
SpaneFs original designs to permit exami-
nation Of the claims of invention.
Another passage in Mr.. Velie's article con-
firms the fact that Spanels present general
manager at Dover, Del, Wallace o. Heinze,
was employed in the government service.
Heinze recently refused to affirm or deny this.
Velie wrote that once, when Henry Kaiser
was "agonizing over his inability to get so
tons of !aigh-alloy steel that he needed "des-
perately,'' Spaniel was able to produce the
steel for him by noon, next day.
8. The government isn't machine he told
the amazed Kaiser,'' Velie wrote. " It's run
by human beings and you've got to know the
right ones
zone of the right ones in this case,' !
Velie's story said, was WPB planning com.
mittee member, Wally Heinze, later co-ordi
nator of the Smaller War Plants Corporation
and now Spanel's general manager"
General Browning, in memorandum to the
u:1der-secretary of war, officially reported
that when international bid SOL each for an
order of 5000 life RATS, as against next
highest bid of $79, Heinze telephoned Wright
field insisting that contract for 5000 units
be given to International Latex." He reported
that less than five months later, Heinze went
to wrok for Spaniel. Without verification, his
maximum government pay is believed to have
been $4,000 year and his pay with Spaniel
is believed to be $4,000.
QUOTATIONS