Evening star., 1950-12-17
U. S., Britain Agree
To Keep Row Materials
And Prices in Line
By SIqrid Arne

ELL udIlOIlS 1IOLl competing IOr
them and driving prices up.
1t worked, too.
Now. President Truman and
Prime Minister Attlee have agreed
to take action again to keep raw
material supplies and prices in line.
Nearly six months after the
outbreak of fighting in Korea the
nations in the U. N. forces are
bidding frantically against each
other for tin, rubber, wool and a
host of other items-and prices
are zooming.
1t has cost and is costing the
American taxpayer heavily be-
cause the United States is carry
ing such a big part of the load
both in Korea and in rearming
the rest of the Western world.
Price Comparisons
The difference in World War II
and present prices is told in Fed
eral Reserve Board figures on four
materials important to nations
that are rearming. Here are the
boards figures on wholesale prices
since the start of the Korean war
up to November Is, the latest date
for which complete figures are
available:
June 23 Nov. 1s Incr
Wool. per pound sl.725 sa,5o 45r
Here is what happened to those
same prices the first four months
of United States participation in
World War II:
Dec, 90. May 16.
| 1941. 19i%. Change
FnOOer Fin --- -- see Sc s. &c &c Q
Wool ----------slo o6s s1.oes 0
| These four raw materials are all
bought from nations that are
either being helped by the United
States, or are threatened by Com
munist aggression in Korea, Indo-
China and Tibet.
Prima donna of the price jump
ers is rubber, which comes from
British Malaga. It's jump of i73
per cent since the Korean out
break is only part of the story. In
early November rubber prices were
143 per cent of year ago.
The United States has to buy
this rubber almost entirely from
the British, whose home nation j.
getting this year a large military
laid gift from the United States.
New Action on Rubber
| United States military purchas.
ing agents say they doubt thai
American military buying can be
the reason for the jump in Malay
an rubber prices. They say United
States tires and tubes take SO pei
cent of the rubber the United
States uses and that of military
now takes only 6 to 7 per cent of
those tires and tubes.
Rubber is the only commodity
on which the United States Gov
ernment had taken any action.
1t began in late July to reopen
synthetic rubber plants. BY next
March the United States is ex-
pected to turn out 925 900 tons of
synthetic, as against $4,000 tons
in July.
New credit controls on auto
mobiles are expected to cut the
United States civilian need fol
tires and tubes by 25 per cent.
Both moves tended to throw
more rubber on the market anc
thus slash the pressure of demand
The last few days of November
Malayan sellers of raw rubber
were beginning to react. Raw
rubber fell from 78 cents a pound
to IS cents.
One top military buying expert
thinks Malayan rubber rose as
it did because selling was sc
disorderly-at times we could get
what we wanted and at other
times there was little rubber to
be bought"
This same expert thought that
United States moves to protect
the taxpayer who has to foot the
rearmament bills could really
break the price Of rubber"
Wool is another sore point with
United States purchasing agents
The United States is now de-
pendent on Australia. another
ally in the Korean war and much
more threatened by Red Chinese
aggression than the United States
World prices of wool are now
200 per cent of prices year ago
United States experts acknow1.
edge that the Australians are ir
fine spot to charge what the
market will bear, but they also
think that wool may price itself
out of the market"
| Wool Producers Profit
Right now American makers OF
synthetic fibers are hitting both
military agents and Congress to
get the military to make uniforms
partly of wool and partly of syn
thetic. They claim new synthetics
can turn rain and cold wind as
well as wool if not better.
But in the last Congress Sena-
tors from the wool-producing
States of the West objected vio-
llently to permitting the use OF
synthetic fibers in military uni
forms. American producers OF
wool are profting along with the
Australians by high wool prices.
Take burlap.
Burlap comes from India. In
dia's safety is threatened by the
Red Chinese attack on Tibet.
But as the United States tries
to rearm non-Communist nations,
| the price of India'S burlap has