out s e n t i m e n t s at home-renegotiations of war contracts and new r e v e n u e measures first problems s c h e d u l e d for action

C ONGRESS has completed its longest recess ^-^ since the outbreak of the war, having left Washington July 8. There is every evidence that this trip home for the mem­bers has been spent in some intensive can­vassing of sentiment in the respective districts, away from Washington. Mail from home reaches the members while on the job, but on today's monumental prob­lems, first hand public pulse-taking is the only sure course. The members were, from all pre-recess indications, looking forward to that chore more than they were to the prospective rest itself.

The actions of the returned members should be watched accordingly. These will give a better index to the true senti­ment of the country than all the scientific polls ever attempted. Remember, this one was by experts—by the members who are where they are (Washington) because they guessed right at least once, about what their neighbors were thinking.

This is not to say that homely sentiments of the voters are going to be expressed tangibly in talks to their Congressmen on the more prominent national issues now calling for legislation—renegotiation of war contracts, for instance. But home feeling on some more transparent phase of public affairs can easily be manifested in the way a Congressman votes on an ap­parently extraneous issue.

If the past several weeks have convinced the members that home sentiment is more pro-Administration generally, that will be evident in the way the two houses vote on any Administration measure. Thus, coming to a discussion of taxes, if the forth­coming tax program is an outright Ad­ministration plan, and popular opinion has been revealed in support of the Ad­ministration generally, rather than veer­ing away from it on broad grounds, that program will get support, regardless of its major features.

Dissatisfaction with the Administra­tion on home policies can have the same weight adversely. Hence, watch Congres­sional symptoms for a line on public opinion of national affairs. With this reservation—some out-and-out New Deal members will sound the drums for their leadership, regardless of what they heard at home.

Congress left some rather potent re­

minders of itself to be sure of the fact, however. One was the Smith-Connally anti-strike law. While no drastic use of this measure has been invoked, its as yet undetermined potency is having some effect in more flagrant labor outbreaks. If there is any definite indication that its enforcement is not being pushed with suf­ficient aggressiveness, look for further Congressional prodding this winter. This is to b e expected particularly if the drag on war production which has been bother­ing Washington can be pinned on some more tangible grounds than have been ad­vanced so far, such as lax labor effort. Public discussions have played up such reasons as cut-backs, production plan changes, etc.

As t o the immediate legislative pros­pects, a House Ways and Means subcom­mittee has in hand some proposals to es­tablish legal standards governing renego­tiation of war contracts, which would re­place the personal ideas and inclinations of procurement officials, which have in the past, apparently been the principal guide in conducting these activities. Reducing the process to a statutory basis will have a distinctly calming effect on Washington agencies, it is believed. There may be some rather lengthy study of the whole situation, but renegotiation legislation is

still high on the priority list for Congress. Revenue hearings are scheduled for

early September, but there were signs late in the summer that the committee ex­pected to have proposals of its own ready for consideration along with any that, might be forwarded from the Treasury. The latter is strongly favoring further pressure on individual incomes, and corre­spondingly less optimistic about the results to be expected from further corporate levies.

So far the official emphasis, as might be expected, is on ways to increase publie receipts, rather than ways in which the outgo of these receipts might be trimmed more nearly in balance with what can be obtained. No real attack has been made on the ordinary expenditures of Washing­ton agencies, while those lumped under ''war effort" are still going all-out.

On the industrial front the move started. late in the summer toward some shift t o other materials than grain for alcohol is ap­parently crystallizing into a definite shape.

(CONTINUED ON ΡAGE 1440)

Selective Service Crisis DUE to the necessary drafting of fath-^-*^ ers, the problem of retaining necessary technical men in the Production Army is becoming increasingly difficult.

It should again be emphasized that the set-up, regulations, and directives of the Selective Service System, if actively fol­lowed are adequate to retain in the Pro­duction Army all trained and experienced chemists and chemical engineers who have become necessary and nonreplaceable. In view of the serious and increasing shortage of men with such training and experience, it is seldom possible to find one who is not necessary or who is replaceable. In the few cases in which replacements have been found, it practically always develops th]at the replacement was by a process of rob­bing another activity of a needed techni­cal man. Thus, many of the synthetic

rubber plants have been adequately manned with chemists and chemical engi­neers but only by taking these men from other activities, such as aviation gasoline, in which they are just as badly needed. Unfortunately, many technical men and many of their employers fail for one reason or another to follow the procedures laid down by the Selective Service System. Many hesitate to carry the appeal pro­cedure through as provided by law.

Both employers and technical men should study the articles listed on the last page of this issue, especially the recent ones. A re-reading of the articles begin­ning on pages 751 and 1206 of the current, year will correct many mistakes which have been costly in the handling of somë recent cases. These mistakes include

(CONTINUED ON PAGE 1428)

1420 C H E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S

Potomac Postscripts by LYNNE M. LAMM

Members of Congress return to Washington after s o u n d i n g

Arthur J. Norton, who for several years has been consultant to the synthetic resin, plastics, and chemical industry, has moved

ROGER PAUL JORDAN

Arthur J. Norton his laboratory to Seattle. Wash., from Port­land, Maine. The move was made in view of the rapidly growing industrial develop­ment of the Northwest.

James F. Brownlee, for a number of years an official of the General Foods Corp., took office August 16 a s OPA deputy administra­tor in charge of price.

Lester D. Chirgwin, general manager of the Buffalo plant of Farrel-Birmingham Co., has been elected a director of the company. Mr. Chirgwin has been associated with the com­pany since 1909, with the exception of four years' study at Yale, and one year with the U. S. Shipping Board during World War I .

Thomas R. Coffey has been appointed man­ager of sales of the Wisconsin-Minnesota Dis­trict by the Globe Steel Tubes Co. His headquarters will be in Milwaukee.

Edward M. Collins, who has been teaching at Williams College for the past year, on leave of absence from Kent State University, has been appointed professor and head of the D e ­partment of Chemistry at Illinois College. Jacksonville, III.

William E. Cotter, counsel for the Union Car­bide and Carbon Corp., New York, has been. named director of the Commerce and Indus­try Division of the Third War Loan.

Recent additions to the technical staff of the Chemical Developments Corp., Dayton. Ohio, include: Melvin A. Crosby, chief engineer; Gordon M. Williams, John It-Fisher, Jr., and Elizabeth D . Strickland, re­search chemists; and Lena Ranis Ziegler, patent chemist.

J. Kenneth Galbraith has joined the staff o f the Lend-Lease Administration.

Colonel C. W . Crowell, vice president of the Rochester Germicide Co., i s now command­ing officer of the Dalles Chemical Warfare Procurement District, Dallas, Tex.

\» Turner E. Currens has retired from the "WPB, where ho was chief, of the Botanicals Unit, Drugs and Cosmetics Section, Chemical Division, and has been succeeded by Henry W . Heinie.

Gustav Egloff, Universal Oil Products Co.. recently discussed "Postwar* Values of Tech­nology" at four Pacific Coast conferences of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Don Floyd, who received the Ph.D. degree i n organic chemistry from the University of Iowa i n July, has accepted a position as re­search chemist with General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. On August 1 he was married to Nadino Maysent of Kirkman, Iowa.

Hugh D. Hughes, chief of the Commodities Bureau, WPB, resigned on August 21 to re­turn t o the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corp., New York, N. Y.

William H. Gabeler has been made vice president o f the Summers Fertilizer Co., Baltimore, in charge of development of chemical and food-processing plans. He was formerly assistant vice president of the Davi­son Chemical Co., with which he was associ­ated for over 23 years.

Ray B . Crepps, director of the materials testing laboratory at Purdue University, has joined the Owens-Corning-Fiberglas Corp.

Ray B. Gepps

a s director of the testing division of the re­search laboratories, Newark, Ohio, where he will b e in charge of the new testing laboratory.

S . E . Danielson has been transferred to The Quaker Oats Co., Depew, N . Y., as plant manager, after 14 months' connection with the Q. O . Ordnance Corp., Grand Island, Neb.

Louis Gillespie, Gillespie-Rogers-Pyatt Co., has arrived in Calcutta, India, where he is making a survey of the shellac situation for the Office of Economic Warfare.

Page N. Hamilton, New York, N. Y. has been appointed sales agent for northern New Jersey, metropolitan New York, and New England, representing W. B. Lawson, Inc., Cleveland, distributor for Ferro Drier & Chemical Co.

Cecil Davey has been elected vice president and general manager of the Everlasting Valve .Co., Jersey City, N, J. Mr. Davey has been connected with the company since 1911.

Warren H. Hay has joined the engineering staff of Industrial Research Service, Dover, N. H. H e was formerly employed by the Celanese Corp., Cumberland, Md.

Raymond R. Hill, Inorganics Section, Chem­icals Division, WPB, has been appointed deputy chief of the Nitrogen Unit.

William B. Murphy has been appointed deputy vice chairman for production, WPB, and will direct all production activities within the WPB industry divisions and bureaus which report t o the Office of the Operations vice chairman.

Potomac Postscripts (CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1420)

Word now is that some 50,000 tons of sugar are to be diverted to alcohol production this coming year, releasing a corresponding amount of other materials.

In this connection, distillers were reported in recent weeks to be the leading purchasers of open-market grain. This can be at­tributed to anticipation that some of their capacity might be released temporarily for their regular beverage production. This release may come at any time. On the other hand, WPB has just indicated that it is counting on the beverage alcohol industry for at least half of its supply this coming year. Whether the industry can meet this obligation and still devote a small part of its facilities to other output is the factor being devated.

Containers, especially steel or metal, are still a major problem. Efforts are being in­tensified to move products that can use them, into the wooden container field. This, with the increasing pressure on metal types, has now put an increased load on strained wooden container manufacturers. In the case of chemicals, the special requirements of the industry make it impossible to use even tight cooperage, as it comes from the mill. Care has to be given to selection of the wood with due regard to its possible effect o n the chemical contents.

A committee is now studying the tight cooperage field, together with possible products that may be shifted to this form of container, and is expected to report shortly.

The recent meeting of the Thermoplastic Processors Advisory Committee with WPB brought to light an uneven distribution of machinery in that industry. This corre­sponds to a condition reported in other fields a s well, in which some industries, either because of slackening of war produc-tion or some other situation, have surplus valves, exchangers, or other complicated apparatus that should be used elsewhere. To meet the situation in thermoplastics, recommendations were heard that in the case of those members on war production, some new equipment should be manufac­tured. On the other hand, it was argued that the problem is to suitably use or allot idle machinery now reported to be on hand.

1440 CH E M I C A L A N D E N G I N E E R I N G N E W S