And Family,
Lake House,
Nakusp,
Canada
Dear Father and Little Ones:
The little ones will have no care for the first few pages of this letter, but perhaps some day many years from now these pages will meet their eyes, and they will know that I was thinking about them. I hope for now that they are having too much fun in and around the lake amidst the cherry trees to think of boring old Palo Alto.
Unlike their mother, who is having sudden second thoughts about flying into Kelowna in just three weeks time.
Your Loving Daughter and Mother,
Mama
"Some Chickens" Harold Macmillan says that the wave of dismissals in the Midlands are just what the Tories wanted to get the balance of trade back in order, and are not at all a sign of what Jim Wilson is calling a "worsening economic situation." It's all about the redeployment of labour, and Leonard Lord's brutal redundancy axe at British Motor Corporation was unacceptably rude, and the magazine earnestly hopes that it won't happen again. Really, can't we just focus on the out-ot-touch leftists on the Labour benches who want to plan for this sort of thing?
Rebels on the Right?" Some Conservative backbenchers are upset at the increase in the Coal Board's borrowing limit and perhaps Cyprus, but they have been sternly told not to vote against the Government lest they bring in the Socialists, and will come to heel just like they did over the sale of the Trinidad Oil Company. As for what is going on in Cyprus, nothing is going on in Cyprus because the government can't make up its mind, and anyway now the Turks have put their oar in. "Both sides are sick of the annual hurly-burly of the farm price review." Readers,. too. Also in very worthy news, the annual Commonwealth premiers' conference is over and we are waiting with bated breath for the final communique. Lebanon is being much too nationalistic over negotiations for a natural gas or oil terminal in its country to serve the Trans-Arabian and possibly more pipelines. A steel strike might be on the way, and the Home Office is in trouble over its handling of "gangsterism and vice." It shouldn't wait on the Wolfenden Committee or deny the existence of gangs at racecourses or brothels and unreported aliens in our streets, and it needs to pay the police properly. Harrumph! Also, it should probably go easier on the foreign "rentiers" who want to live in London and take The Economist. The Economist then proceeds to tell us what it thinks is going onin Sudan with the sectarians and the political opposition and all. The Economist is happy with raising night school fees, which is controversial over there right now. The latest report show that London is developing wrong, with population growing faster in the outer ring than employment, leading to likely travel congestion in the future. Birmingham should solve its teacher shortage problem by putting up teachers in hotels or hostels or some such, and not by rationing teachers nationally or giving Birmingham teachers priority for council housing, which would be unfair. Mollet's government is not going to fall soon, but it is even more likely to fall later, considering the size of the tax increases to pay for the Algerian war already, and likely inflation to come. Revaluation of the DM is not on, for now. Japan continues to be something of an economic and political disaster in spite of the recent elections. Portugal and Spain are similar in that they have not-at-all Fascist government which have no idea how to arrange their politican succession, and also now American air bases.
John Mason Brown's Through These Men is a good study of American domestic politics for the British dilettante observer. Alexander Werth's France, 1940--55 is the latest product of Werth's prolific pen, so it has to be taken seriously on that score, just not as a history of France, 1940--55. Says the reviewer, anyway. We are bemused by Werth's theory that France "helped scotch a third world war" by its restraining influence on America. J. L. B. Smith's Old Four Legs: The Story of the Coelacanth is a treatment of the sensational 1938 discovery of a living coelacanth, a species believed to have gone extinct 70 million years ago mainly focussing on how mad Professor Smith is at the French for not letting him have more specimens. (As they have largely been caught in the Comoro Islands.) The second volume of Donald Creighton's life of John A. MacDonald is out. MacDonald was born in 1815, Creighton in 1902, and no doubt when Elizabeth is your age will be as distant a figure as "the Old Chieftain" is to Creighton. Frank Debenham's Nyasaland: Land of the Lake, is "recommended for Rhodesians" because it reveals the problems that are showing up in the Federation, and disappointing in that Debenham greatly underrates the native African politicians who want to disassemble the Federation. T. D. Kendrick's The Lisbon Earthquake is a pretty good treatment of an important historical disaster that was also a great moment in history due to the way that European intellectuals used to fight with each other in the good old days, not like now.
"Reprieve for Foreign Aid" Once again this year, just like every year, the House cut the foreign aid budget heavily and put embarrassing political strings on them. And just like every year, the Senate restored the funding and removed the strings. But this year it was different! Mainly because the Administration fumbled the process from beginning to end, and if it does that again next year, there might be some real cuts. On the other hand, maybe they'll get it sorted out and separate defence and foreign policy. (Since so much of the foreign aid money is going to funding Nato spending.) Also, steel strike maybe. Even the threat of a strike is bad for the economy, since they have to bank the furnaces, in case.
Calling up the Reserve Fleet" The decision to release 15 ships from the 2000 ship American Reserve Fleet has the U.S. tramp shipping industry, which lives on Federal subsidies, and the shipyards, which get a 40% subsidy to cover the price difference between American and European yards. But it will all be fine, because there is a shipping shortage and we need those 150 new American ships for the American tramp lines, and the U.S. government isn't going to hazard the agreementto build them. Robert Donovan's Eisenhower: The Inside Story, is election time controversy fodder due to the Administration's role in bringing the book about, while the slide in farm prices has cut spending in farm country to the point where we can talk about a "rural recession." Shorter Notes mentions the Administration asking the oil industry to honour a 900,000bbl/day limit on oil imports to maintain the price for domestic oil, and the announcement of the Convair jetliner, with 40 planes ordered by TWA and Delta.
"Party Politics in Canada" The Conservatives have been returned in New Brunswick, the Union Nationale in Quebec, and the CCF in Saskatchewan, showing that Canadian provincial governments have no difficulty being re-elected in these prosperous times. while the Federal Parliament is melting down. The Economist concludes that the Liberals should go to the polls, because they will no doubt be re-elected. A long Note about Nasser's attempts to negotiate a path between the Communist and Western bloc comes to no particular conclusions, but, if I take the drift of it correctly, Nasser is only getting as close to the Communists as their excellent terms on taking Egyptian cotton and loans for the Aswan High Dam demand. Ambitious European plans for expanding steel production will be challenged by shortages of pig iron and coking coal, but will no doubt be achieved. New Zealand is mad at American and now Canadian dairy (that is, butter) dumping. A UN mission investigating conditions on the islands to which the Marshall Islanders evacuated in consequence of the atomic tests finds that the islands are not very habitable and that they are not getting the support they need. The recent miners' strike in the Copperbelt is explained at some length. The usual issues of racial discrimination versus skilled labour are wrapped up in some opaque contract-related concerns.
Editorial takes on "Avionics Reliability vs. USAF Capability," noting that the Air Force is "taking on" the first piece of a new type of avionics equipment, for which development began in 1945. Tis very long development cycle "poses a problem of the first magnitude and presents a threat to our airpower capability" Major General Thomas P. Gerrity, the USAF's assistant (sic. "assistant chief of staff?") for production planning, told the Electronics Association this week. That's not actually in the title, but we get on to it pretty quickly, by which time from context it is clear that this "editorial" is a precis of Gerrity's talk, which turns out to be as vague throughout as was the first sentence. Unspecified electronic equipment is being delivered too slowly and is unreliable. Do better, industry! Who's Who tells me that General Gerrity joined the Air Force as an aviation cadet in 1940, and that he was born in 1913.
Industry Observer reports that the U.S. may launch as many as 12 Earth satellites during the IGY, that Cambridge Corporation is working on flexible cylinders of 0.002" stainless steel that would be ideal for balloon recovery of data from earth satellites, with aerodynamic heating turning water in the cylinder into steel and inflating it into a balloon, eliminating the need for a pressurised helium container in the cylinder as currently envisioned. The DoD promises that the Air Force will have 500 B-52s by October, 1958. ARDC has placed a $1.2 million contract with Electrodynamic of L.A. (i.e., us) for "magnetic tape instrumentation along the USAAF's planned 5000 mile missile test range" that extends from Florida to Ascension Island. The Army is investigating firing guided artillery rounds from helicopter platforms. The Army Corps of Engineers is establishing a lab to investigate "feasible" anti-missile measures at White Sands. AMC has ordered a reconnaissance version of the F-104 from Lockheed. General James Gavin reports that the Soviet Union has launched test missiles hundreds of miles in "some numbers." The USAF will not be allowed to base a squadron of C-124s in Europe. Sperry is developing a magnetic overheat and fire detection system that can go into any location on a jet aircraft. Ryan's X-13 VTOL is having problems with gyroscopic forces. The highest current efficiency on solar energy conversion applications has hit 12%, too low for aircraft but good enough for power in remote locations. Washington Roundup reports that Eger Murphree, Chuck Wilson's assistant for guided missile development, gave a talk to the American Rocketry Association that suggests that he knows nothing about rockets. Only 43-year-old major generals can get away with that! Assassinating his assistant done, the column turns to Wilson himself, who is just a terrible person, for example telling serving officers in the Washington area to consider maybe turning out in civilians to make the city look a bit less militaristic, the cad, the nerve! And when he's not doing that, he is crippling missile defence, being contemptuous of Congress, and contradicting the sainted Stuart Symington.
Robert Hotz reports for Aviation News on General Twining's visit to the Tushino airshow celebrating Soviet National Aviation Day. We've heard so much about this visit and Twining's findings in that oblique Economist style that it is good to have a story that stoops to reporting the tedious "five Ws" facts. This is, I think the first time that anyone has bothered to mention that the "Super Farmer" fighter is a conventional-tail delta. We are also told of a flyover by three different types of unidentified delta-wing all-weather fighters, one with an F-102-type vertical stabiliser and another with the "bottle" area-rule fuselage, and one, designed by one Pavel Sukhoi, had an extreme, 65-degree sweepback. Three assault transports, a swept-wing bomber the size of the B-57, a heavily-armoured army jet attack plane like a WWII Stormovik, and a Bear were on show, and a Gannet-style naval ASW plane. The transport version of the Bear said to be in development, was not. Twining also toured engine plants, including the one where the Soviet version of the Nene is made.
Katherine Johnson reports on the Senate vote for a boost in the Air Force budget. This is going to make The Economist next week, and since, as usual, I read it first, I will defer the comment to there. Johnson is much more detailed on the parliamentary manoeuvres and the partisan breakdown at various stages, but I don't think that that is necessary reporting here. The Senate has also told the Air Force not to develop the Talos in competition with the Army's Nike, and we get coverage of Air Force Press Secretary contradicting General LeMay's testimony on the "Bomber Gap," which seems pretty unseemly! The Russians have a giant transport helicopter in development, the Yak-24, Stuart Tipton wants a State Department review of industry practices in international conferences, L. I. doty reports on the Congressional probe into the Commerce Department's handling of the Tacan vs. VOR/DME situation, William Lear is in Moscow showing off a "specially instrumented" Cessna, the British proposal for a $141 million defence cut gets a paragraph, and the extension of the US missile test range as far as Ascension Island gets a very brief horse-before-the-cart story. News Digest has been moved down here, and reports very little of consequence (laboratory extensions, previously-contracted aircraft deliveries, maintenance and other subcontracts) apart from Belgium's purchase of Hawker Hunters and that the first KC-135 is almost ready for delivery.
Irving Stone reports for Production that "Electra Structure Reveals Refinement" That is Lockheed has an advertorial about how light and strong and economical the Electra's structure is, here's a very short design analysis. This is an excellent piece to run ahead of the news that Lockheed has sunk $19 million on plant expansion while Electra sales aren't exactly catching fire. Don't worry, shareholders, it's a quality product. Customers are going to come back from Fokker!
The McGraw-Hill Linewide Editorial identifies "The Shortage of Scientists and Engineers" as "A Threat to Economic Progress." It seems that better medicine and the baby boom mean more nonproductive citizens, requiring higher productivity from those who remain, and the limited supply of researchers is the "ceiling on growth."
"Russia's Growing Air Power" Western delegations visiting Russia have been invited to see the Bear, Badger, Bison, Farmer, and Flashlight. (Three Bombers and two Fighters.) All the new Russian planes seem very competently built. The Bear's turboprops are bigger than anything in the West, and seems to be capable of 500mph over a 4000 mile range, a better performance than the B-36, but still requiring a refuelling to bomb most of the continental U.S. The 4-jet Bison has better performance but a shorter range and seems distinctly inferior to the B-52, the plane that impresses the Russians most. The Badger is faster than the B-47 and Valiant, but inferior to the Vulcan and Victor. All these planes, Western strategists can reckon with, but there is disturbing news that the Reds now have a transonic bomber, comfortably faster than any British fighter available over the next two years. The Farmer is roughly in the same class as the American F-100. The Hunter is slower than either. The Flashlight is slower, but is a two seater with radar, which is kind of what you would expect of an all-weather fighter. No-one is sure how many planes the Russians, have, but one Russian source says that they have Bisons "pouring out their ears," which is impressive considering how thin the wings of some of the new Russian planes, like the Bears are. This is a difficult technical achievement, as the Americans well know. The Russian civil aeroplanes are also solid, but less technically impressive than the military aircraft, some of which appear to have wings twenty times as wide as they are thick. Overall, it's way better than in Britain because the Russians keep their designers in their place and expect them to work with what they've got and not waste their time on lots of unnecessary innovation. Also, the Commonwealth isn't just a talk shop, so shut up everyone who says so.
Business says it's going to hold prices down. Hear that, unions? The Economist has opposed capital punishment for a hundred years and still does, but not to the point of getting upset at the lords for rejecting the Silverman Bill, because something about how Labour might abolish the Lords, which would obviously be bad because the Lords are a democratic bulwark against the "aristocracy of the talents," which isn't a totally stupid thing to say because it's a quote from Chesterton, and he was a famous author. So what with one thing or another, capital punishment isn't going anywhere probably. The war scare on the Jordan-Israel border on 3 July turns out to be all due to the Jordanian factions fighting with each other and not due to the Israelis doing anything. The tripartite summit between Tito, Nehru, and Nasser last week was bad for reasons The Economist explains through the metaphor of three men on an ice floe causing it to melt away with their body heat. Someone warn the Eskimos! Britain has has a very important byelection, let's read the tealeaves. (Wiki. Seriously.) Figures for retention rates since the armed forces pay raise last February are not very encouraging for the plan to get rid of conscription in 1958. The RAF is doing a good job of retaining men in the radio branch, but otherwise there is every sign that the 200,000 regulars on strength are going to decline rather than increase, and the army will be particularly badly hit, being about halved once the end of the training commitment is taken into account. Anthony Eden should not visit Moscow, The Economist thinks, and Prince Sihanouk ought not have done so. The threat of a steel strike is receding but the threat of a motor strike is advancing! Also mines and railways are up or maybe down! What if the Gold Coast election is close? Will Britain have to send troops to enforce Nkrumah's rule over the Ashanti and the north? It's a bad business all around, which maybe someone should have thought about before they started in with all this colonialism!
A. Zaphorozhets of the Soviet Embassy writes to point out that the Soviet people are not ignorant,. and kept ignorant of Britain, that, in fact, books about Britain are published in Moscow all the time, and widely read. Since The Economist absolutely never talks through its hat, that seems unlikely! Godfrey Lias points that the Czech riots in 1953 were followed by the Berlin uprising, so the Poznan rising is being followed by official moderation because the Reds have some sense, and not because they've had a change of heart. S. H. C. Woodrych, who is something called the "National Correspondent of the Council of Europe" thinks that instead of all these European assemblies we should get over it and have a European parliament. S. E. Allchurch of the television maker's association explains that television in Britain is already taxed quite enough thank you very much.
Books
John Strachey, in Contemporary Capitalism, presents the obviously wrong modern Marxist interpretation of capitalism without falling into that modern Marxist way of expressing himself. That doesn't make less absurd his proposal that, by stimulating the economy with arms production, the modern capitalist states have put off the immiseration of the working class in response to democratic pressures from below, and that the next agenda for modern capitalism will be to do away with democracy. C. W. Ceram's Narrow Pass, Black Mountain is a fascinating book about a fascinating subject. The Economist just hates the title, and also the Hittites, who seem to The Economist an uncultured lot who deserved the obscurity they fell into after the fall of their Empire. L. S. Presnell's Country Banking in the Industrial Revolution sounds like a very worthy piece of financial historiography, with an exciting account of the Crisis of 1825 showing that the country banks weren't to blame. Virginia Cowles' Edward VII and his Circle establishes that the man and his friends were terrible. A. J. Ayer leads off a long list of distinguished contemporary philosophers assembled in The Revolution in Philosophy, which was a very "inside baseball" sort of revolution that now gets a very "inside baseball" book. Aileen Smiles, very appropriately has Samuel Smiles and His Surroundings, a readable and interesting biography by a grand-daughter that is not the definitive biography the reviewer thinks we need. But do we? I had to look up the name, and now I'm sure that because you lived through it you know all you need to know about the "unsmiling moralist." The Economist reassures publishers that it has received an annual handbook of world politics, a book about India's mineral wealth, and a treatment of the law of inland transport, and can't find anyone to review them entertainingly.
"Designs for Deterrence" The Economist can only pity Chuck Wilson, who had to testify before the Symington subcommittee for three days last week and was treated about how you'd expect after reading Aviation Weekly on the subject of his vast catalogue of crimes of non-expenditure, which are now to be repaired. You will recall the conclusion popularly drawn that the Russians would have about two Bisons for every American intercontinental bomber, and that this "Bomber Gap" was the only thing that mattered in the world confrontation of nations and ideologies, and that therefore the Congress gave the Air Force another $900 million, which Wilson declined to promise to spend, which led to the question of the constitutionality of his position, as opposed to the plain reason that the B-52 had the Bison beat all hollow and was expensive in proportion, and that a production of 20 a month would be reached in November, and how many B-52s did the country even need, and what about the Army, which hasn't enough air transport to lift a single division to some far away country to stop Communism without H-bombing said country and perhaps Communism entire. And speaking of fighting Communism worldwide, Nixon is off on a world tour of South Asia to explain the Administration's "Peace through global anti-Communist alliances" position to assorted countries that don't want to be allied with each other and aren't very bothered by global communism. The anti-trust case against GM ought to go nowhere on the facts, but politics might dictate otherwise. The defeat of the school bill in Congress leads The Economist to begin to suspect that there might be an effective reactionary wing in the GOP. But it can't be! The President is a moderate centrist!
Money matters (including a look at whether disinflation has led to falling consumption) dominate the first few pages, but there is an interesting look at why the British work force has grown so much more than expected in the last few years considering that it is supposedly a "full employment economy." It is because there are more women working, and they are invisible because they're not on the dole when they're not working, which might explain why unemployment isn't rising at the same rate that employment is falling. Car output maybe down 15% in Britain this year, 775,00 versus 900,000, leading to 19,000 layoffs, about 4% of the industry, which will soon rise to 57,000, or 12%. Layoffs will now follow in the tire industry, which will continue to rationalise as much as it can considering the demand for a wider range of tires in Britain than in the more standardised United States. And to the extent that this reflects higher interest rates and disinflation, mortgage rates are up, too! 100 octane gasoline is being sold more widely as "super petrol for super cars," as the Note title says. The Minister of Fuel has authorised the CEA to put up its first atomic power plant, at Bradwell in Essex, with three more to be started at various reasonably remote locations with good access to cooling water to follow, two in England and one near Glasgow. But Ulster, a natural choice from the point of view of access to coal, will not get one until the mid-Sixties, when demand on its grid will have reached the 2000MW/h required for efficient working. British exports are still solid.
"Competition in Civil Aircraft" George Edwards of Vickers-Armstrong, who, you would think, would know, says that the Americans have made such a success of selling trans-Atlantic jetliners that there is no way that the British can wedge themselves into the market without a dramatically new product, by which he means a supersonic airliner. This contrasts with the "guarded optimism" in the Lords over the future of the industry. The Economist agrees with the Minister of Transport. Get in there and compete with the existing planes, don't run away into the future! It turns out that the article on financing rayon's growth was riddled with errors, for which the editor apologises. More finance, the worrying trend of shipping companies to move their nominal headquarters to Bermuda, and declining attendance at the cinemas is a worrying trend for the industry.
The reason for the guest editorial last week is revealed as Robert Hotz's Editorial describes his visit to Moscow to learn about Aeroflot's drive to be a real international airline and also see all the fancy planes zoom by. What about those Sukhoi deltas?
Industry Observer reports that the Russians are readying a sales push for the Tu-104, that the MiG-17 seems to have three wing fences on each wing and a much larger air intake, that Russian airports have radar now, that Russian high octane gas uses a lot more lead than Western, and Russian spark plugs need softer points. People are wondering if Mikhail Gurevich has left the MiG design bureau, as there has been no mention of him on the news recently. Per Who's Who the man is 64. Let him enjoy his grandchildren! Long concrete runways are "in evidence" throughout western Russia, but the MiG-15 and MiG-17 can operate from improved grass strips, giving them greater mobility than USAF F-86 and F-84 squadrons. Radar control of Soviet airports is by GCA, and the Russians have an ILS system operating on a different frequency than Western types. Washington Roundup reports on the shock felt by all by the release of a Lt. General Gavin's testimony to the Symington Committee that the Army forecast hundreds of millions of deaths from fallout downwind from the Soviet Union in an atomic war, notably in Western Europe. NATO is shocked at the prospect, while Senator Henry Jackson is shocked that it was leaked. Meanwhile, the Army is testing a "Sky Cav II" unit in EXERCISE SLEDGE HAMMER at Fort Polk next February. Sky Cav I was light planes and helicopters for reconnaissance; the Army is "close-mouthed" about Sky Cav II, which is still highly classified, but there has been talk about the Kaman drone helicopter, which might be used with a television camera for forward reconnaissance. The Symington Committee is going to call Twining back to talk about the Bomber Gap some more, but some members seem a bit embarrassed about the committee's handling of Dan Quarles, and have praised his intellectual honesty and "very wise influence." The CAA has a working group off to see the Comet, Britannia, new model Viscount, and Caravelle as part of the effort to get them airworthiness certificates for the U.S., and not because the high season is starting.
Robert Hotz reports for Aviation News on Aeroflot's bold new expansion plans, while Katherine Johnsen gives us a more detailed account of the showdown between Wilson and Symington that, if you're reading sequentially, you've already heard about from The Economist. One again, Johnsen has more detail, including about a confrontation between Wilson and LeMay. Claude Witz reports that "Army May Buy European Aircraft, Engines" That is, they're going to buy a few items for evaluation, but are thinking seriously about the Napier gas turbines as helicopter engines and the Gyrodyne. The Army is also opening contract proposals for private primary helicopter training. Nes Digest reports that Ryan is going to make a helicopter "hovering detector" that prevents helicopter drift while hovering, that the French are ordering ten Tridents as an experimental group, that Avro is laying off 500 workers to stretch out work until CF-105 production begins, that Thai Airways has ordered three Super Constellations. Air Transport catches us up with the airlines' draft "No-Show" penalty program and has an article about traffic control issues in the Grand Canyon collision that is the first mention in Aviation Week of the worst civil aviation accident ever that happened 9 days ago per newsstand date. The Industry and its running dog lackey press, as the Reds would say, is not having a good week! Assorted congressional committees storming around demanding that the industry and the CAA fix air traffic control right now. Capital Airlines says that the Viscount is a great ship, BEA is extending its helicopter service into the Midlands, the latest ALPA revolt against Cliff Sayen continues.
David A. Johnston reports for Missile Engineering that "Corporal Gives the Army Nuclear Capability" The 1956 model V2 has power steering, power windows, chrome tail fins, and an atom bomb! (Which is even better than having a temper tantrum because you're going to swimming lessons, and a temper tantrum because you have to leave swimming lessons.) Also, it uses monoethyl aniline and fuming nitric acid as rocket fuel, which sounds like a great pair of chemicals to be next to an atom bomb. Buried deep behind this without a section change although an advertorial about Lockheed's new service base intervenes, is "Convair Improving F-102A for USAF." On an industry embarrassment rating scale, how does the F-102 compare with the Grand Canyon tragedy?
Production Engineering runs an advertorial from Martin about how it is working with big airframe forgings, specifically the 2500lb wing spar for the B-57, which is produced by the 18,000lb press at Bridgeport Brass and jury-rigged into place at Martin as beyond the capacity of its jigs as built. Philip J. Klass has to dress up an advertorial for a new vacuum tube being made for WADC by Eimac for Avionics. New Avionics Products has a centrifugal blower, some instruments, a transistorised servo amplifier with a 10,000:1 gain (John Oster), and lab equipment. Titanium Fabricators of LA have a stretch press, Orenda has a mockup of the Iroquois engine going into the CF-105, Lockheed is getting two big new computers[?] from IBM, said by the company to be two of only eight in existence. New Aviation Products has a "surface pulser" that provides stepwise adjustment of the control surfaces of test missiles with a motor that uses blank .22 cartridges firing alternately into an opposed-cylinder engine. Also, fridges, power units, a filter and an air blower for cabin air supply, a high altitude test chamber. Safety has a report on the Eastern Martin 404 runway overrun at Huntington, West Virginia last 15 January, which is attributed to blowing snow and poor visibility on a slippery runway.
A profile of Viscount Knollys, the new chairman of Vickers, a company on a publicity blitz to remind us that they make everything, not just turboliners. Hugh Gaitskell is in trouble with Fortune for saying that Labour would renationalise parts of the British transportation again to fix problems that admittedly need fixing (declining rail traffic and revenues, increasing truck traffic, rail depreciation, not enough roadbuilding), but not like that. India's Five Year Plan is bad because it is public spending on public works like irrigation and such, and might cause inflation. Latin Americans wish they could get more US tourist dollars and are doing various things like improving the Inter-American Highway, which should be finished as far as the Canal Zone by 1958. To the Canal Zone, you say. I think I might see the problem here!
Editorial joins the chorus on the subject of how "monetary policy" is good because driving unemployment up is the best way to "restore sound money." IBM's new plan to take on undergraduates at half-pay on the condition that they keep (start) working for IBM after graduation has everybody, including IBM, worried about escalation, so then IBM dropped it, and Fortune wants to know why. Isn't this what capitalism is all about? L&M Tobacco's new ad campaign to get Americans to stop worrying and "live high" by smoking L&M cigarettes had Fortune worried, but then the ad debuted opposite front page stories about H-bomb tests and "worry" is back in town! The CIT's Future of the World explains that in the years after 1975, the world might support 10 billion more people than the 2.5 billion of today, but they'll all be eating food yeast, algae, and kelp instead of meat, and Fortune is not impressed. Vacation insurance now offers protection against rain.
This seems like more of a "People Henry Wants to Have Lunch With:" issue than most, as we get another corporate/chief executive profile, this one featuring Joel Thomas of Goodyear. Then Charles Silberman looks at "The Fine Art of Raising Capital," inspired by considerable turbulence on the money markets this spring.
Your Loving Daughter and Mother,
Mama
The Economist, 7 July 1956
The leading Leader is about Marshal Tito's visit to Moscow, which will undoubtedly be a watershed in world history, discussed for decades to come, and also the rising in Poznan, which will no doubt be remembered as the moment in 1956 when de-Stalinisation went too far, and not some minor footnote in the history of some grander episode in Czechoslovakia or Poland or the Ukraine. The Economist, with its traditional grip on the historical dialectic, makes it an occasion to talk about "whither heavy industry in eastern Europe."
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| By DeFacto - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3609044 |
"The Reckoning for the Rhine Army" The BAOR is too expensive, and just got more expensive because the Germans have cut, although not eliminated, their subsidy, here is an explanation of the politics, here is handwringing about the cost of finding all those DM to pay for it. Next we are on about the Duke of Edinburgh's conference on "The human problems of industrial communities within the Commonwealth and Empire." It is to be a very wide-ranging and expansive conference about this and that.
Notes of the Week
Rebels on the Right?" Some Conservative backbenchers are upset at the increase in the Coal Board's borrowing limit and perhaps Cyprus, but they have been sternly told not to vote against the Government lest they bring in the Socialists, and will come to heel just like they did over the sale of the Trinidad Oil Company. As for what is going on in Cyprus, nothing is going on in Cyprus because the government can't make up its mind, and anyway now the Turks have put their oar in. "Both sides are sick of the annual hurly-burly of the farm price review." Readers,. too. Also in very worthy news, the annual Commonwealth premiers' conference is over and we are waiting with bated breath for the final communique. Lebanon is being much too nationalistic over negotiations for a natural gas or oil terminal in its country to serve the Trans-Arabian and possibly more pipelines. A steel strike might be on the way, and the Home Office is in trouble over its handling of "gangsterism and vice." It shouldn't wait on the Wolfenden Committee or deny the existence of gangs at racecourses or brothels and unreported aliens in our streets, and it needs to pay the police properly. Harrumph! Also, it should probably go easier on the foreign "rentiers" who want to live in London and take The Economist. The Economist then proceeds to tell us what it thinks is going onin Sudan with the sectarians and the political opposition and all. The Economist is happy with raising night school fees, which is controversial over there right now. The latest report show that London is developing wrong, with population growing faster in the outer ring than employment, leading to likely travel congestion in the future. Birmingham should solve its teacher shortage problem by putting up teachers in hotels or hostels or some such, and not by rationing teachers nationally or giving Birmingham teachers priority for council housing, which would be unfair. Mollet's government is not going to fall soon, but it is even more likely to fall later, considering the size of the tax increases to pay for the Algerian war already, and likely inflation to come. Revaluation of the DM is not on, for now. Japan continues to be something of an economic and political disaster in spite of the recent elections. Portugal and Spain are similar in that they have not-at-all Fascist government which have no idea how to arrange their politican succession, and also now American air bases.
From The Economist of 1856, an editorial celebrating the Commons' refusal to "interfere in the business of bleachers" on the grounds that their young female employees ("who always interest us") shouldn't have decided to be poor if they didn't want to work eighteen hour days.
Books
Letters
"Your Reviewer" is not impressed with Cypriots these days. K. J. fisher updates us on the Peruvian election. F. H. Copplestone, the President of the National Union of Students, updates us on the new youth hostel in London. J.S. E. Rindle of the British Electrical and Allied Manufacturer's Association deplores any attempt by British Rail to limit electrification domestically as undermining one of Britain's most successful export industries.
American Survey
John Foster Dulles is on about the imminent fall of Communism and Harriman is making a play for the Polish American vote. But nothing much is likely the happen. In the U.S., anyway. The main takeaway from the annual state Governors' conference is that Democratic Governors are backing
Stevenson against Harriman.
Stevenson against Harriman.
The World Overseas
"Party Politics in Canada" The Conservatives have been returned in New Brunswick, the Union Nationale in Quebec, and the CCF in Saskatchewan, showing that Canadian provincial governments have no difficulty being re-elected in these prosperous times. while the Federal Parliament is melting down. The Economist concludes that the Liberals should go to the polls, because they will no doubt be re-elected. A long Note about Nasser's attempts to negotiate a path between the Communist and Western bloc comes to no particular conclusions, but, if I take the drift of it correctly, Nasser is only getting as close to the Communists as their excellent terms on taking Egyptian cotton and loans for the Aswan High Dam demand. Ambitious European plans for expanding steel production will be challenged by shortages of pig iron and coking coal, but will no doubt be achieved. New Zealand is mad at American and now Canadian dairy (that is, butter) dumping. A UN mission investigating conditions on the islands to which the Marshall Islanders evacuated in consequence of the atomic tests finds that the islands are not very habitable and that they are not getting the support they need. The recent miners' strike in the Copperbelt is explained at some length. The usual issues of racial discrimination versus skilled labour are wrapped up in some opaque contract-related concerns.
The Business World
"Monetary Policy Now" Monetary policy is the proper and only way that a free market economy should be managed, and everyone who disagrees doesn't understand monetary policy. The Economist forgives those people, because it is too complicated for their pretty little heads.
"Can Airlines Compete?" No. International trans-Atlantic airlines are precious jewels which will wither away if made to compete. On the other hand, those Continental airlines running about places like "Munich" and "Paris" are some kind of cartel. Maybe we shouldn't be regulating fares?
A final major article looks at the difficulties the rayon industry is having in financing expansion during a trade recession, which they are doing because the market continues to expand.
Business Notes
Stock market down, balance of payments up, Coal Board borrowing up, mortgage interest rates hitting new highs, the sterling-dollar exchange rate on the Paris Bourse softening, the auto industry not necessarily contracting overall, Australia's new import restrictions no big thing, we didn't need them anyway. If car production is down, where is steel going, considering that the industry took 2 million tons last year? Nowhere in particular, as steel consumption hasn't fallen by nearly as much as the cut in car production would suggest. Various theories are proposed, sounding much more credible because of meaningful discussion of sheet, bar, wire, and strip steel; of droop forging steel, of nickel and other alloy steels, all of which must be considered separately. Financial matters are covered in numerous Notes, the most relevant for us being some intimation of future defence, which is to say, electronics cuts. British television producers have cut prices on tubes by about 25s/inch, perhaps because the Monopolies Commission is having a look in. Aristotle Onassis has ordered a 100,000t oil tanker through the Federal Maritime Commission, which will place the order in an American shipyard and so more than double the record for the largest tanker, and, in fact, ship.
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| Or at Kure, as it turns out. https://t2tanker.org/dk-ludwig/ships-built-by-daniel-k-ludwig-and-national-bulk-carriers/universe-apollo/ |
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| General Gerrity has a Wikipedia page illustrated with a boring portrait and containing the information that he was born in Harlowton, MT, which isn't much but photographs very, very well. |
Air Transport catches us up with the IATA vote to reduce Atlantic fares, the outcome of the DC6A leasing arrangement between the Navy, Slick, and Flying Tiger ("a great success"), and some airline stuff. Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint investigates the question of mid-air engine-cut practice in airline transport flights given the recent crash of a Viscount and an earlier DC6 crash. He is in favour of it, but understands that trainers aren't likely to agree given that they have to sit through it daily!
David Anderton reports for Missile Engineering on "Hypersonic Quest Yields New Techniques," which is a look at wind tunnels (new and old) with new instrumentation to capture gas dynamics at hypersonic speeds, particularly at WRDC, Cornell, California, and Princeton. There's a lot here, from a helium tunnel at Princeton to the gas guns being used at WRDC. Also, Senator Mike Mansfield wants yet another priority program to train scientists, and Robinson Aviation wants us to think about missile launching mounts when we think about missiles, and also all the other ways that shock mountings can be used in industry, give Robinson a call, he can take your business! Test instrument contractors have agreed to standardise on IBM pressure transducers.
Irving Stone reports for Production that "Electra Structure Reveals Refinement" That is Lockheed has an advertorial about how light and strong and economical the Electra's structure is, here's a very short design analysis. This is an excellent piece to run ahead of the news that Lockheed has sunk $19 million on plant expansion while Electra sales aren't exactly catching fire. Don't worry, shareholders, it's a quality product. Customers are going to come back from Fokker!
"Liquid Metal is Potential Igniter" Rocky Mountain Research has found that aluminum trimethyl, which is liquid at room temperature, ignites on contact with oxygen and might be used as a rocket fuel additive to maintain flame propagation at very high altitudes and speeds.
New Aviation Products reports a jet engine starter, a cabin heater, a propeller syncronisation tester, and a "pump for missile pressure," features a picture of the Mystere 24, and, speaking of mysteries, has a longer and fuller Also on the Market then the regular section. It's all test equipment, including a micrometer tester, which I did not know existed.
Philip J. Klass "reports" for Avionics on "How to Prepare Papers the Easy Way." Wait, I know the answer to this. You buy it from a shady customer behind the sorority Sunday at midnight! No, actually it is a primer on writing an advertorial Aviation Week won't be ashamed to run, a low bar the industry isn't clearing. There's probably a bit of tongue-in-cheek in there with a subsection on how to "Match Audience Passband," though. That's hard! More pictures is what I recommend.
New Aviation Products has a switch, a thyratron, a rate gyro, a power supply, and lots of vacuum tube components, plus five test instruments, three portable for field work.
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| Yes, skin sells blog subscriptions, but I have an important point to make about changing cultural mores! |
Letters
Joseph Adams of CAB liked the article about CAB (and the "trans-Atlantic fare battle.") C. W. Harris reminisces about the old days, before the war. Robert Trimble has a silly complaint about the serious issue of misleading airline ads. "USAF Captain" patiently explains to "Artillery Captain" why there is an Air Force to fly planes. "Name Withheld" agrees with "Bitter Engineer" that all this "Engineer shortage" talk is rot.
The Economist, 14 July 1956
Leaders
"The Curse of Mephistopheles" Labour had some kind of chat about policy and such, giving The Economist a good chance to be sarcastic about the Labour left for a bit.
"Opportunity in Europe" The Economist encourages Britain to enter the Common Market.
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| It seemed like a good idea at the time, and it's not like the Tu-104 sold! |
Notes of the Week
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| Sir Frank Sostice won in Newport with an increased majority, whereas just before at Tonbridge the Tory candidate won with a reduced majority. Does anyone know what's going on with the Right Honourable eyes in this picture? |
The modest Japanese electoral swing to the Socialists is another bad sign. All signs from Japan are bad! Everyone is glad that Britain gets to keep its bases in Ceylon under the new agreement, and everyone but Premier Strydom is happy that Britain didn't turn over the protectorates of Basutoland, Swaziland, and Bechuanaland, in spite of South Africa's very compelling argument that "We want it so much because otherwise we won't have enough land to oppress Blacks in." Clearly South Africa is going to try harder and might well succeed once the people of the protectorates see how much better Blacks have it in South Africa. Europe should get some pipelines! Turkey's "retreat from democracy" continues under Menderes, who has now just about gagged the press. There are rumours that the Soviets are just going to give Karelia back to Finland because "they have an affection for their tough little neighbour." That's what it says here, so don't look at me like that! When France isn't worrying about more important things, it is worrying about Euratom, because joining it might get in the way of the French Bomb.
I don't think this year's summer intern is going to work out.
Letters
Books
American Survey
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| 744 B-52s. You a crazy man, John Strachey! |
Steel strike maybe no. HUAC's decision to cite Arthur Miller for contempt comes in the wake of the decision to issue him a six-month passport so that he can accompany his wife (Marilyn Monroe, as you possibly and fortunately might need reminding), so in theory he could return in time to do a year in the pokey, not likely, but the damage to America's image in the world is already done. The rock shelf collapse at Niagara seems to have given some kind of impetus to the cause of collaborating with Canada on public hydroelectric power, over the objections of the usual sorts that hardly needs to be explained considering that they've bought the back page of Newsweek to explain it for them. A "fierce bill . . . directed against the illicit trade in narcotic drugs" that passed Congress this week is needed because "addiction to narcotic drugs is dangerous to the individual and 'contagious,'" and the cause of 50% of all crimes in the large cities of the United States. (It's also especially a Coloured problem, it is supposed.) Authorities are also worried about the abuse of amphetamines by housewives looking to lose weight and the possibility of barbiturate abuse.
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| It turns out that Bristol's future as an airliner manufacturer is not assured. |
The World Overseas
The lead article looks at China's "Second Revolution" of collectivisation." The second looks at the German SDP's troubles over the reintroduction of conscription. The third article is on the progress of Communism in Jugoslavia, and the third is about Diem's economic plans for South Vietnam. These seem like such important and worthy matters pregnant with future historical importance that I have taken the leisure of discussing them separately.
The new class of educated Bahraini aristocrats seem to want Bahrain to be a more modern and exciting place, and there are "storm clouds over the Gold Coat," as already intimated in Notes. Centrifugal forces are pushing the country apart, etc.
British Insurance, subject of a Special Report in this issue, is also of great importance, but a bit far afield of the remit of these letters.
The Business World
"Monetary Mechanics Now" The Economist goes on a bit further about how raising interest rates is the only, and sufficient mechanism for controlling open economies, so forget all those "open market" operations to control the amount of money in circulation. They never mattered, and still won't in the future. The half-year review of business accounts indicates that with one thing or another, dividend pickings will be slim this year.
Business Notes
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| Sure, argue with George Edwards. What does he know? |
The reason for the guest editorial last week is revealed as Robert Hotz's Editorial describes his visit to Moscow to learn about Aeroflot's drive to be a real international airline and also see all the fancy planes zoom by. What about those Sukhoi deltas?
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| The Royal Artillery got it too! |
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| Why yes, this does completely contradict the received historical record , thanks for asking! |
Letters has what is hopefully the last word on the spat between WADC and industry over the standardised fastener, from Frank Pachmayer of Pachmayer Corp, and a long letter from Name Withheld on poor compensation for engineers in the aviation industry.
Letters
Letters
Lyndon Johnson complains that the questionnaire on economic policy sent out to Democratic Senators was a "When did you stop beating your wife?" situation. Fortune's point that readers might not trust current work in motivation research once they find out that none of it has been "scientifically validated" is contested by Glenn Beyer, who is a motivation research guy. G. H. Westry of Seismograph Services Corp is upset that Fortune called him some kind of spy, to which the Editor replies that G. H. Westry said it first! The editor of Labor World catches out Fortune for misattributing a quote to it. S. G. Lippman of the Retail Clerks International Association catches a less serious error (name captions on two photographs accidentally swapped.) Not a good month, Fortune!
Business Roundup
That recession we were worried was going to happen is already over!
The Business Globe reports that everyone is "rediscovering the importance of monetary policy as a means of curbing --or stimulating-- economic activity," the problem being to decide when to do it, which thought introduces the argument going on in Germany now.
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| Just reading a bit on H-Announce about some dude who is a historian of racial capitalism. Obviously racial capitalism is a big deal, but sometimes it seems to me like radical left historians could be tackling bigger issues like this complete bullshit reinvention of financial history. Hugh Dalton "used the discount rate." He used it to "euthanise the rentier," maintain full employment, and pay down the war debt. Those are good things that need doing, and the elephant in thr room is the income tax marginal rate, not inflation. |
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| From "Will Return After Labour Day," an article about how rich Americans go away and live in summer-only mansions for two months. Because Calvinism, you see. |
Editorial joins the chorus on the subject of how "monetary policy" is good because driving unemployment up is the best way to "restore sound money." IBM's new plan to take on undergraduates at half-pay on the condition that they keep (start) working for IBM after graduation has everybody, including IBM, worried about escalation, so then IBM dropped it, and Fortune wants to know why. Isn't this what capitalism is all about? L&M Tobacco's new ad campaign to get Americans to stop worrying and "live high" by smoking L&M cigarettes had Fortune worried, but then the ad debuted opposite front page stories about H-bomb tests and "worry" is back in town! The CIT's Future of the World explains that in the years after 1975, the world might support 10 billion more people than the 2.5 billion of today, but they'll all be eating food yeast, algae, and kelp instead of meat, and Fortune is not impressed. Vacation insurance now offers protection against rain.
The lead article is the response by seven leading Democrats to Fortune's survey: "The Economics of Seven Democrats." This is followed by a corporate profile of Uncle Henry's aluminum interest, which gets most of the great Fortune pictures, and also the "science" splash page, which has very few technical details this month, and one about "The Great Back to Work Movement," as Fortune once again celebrates how some heiresses, trophy wives, and matriarchs are returning to work in very good jobs for very high pay (Ronnie blushes, looks off into horizon in hopes that everyone follows her gaze). And also regular women who have terrible jobs, I guess they count, too.
In all seriousness, it's a pretty good look, in a "view from a mountaintop" way, of the sociology of female employment, and if I had to take anything away, it is that there will be a surge of female employment in the Sixties as the women who left the work force to raise their children after WWIi return to work, and the main impact will be on clerical and office work, since women show a preference for that, and also because they have the most potential to disrupt existing sex balances of labour there.
This seems like more of a "People Henry Wants to Have Lunch With:" issue than most, as we get another corporate/chief executive profile, this one featuring Joel Thomas of Goodyear. Then Charles Silberman looks at "The Fine Art of Raising Capital," inspired by considerable turbulence on the money markets this spring.
C. R. Smith of American Airlines, in "What the Airlines Expect from the 1961 Jet Fleet" The airline industry explains why Fortune's belief that the jetliner market is oversold is out to lunch. Smit really does make the article look sloppy, for example noting that it assumes that no equipment will be retired over the next five years! He also inadvertently underlines just what a dirty trick it was when the CAA allowed the American airlines to cheat on the 8 hours in the air rule so that the DC7 and Super-Constellation could run non-stop New York-LA flights that only the Britannia, Vanguard and Comet 2(!) could actually fly in less than eight hours.
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| "Automation is already serving you." |
"Medicine at a New Frontier" Fortune read the American Foundation's Medical Research: A Mid-Century Survey," and wants to tell us about it. Linus Pauling tells us that the big thing is understanding the molecular structure of proteins, the Foundation has more to say about the science at the frontiers of research, but also identifies the big nine unsolved problems of medicine in a second volume of the report. Those are cancer, infertility, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, rheumatic syndromes, tuberculosis, viruses, chronic alcoholism, and schizophrenia. Each of the specific conditions gets a brief treatment of the research horizons, but at the head of it, the Foundation editorialises that the greatest progress will come through understanding the basic physical processes of life. A full electrodynamic theory of molecules will be enormously helpful but also takes medical research into the fields of chemistry and physics. (With psychology sometimes coming up, too.)
There's also box stories about an insurance guy who targets undergraduates ("college men") because they are good risks, and one about author William Kennedy and artist William Box, who are knocking around the country selling funny greeting cards until they make it big.
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| Appropriately enough for the month that secular stagnation returns, Fortune's graphics department explain the bond market, as opposed toa new technology. |
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