Techblogging October, 1944, I: Back to the Beginning, I

Wing Commander R_. C_. RCAFVR, DFC (Bar),
L_. House,
Isle of Axholme,
Lincs.

Dear Sir:

You may be surprised to have this missive from Santa Clara rather than Honolulu, but before we flee such winter as northern California (or October) has to offer for the sunny climes of Hawaii, we have word of obstacles to our progress.

First, Lieutenant A., with the surpassing silliness of a young man, is carrying the vital documents on his person at all times. Once again I wince with embarrassment at how much damage those awful novels have done our family by so exaggerating our powers. If I could send master assassins equipped with the poisonous fruit of Oriental knowledge, you know that I would.

Well, I might actually hesitate, fearing recriminations from our little housekeeper and "Miss V.C." It amazes me that they maintain such a friendly relationship when they are romantic rivals. Unless. . .No, I shan't finish that thought just now. It would just be too perfect. Though I will arrange to have our housekeeper along with us in Hawaii. Let it only be said that I have more arrows in my quiver than one in appealing to the young lieutenant's better nature. Since, much as I would enjoy it, I can hardly unleash assassins against him under Admiral Nimitz's roof!

 In any case, the documents are on the young man's person, and it turns out that the Pacific Headquarters are to be embargoed imminently. I have it on good authority that the embargo will be lifted on the eighteenth, after which we will be able to approach him there, given introductions which I am sure I can arrange. But you must not breathe not a word of this, lest Japan's spies in Lincolnshire succeed in discovering the date of the invasion of the Philippines, where her legion in Honolulu has failed.

So our departure is delayed, and, our young people have to buckle down to their studies. I have not had to be polite to the Engineer, because for a miracle Uncle Henry has not seen fit to entertain us. Fontana is, at least for the moment, on the back burner as he entertains his dreams of mass-produced helicopters. Not that the current breed of helicopter enthusiast is much better than the Engineer! I long for the whole project to collapse (which is probably what is going to happen, of course), just so that my old age is spared anything so awful as the current Ford Motor Company advertising campaign that relentlessly attempts to persuade Fortune readers that Henry Ford invented the gas engine, or the  assembly line, or good wages.  I suppose that he could make a case for inventing cheek, but this has little to do with the helicopter-mongers and their outrageous hyperbole.

"GRACE."


Flight, 5 October 1944

Leaders

“Private Flying” Colonel Fitzmaurice, in an article in this issue, talks about the obstacles that must be overcome before private flying is “within reach of the ordinary man of moderate means and average intelligence.” Flattery will get you everywhere, Colonel Fitzmaurice! In the event, the paper thinks that private flying is closer to yachting than motoring, and so much for the Colonel’s recommendations. It will still print his article, however, and there is a place for promoting small airports.

“Arnhem” Half a league, half a league, half a league. . . Although the paper is pleased that the troubles at Arnhem aided the taking of the bridge at Nijmegen.

“Guarding the Hump Line” The paper is pleased that General Slim has been knighted. Because aircraft were involved!

War in the Air

The withdrawal of 2000 men, and the loss of 5000, in Arnhem, means that the Allies still have the “various branches of the Rhine” in front of them, and are not yet debouching on the German plain, and neither is Holland yet liberated. Instead, a grinding fight is ahead, with the Canadians have just taken  Calais and the guns of Cape Gris Nez, and the German Air Force little seen. There is also a fight ahead holding the Nijmegen corridor, and it is here that German aircraft have been seen, showing the importance of the fighting. These include jet-powered aircraft, of which the paper notices the Me 262 “Swallow,” as well as the Tempest, apparently not a secret now in Britain. Bombing of German towns and factories is underway, too.

Here and There

Air Commodore Whittle has another honour to console himself with. Pan American intends to run a twice daily San Francisco-Hawaii service with landplanes, and expects to fly 100,000 passengers a year on this route and a parallel one from Los Angeles.  Southerners all over Waikiki. What a price to pay for a February vacation in Hawaii! I imagine a Canadian service from Vancouver cannot be far behind.

   

“Fair Winds” An RAF Lancaster of Transport Command has just established a new record from the Bahamas to Montreal. I did not know that there was a record to be beat, but this, too, is a sign of things to come.

“American Comment” The paper notices Business Week  as saying that it is “common knowledge” that the Russians stripped the P-39 of armour and just about everything else that would come off to increase speed, ceiling and manoeuvrability. I suppose the point is that we are to be struck by an American contemporary admitting that the P-39 was less than satisfactory.

“Cause. . . and Effect” Lord Brabazon is upset that our manufacturers have given the Americans a two year lead in producing civil aircraft, with the effect that the Australians are buying Douglas airliners.

E. Burgess, “Jet Propulsion and Adiabatic Expansion: Theoretical Jet-Velocities at Various Temperatures and Pressures” A series of theoretical curves showing same. I suppose that it is useful for jet engine designers to have parameters in front of them, but then the question is how many jet designers there might be to use them. I suppose that the answer is “many,” and that we shall soon have as many jet engines competing for our attention as we have helicopters now.

“Complete Power Units: A Reminder that Bristol Radial Air-cooled Engine “Eggs” Were Produced Twenty Years Ago” Lord Brabazon recently made comments that might have been taken to imply that no air-cooled engines in the form of complete power units were currently available in this country. Bristol Aeroengines is very upset with the master of Tara, and wishes to have words with him. As soon as it is finished grinding the sleeve valves of this engine back into true on this high-power lathe.

James C. Fitzmaurice, Col. (Retd.), “Post-war Private Flying:” Great Britain’s Wonderful Opportunity: Converting the Air-Conscious Citizen into an Air Enthusiast”  It’s at least no less likely to happen this time around than after the last war. The paper has the last word by putting a short summary article about the Civil Aeronautics Administration report on “Injuries in Light Plane Crashes” at the bottom of the last page of the article.

“Pathfinders” The Pathfinders will have a “Pathfinders Association” after the war, with a nice regimental tie and long, boozy reunions stretching down the decades into the distance future of the 1970s and 1980s, when there are no more Britons, and wolves howl through the deserted wildwood where London now stands. If we are worrying about that “depopulation” stuff this week. If that seems a morbid thought, the paper adds a little article about “No More N.Z. Airmen for Europe,” and that reminds me of that old engraving.

Source

Correspondence

F. J. B. thinks that people who get confused about relative and absolute wind velocities are idiots. R. F. Simms explains the influence of gravity on the function of down-draught and up-draught carburettors in a similar way, although in a more restrained tone. Geoffrey Cooper (Sqdn Leader, A.A.F.) has strong opinions about railways and civil aviation. C. H. Potts thinks that there is “no future for diesel” in civil aircraft engines. He sounds rather more reasonable here than when his is using cooked numbers to compare British engines unfavourably to American, not that he needs the numbers, given that the British engines in the running are all impractical sleeve valves and liquid-cooled types. Someone else predicts “aerocars,” and an attached book review proposes that we should use air power to keep the peace in future via a combined air force of the four great powers which will periodically raid Japan, Germany, and other potential future aggressors and blow up their mountain top houses and granaries. It worked on the Northwest Frontier, after all!

Studies in Aircraft Recognition

Gives us the Hamilcar.

The Economist, 7 October 1944

Leaders

“More Perfect Union” Europe should be more united, with free trade and such.

“Real Estate” The government is rebuilding London on an emergency basis, doing up housing and planning bills, and pushing out a White Paper on Full Employment that will deal with industry location and thus redistribute population around the country in job lots. You’d think that all of this vigour and activity would render the Government immune from criticism, but not a bit of it. The paper has concerns. For example, a separate Ministry of Housing would be a bad idea for some reason. It’s giving in to public opinion, maybe? The official stationarywould be ugly, because capital “H” is an ill-bred letter? The paper is especially appalled that the White Paper won’t talk about what kind of planning will be done, and by whom. Planning! Local government reform! Accurate forecasts of housing demands over the next thirty years! A complete financial plan for paying for it! A solution to the problem of demand for improved housing causing prices to rise! A plan for dealing with future unemployment when the building industry retrenches at some future date! We need all of that.

“A Policy for Wealth, VII: Managers and Distributers” Last week we covered the need for science and engineering to make up for the fact that average British productivity per labour hour was so much lower than American. The paper pointed out that British managers don’thave enough scientific training. But the question arises as to whether they have management training. Are they efficient, in other words? No, only an optimist would think that the average British management was as efficient as the average German or American. “Indeed, the proof can be found in the pervasive spread during the last two decades of protection and safety first, of organised restriction and subsidised stability. Efficient industrial entrepeneurs, who took pride in their powers, would scorn such resorts of the inferior.” This is what is known in mathematics as the method of “proof by random stringing together of words.” It is supposed that while in Britain companies have boards of directors who are disengaged amateurs, in Germany and America, they are expert consultants who enable scientific management. More British managers should be scientific, in the German sense. Also, distribution. It can be inefficient. For example, there is too much advertising in the wrong places. For example, opposing billboards extolling rival brans of beer are a waste of precious national resources worthy of a few paragraphs of comment in the paper. “On dune and headland/Sinks the fire"

Notes of the Week

“Events and Hopes” We have to accept that the war in Europe will go on well into 1945.

“The Second Fall of Warsaw” Also, “Polish Test” The insurrection in Warsaw and its outcome are heartbreakingly sad, and an opportunity to wax political at the same time. The paper tends to minimise criticism of Moscow compared to some.

“Civil Aviation” Oh, for God’s sake.

“the Bretton Woods Debate” There is to be a parliamentary debate, so that

“Civil Aviation” Oh, for God’s sake.

“The Bretton Woods Debate” There is to be a parliamentary debate, so that’s actual news. Also, the paper does its best to explain that it is not, “Is it the Gold Standard,” and addresses the Chancellor’s "First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Bilateralists." These bits of actual news and attempted explanation aside,  see above.

“Asylum for the Axis” If we abuse the Argentines enough, they will surely not accommodate war criminals who come to them bearing gold. On the other hand, Eire and Portugal have not yet been sufficiently vocal in denying Axis officials refuge.

Greeks are excitable. And Bulgars of Greek nationality. Balkan countries being invaded by the Russians are excitable. With more excuse.

“The TUC’s Programme” The paper cannot read it without being vastly bored. Literally! That’s what they say! No pot-and-kettle self-awareness at all! (I'm not boring you, am I, sir?) There’s several other bits about unions and unemployment and unions and industrial organisation, too.

“Six Month’s Finances” Income tax receipts are up remarkably due to pay-as-you-go, and so are customs and excise, “ominously,” because they show what extraordinary measures will have to be taken to contain spending after the war. Also, the paper dives further into the tea leaves to detect incipient inflation.

Letters to the Editor

E.  Raymond Streat of the Cotton Board will not take the paper’s abuse of the Cotton Board lying down. Also, something about the German peace terms.

American Survey

“Stock-Taking in the Mountain States” By Our Correspondent in Colorado. Various persons of great importance gathered in Laramie to agree that the Mountain states were much hard done by in the recent war, and various measures should be taken to relieve their suffering, notably protection against Latin American beef imports and something about mining. OCC implies that the one beneficial outcome of the conference is that some participants were willing to accept that “the post-war economy cannot fully satisfy the extremist,” and that the region, like the nation, “must be prepared for a drastic change in its economic outlook if it is to survive and grow.” Survive?

I think that OCC is trying to suggest that there will be a postwar trading depression.

American Notes

“Slugging it Out” There is, apparently, a Presidential election in America this year, and Governor Dewey has said some things about the President and his Administration. PM Magazine is amusing itself and its readers by collecting “Dewies,” which is to say, statements capable of easy refutation while the Hearst papers are offering prizes for anti-Administration limericks, which are required to include the phrase, “Clear it with Sydney.” Voter turnout is expected to be low, and this will favour the Republican chances. The President has 52% of the vote right now, but it is supposed that since he will pile up votes unopposed in the South, he is actually running behind. The paper supposes that the Coloured vote will defect from the President to Dewey on the strength of an endorsement of the latter by the Pittsburgh Courier.

“Economic Policy” The Administration has agreed that the Morgenthau plan to root up German industry was stupid. I do not begrudge any Jew’s desire to see Germany levelled from end to end at this point. The problem is that it is bad policy to set fire to your neighbour if you live in an apartment building. Also, loans to buy American imports might help European countries rebuild –and Britain, too.

There is more talk of the “G.I. Bill of Rights,” now in connection with those returning veterans who might want to homestead. There is also talk of steel wages, with labour wanting a guarantee of no loss of wages with the reduction from the 48 to the 40 hour week.

The World Overseas

“Between Rhine and Oder” The Oder-Neisse line might well be the eastern frontier, the Rhine definitely not that in the west. This will render Germany even more dependent on food importsthan it is already as it will lose the great eastern estates. On the other hand, various industries are examined to show that Germany must import, and export for the country to function.

“Cacao Research,” By Our Correspondent in Accra. Gold Coast is doing quite well in cacao right now, making solid inroads on an industry once dominated by the Western hemisphere. But there are clouds on the horizon, and eventually the country will run out of bush land to put to use for new plantations, and have to rehabilitate the old ones, and what if the prices fall? Research is needed, and also talking about talking about planning.

The Business World

“the Future of British Shipping” For the purposes of the family interest, the first half of this article is the meat of it, unfortunately postwar rate structures, subsidies, and “international” control is all up in the air, and the article doesn’t repay the attention invested in its survey of the clouded horizon. The second half, which treats building, is interesting from an engineering point of view. According to Fairplay (and I wonder too whether I should bother to summarise this when the Earl takes that paper), the cost of building a ship has risen from £13 6s 8d per ton in 1939 to about £22 at the end of 1943. Reconstruction of a fleet with a war deficit of 5 million tons deadweight is going to rise above £100 million not counting worn-out tonnage. This is likely to be beyond the financial powers of the British industry and require a government subsidy. Or more work will go abroad, to Hong Kong and, I hope, Canton. Noticeable here in this section of the paper is the lack of worship of American technical and managerial-scientific efficiency.  We know how much it costs to build ships in America, and it is too much, even though their shipyard workers are so much more efficient than hours in output per hour. (And yet require so much more labour to actually build ships.. Which makes sense from the point of view of measuring productivity by  value of output, but raises paradoxical questions.)

Business Notes

“Coal Black-Out” And now we return to the theme via an indirect route. The Minister, Major Lloyd George, has reiterated that a serious shortage that will effect war production and cause civilian distress is imminent. It is known that output per man and voluntary absenteeism is up since the wage agreement. What is not known is the monthly output, which has  been suppressed for security reasons. Surely this need is past. Also, the government should publicise the report of the American Mining Mission, which presumably has been left unpublished because it would hurt feelings. “The American experts’ suggestions for improving the efficiency of the industry are of too great an importance for their report to be confined to a narrow circle.”

“Full Technical Efficiency” In case you were wondering what those recommendations might be, the minister announced the formation of a committee on how to bring the industry to “a state of full technical efficiency.” The committee consists of a group of colliery managing directors and managers. The paper thinks the absence of “outside experts” and “representatives from the highly efficient Nottinghamshire collieries” are not included. “The exclusion of any representatives of the miners from the committee is presumably to be explained by the desire to keep technical questions separate from politics.”

“Idle Markets” The stock market has been very idle, sitting in its familiar place at the bar, nursing a pint, occasionally playing a round of billiards, when it should be  bearing or bulling, whichever one is good. (I can never remember.) This might be  because it is now expected that the war is going to go on for months yet, so what is the point of it all, anyway?

“Meeting the External Debt” Will be hard, says the Chancellor of the Exchequer, but our credit is good, because we are hard working and determined to achieve full technical efficiency.

“Repair of Bomb Damage” We  have taken the first steps to repaid bomb damage –by limiting the amount that can be done through licensing. Local government can license repairs in the £10-100 range, while Ministry approval is required to spend more than £100.

“Census of Production” Will  help us achieve full technical efficiency. Also, the Board of Trade might fold its census in with other census-taking organs of government, as is done in America, so that census-taking achieves full technical efficiency.

“’Can Pac’ Wages Award” The Canadian wage settlement was generous, and will have an impact on share prices and dividends to British Canadian Pacific shareholders.

“Oil and Dollars,” and “US Mexican Oil Settlement” This oil thing is going to turn out to be quite important.

“Bulk Purchase” The government has decided to make bulk purchases of large quantities of foodstuffs extending out four years in Australia.

“Wheat Supplies” The Ministry of Food has ordered the rate of extraction of flour from wheat reduced from 85 to 82 1/2%, for, since the increase in the extraction rate was ordered two years ago, the United Kingdom has enjoyed two very good wheat crops, and the increased imports seem bearable, and will not impact the international wheat supply, which, in spite of abnormal demand, has increased into general surplus. The North American crop may reach a record total, and the French, Italian and Balkan crops have all been high. Even if the southern hemisphere crop is poor, we will not see a great reduction of the current surplus, and since the amount of land planted will increase in 1945, in the absence of weather catastrophes, the supply will be good next year, too.

“Deflation in Belgium” Belgium intends to put a currency reform in place in Belgium that will significantly deflate prices in order to hit an exchange rate of 166 ½ to the pound. France is not doing this, even though plans were put together for such an undertaking, for political reasons, of which the paper evidently disapproves.

Holland is seeking credits, and the County of Fife and various industrial concerns are converting their bond issues. There has been a slight improvement in the market for Argentinian securities due to improvements there. Agreements on international seamen’s wages, South African gold miners’ wages, and caterers’ wages is achieved or at hand. Plans for developing the town of Barrow-in-Furness are announced.

Flight, 12 October 1944

Leaders

“Good Bombing” The Dortmund-Ems Canal has been breached, four years after the first breaching, by Bomber Command Hampdens, which earned Flight Lieutenant Learoyd a Victoria Cross.

 This time, 96 Lancasters armed with 12,000lb bombs attacked it, and 14 were lost.

The paper explains why it was worth the effort. Also breached were the Westkapelle dykes on the island of Walcheren, as part of the campaign to open up the port of Antwerp.

“The Liberation of Greece” The Greeks are excitable in ways that involve aircraft.

“A Minister for Civil Aviation” The paper notices Lord Swinton’s appointment, noting that Lord Beaverbrook washed his hands of the appointment, and that Lord Swinton cannot possibly be fully briefed in time for the forthcoming Washington conference on postwar civil aviation.

War in the Air

The Lancaster attack on the Tirpitz was not intercepted for lack of fighters. That will teach the Germans for not coming out and having a good old set-to that will help us forget about Jutland. (Remembering, with a smile, Uncle George commandeering the after-dinner crockery to redeem Evan-Thomas,condemn Beatty, and defend Jellicoe.) The B-25 has enough machine guns in its nose to satisfy even a sixteen-year-old. Airborne artillery looks charmingly like a pug dog, all pushed-in, puppylike belligerence. We have bombed Berlin and Darmstadt, and landed troops in Greece.

Actual conversation that people really said: Scottish troops to Typhoon Squadron: “Well done! You have completely demoralised the Hun. We are going in to attack!” Surrendering German troops to Scots: “We can stand shelling or machine-gunning, but no more Typhoons.”

“Fighting in the Dark: Something of the Work of Night Fighting: Study in Co-operation” Our might-fighters began to be effective in the fall of 1940, and have gotten better since, thanks to “Hush hush radio gadgetry.” So, if you were wondering, radar is secret this week. (I imagine that it is secret, as a practical antenna design for an aircraft would seem to imply a radio wavelength far too small to be produced by a vacuum tube, but what do I know?)

Here and There

Mr. Bruce Foster, formerly of the paper, is now to be secretary of the Australian Council of Aeronautics, and also of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Division of Aeronautics. The first Indian Air Force Cross has been issued to F/O. D. F.Eduljee, of Fyzabad, United Provinces. American contemporary Air News reports that the secret HawkerTempest V has the not-secret 2200 Napier Sabre engine. The 30,000^th airlifted casualty reached the United Kingdom from the Western Front this week. An RAF Transport Command York made a turnaround of 65h 23 minutes England to India and back, 51 hours flying time. The Indian Air Force is to have Spitfires. There are B-29 bases in India, and automatic gun turrets on B-29s. BOAC is to fly direct to Lisbon soon. The American WASPs are to be disbanded on December 20^th because the Americans have too many male pilots. American Aviation reports that “large quantities of the new Bell high-altitude fighter, the P-63 Kingcobra, are being sent to Russia.”

“Incidentally,” a C-54 Skymaster recently completed a London-Washington non-stop flight in 18h, equivalent to 211mph. London to Washington. Admittedly, “recently” must mean the summer high season, and 18 hours is beyond the endurance of any civil passenger, but that is beyond remarkable. For all of the tedium of talking about civil aviation, this brings home how much our world has changed.

“Continental Miscellany: Observations from a Visit to Some Advanced Airfields and Recent Battlefields in Western Europe, by John Yoxall, our War Correspondent at S.H.A.E.F.” I write out the full title and attached byline because I am so relieved that Mr. Yoxall is not the now-mysteriously silent correspondent who despatched from his plane above Arnhem. I am sure that the paper would have told us if said correspondent were lost, but I had still worked myself up into a tizzy over the young man, but he is, apparently, fine and has gone to see Le Bourget, Evere airfield in Brussels, and fighters, including the Me 262, in their native environment –the front. He notices that the long-ranged Mustang has been very useful in “short-range” tactical work, as the front has advanced so quickly that it has actually outpaced the Spitfires and Typhoons on occasion. He is pleased with rocket-firing Typhoons, the relative accuracy of our heavy bombing of French marshalling yards and the effiency of air supply to the army. Most Spitfires at the front are IXs, with the new gyro sight, operating the high altitude Rolls-Royce Merlin LXI engines.

“The Handley Page Hermes” Great Britain’s new, fully pressurised commercial aircraft is a “typical Handley Page piece of trash,” as someone put it to James, once, albeit of the Hampden, or possibly some oddly-named variant. I am sure that the Hermes overcomes Sir Frederick’s organisation’s dodgy reputation. And it is certainly good to hear that the company has produced a fully-pressurised type.

“Per Person per Trippe”

Pan-American has drastically cut fares on its Latin-American routes, the better to drive Eastern out of the market.

Behind the Lines

Focke Wulf 190s attacking American bomber formations may be equipped for ramming. The Japanese claim to have developed a version of the Mosquito[?]. Japanese aircraft production has doubled, declares Lieutenant General Endo, celebrating the “Day of the Japanese Air Force,” and inventors around Japan are called upon to submit their ideas for overcoming industrial bottlenecks. German air correspondent Mr. Zeppelin, announces that the German Air Force has made a comeback, powered by “weapons technically far in advance of the planes now in the air.” German sources announce a 24 cylinder liquid cooled engine with 2700hp output, a two-row radial with a swept volume of 60 litres, 2600hp, a 12 cylinder inverted V-12 with a 1900hp output, a 24 cylinder H-of 54 litres, 2400hp. So much for standardising and reducing production types! Germans are also producing charcoal-burning cars. (Actually, everyone is producing them. Or, at least, tractors, here in California. They're an awful bother, but some of the orchardists prefer not wasting gas. Watching them fiddle with the things makes me feel a bit guilty when I'm out driving.)

“Australia’s Inland Flying Boat Base” Is a 4000 acre lake in Victoria. I did not know that Australia had lakes? It is for fitting and repairing Pacific flying boats out.

Studies in Aircraft Recognition

This week, the Bell P-63 Kingcobra, for some reason. It is shown in the American livery it will never wear.

Correspondence

A. H. Curtiss wants to talk about the old days. Eric Lorraine Adlem wants to talk about postwar civil aviation, and Arthur C. Clarke, of the British Interplanetary Society, wants to talk about old-time rocketry experiments.

Pocket book reviews of Squadron Leader William Simpson’s long recovery from burns suffered in action, includingan account of his plastic surgeries. Aerosphere1943 is reviewed. But this is all to be complete, since what I want to mention is Captain Norman MacMillan’s the Royal Air Force in World War 2, Volume 2, the latest by the occasional contributor to the paper, which covers the Battle of Britain. The paper thinks that this is premature, and explains why: the serious historian of the battle will want to know orders of battle, with squadrons listed by Group, the type of aircraft they were flying, the system of reinforcements, the tactics used, and so on. These, the paper notices, have not yet been cleared for publication, so this history is premature. Of course, this much goes without saying. The dispiriting part is that the world is not going to wait for all the details to form its picture of the Battle of Britain. It needs to make sense of it right now. And so a picture of the Battle, and all the other events of this war, wil be formed long before we have the information to actually make sense of it. And by the same token, by the time we have the facts, the immediacy of the experience will be long lost to us. I am sure that the historian who ventures to bridge the gap and put the two back together will be enormously pleased with himself!

Major F. A. de V. Robertson, V.D., “Air Power in Burma” I am going to take a wild guess that an article about the Tempest was spiked again, so the paper decanted Major Robertson to fill a few pages with a summary of the war news from Burma. You need not trouble yourself with the thought that he actually went out to the front and did reporting!

“Airborne Lifeboats” Are something to talk about this week.

Mr. H. Burroughes and Mr. R. H. Dobson have been elected to the board of directors of Hawker Siddeley. Both are old aviation industry hands. So not like most corporate directors, then. Mr. Dobson is managing director of A.V. Roe, for example.

“More American Helicopters” Features the Hiller and the Platt-le Page, as well as the Sikorsky R-5. The Sikorsky is by far the most conservative technically and in appearance, so it is the one that will probably "go." (Not to mention that it actually has an established builder behind it.)

The Economist, 14 October 1944

Leaders

“Machinery for Peace” The new United Nations is similar to the old League of Nations in various ways, different in still others, and may or may not work out for the best.

“Back to Politics” The next election will be a party election. The paper thinks the Liberals cannot take seats under the first-past-the-post system, while Labour's attack on Sir Stafford Cripps shows that it is obsessed with purity at the cost of power, so that the Conservatives will win.

“Colonial Constitutions” Various colonies which aren’t India have received constitutions, and India should take note, get its house in order, etc. Most of them have vaguely democratic tendencies. From here it is surely only the shortest of steps to Egg People voting for the governor of Hong Kong, I am sure.

“Confusing the Issue” The Chancellor’s recent statement has confused the situation over the Bretton Woods Agreement, which was previously a model of simplicity and clarity to the world. One’s eyes inevitably skip to the last, neatly separated para, where the paper speculates that a less ambitious international monetary scheme might work just as well, perhaps one extending the “sterling bloc” concept to other natural currency areas, thus abetting “full employment.” From this am I to infer that Bretton Woods is to be taken as threatening British unemployment?

“A Policy for Wealth, VIII: The Policy Summarised” The author of this summary is allergic to anything that might be described as summarising, so it is no surprise that this takes a full page and a half of close text. The first problem is that the per person productivity in Britain has been rising for the last few decades at a  rate of 1 ½ %/year. The objective should be to raise this to 2 ½%, corresponding to a doubling by 1975, at which point British per-person productivity will be about the level reached in America today. The most important step in achieving this is increasing our productive equipment. Horsepower per head= wealth per head. The problem in the past has not been the amount of savings relative to desired investment. In other words, not enough has been invested. Thus, we should increase the savings rate still further in order to flood industry with money for investment in horsepower. We should do away with “restrictionism” and excessive competition, but not through public ownership. Rising wages should be understood to go together with good profits, and linked through profit-sharing. In return for a “High Wages” policy, the Trade Unions should roll over on their productivity reducing preferences. Demands for shorter hours should be deferred, and double shifting the rule. An effort should be made through the educational system to multiply the scientific community by four or five within a generation. The balance of the needed educational seats will be achieved through polytechnical universities. Research and development should be encouraged in industry. Managers should be better trained, distributive methods rationalised, and advertising reduced.

Notes of the Week

“The Planning Storm” Attempts to accelerate the planning process to more quickly meet the needs of blitzed cities are in difficulties due to disputes over landowner compensation. This is the theme of a further piece on “Local Government Areas”

“New Ministers” A Minister of Social Services is appointed, and Lord Swinton comes in as Minister of Civil Aviation. The paper thinks that, even though this does not actually create new ministries, the cabinet is too large.

“First Fruits at Moscow?” The Prime Minister may have obtained the first of more anticipated concessions regarding the Balkans in his current trip to Moscow.

“Dutch Tragedy” The paper is appalled by the situation in the Netherlands and thinks that it will encourage the Dutch to demand territorial compensation from Germany after the war.

The French are excitable.

“Telling Europe” Diplomatic and economic correspondents are soon to be allowed to go over to Europe. The paper’s correspondent will rush to Dover, catch the Calais boat, contemplate disembarking and alternatives, be carried back to Dover, resume his trip, repeat his hesitations, and finally arrive in Paris just at the end of his term of assignment, give  a brief address to his colleagues on the superiority of the British press to the French, and then return to London.

“Lord Woolton’s Policy for Wealth” Lord Woolton apparently reads the paper. Actually, if it seems like one of the paper's ideal readers can prattle on like the paper, it is time for the paper to get out its damn rut, I think. But I am no fan  of the paper, and would drop it for something more congenial were I not following in Uncle George's footprints.

“The Last Satellite” Hungary has begun to surrender. Hopefully it will not take as long as Finland and Rumania!

“Education for Demobilisation” Demobilising servicemen will receive six to eight hours of instruction time on various matters. A lesser woman would be tempted to sarcasm here.

Letters to the Editor

Ronald Walker and A Richmond have opinions about the “Policy for Wealth,” mainly having to do with what labour might or might get, or is supposed to want. I get the impression that the correspondents know as much about the British worker as they do about Hottentots.

American Survey

“The Willkie Survey” Remember Wendell Willkie, the man who was not elected President in 1940, nor nominated to run for President in 1944? The one who just died? His influence might be comparable to that of the PAC. That is, it might be large, or it might be small. It might swing California and New York to the GOP, or the Midwest against.

American Notes

“One Man” This correspondent has heard of Mr. Willkie’s death, which, not to be too flippant, affected every politically aware person I know quite deeply, as untimely death always does.

“Second Round” Had you heard that there was to be a Presidential election in America this Fall? Well, there is! Will foreign policy gain the Republicans votes, or lose them? Will labour support strengthen the President, or damage him? It is all so very exciting.

“The Right to Vote” Voter turnout is low, and the Republicans might be said to be encouraging this. Dewey’s campaign is deliberately low key, supporting, for example, such tax reductions as might be practicable.

“The Wage Issue” Wages are rising, and employers wish to “hold the line.” Mr. Eric Johnston has pointed out to the War Labour Board that wage increases will cause price increases, and thus a spiralling increase in the cost of living. He does, however, step away from the majority of industry leaders by suggesting that wage increases might be desirable after the war, when costs and and likely sales are better understood. If the President allows wage increases before the election, he will certainly be accused of playing politics, and he might alienate the AFL, as CIO unions are at the front of the line.

The World Overseas

Greece is backwards, has a decayed agriculture, few autos or railways, and rampant inflation. The Greeks should cooperate with the British, who are best able to help them address their problems.

“Switzerland’s Economic Problems” A war which engulfs your neighbours and trading partners is surprisingly bad for a country’s economy. There may be problems after the war, providing no German or French “collaborationist” has heard that Swiss banks have confidentiality rules. If that information has got out, though, this article may prove to have been overblown.

The Business World

“Dear Raw Materials” Well, by now I’m sure that someone has written to tell you that I have become engaged with American imports. I never wanted to hurt you by telling you about the progress of low cost, high efficiency American producers in winning my heart, but you must know that, due to the scarcity of coal, and fears that British industry will never gain full technical efficiency, I came to seek profitability in American chemicals and even coal. I will not correspond again, but please know that your dearness will attract attention from every trade estricting combine in Britain.

“Monetary Reform in Belgium” The paper is quite excited by the strictness and rigour of the Belgian monetary reform. It sees hopeful glimmerings of future Bank of England policy in it.

Business Notes

“Disposal of Government Factories” They will be immediately leased out, which is good as far as it goes, although the paper was hoping that some would be withheld as leverage to encourage industry to achieve full technical efficiency.

“The Mark Exchange Rate” The rate of 40 to the pound, 10 to the dollar, announced a fortnight ago, does not seem so wise in retrospect to the paper

“Gold Ban in France;” and “Belgium Regains Gold” Hurrah for Belgium, a qualified boo for France.

Greeks are excitable.

“Shipping shares recover; wool industry reconstruction; Canadian Pacific interim dividend; more treasury bills; clearing bank statements.” Just so that you know what is moving markets, if you did not already know. The North-East Coast is combining to plan the industrial future of the area, and the publication of quarterly agricultural statistics has resumed in the United Kingdom, with a retrospective publication of the last six years’ numbers to make clear the remarkable achievements ofBritish agriculture. Except in the area of eggs and bacon.

Aviation, October 1944

Down the Years in AVIATION’s Log

In 1919, the British Government announced money prizes for improvements in small and large seaplane designs; Lts. Killgore, Rugh and Nelson flew planes over the Continental Divide at 16,000ft; flying records of 270 miles, 28,500ft, 34,610ft, and 18,500ft were set, there being a great many records to set when all the various kinds of aircraft are considered.  Fifteen years ago, there were 7,466 pilots and 6,432 mechanics licensed in the United States, and monthly civil aviation miles were 74,000. Lieutenant Doolittle takes off, flies fifteen miles, and lands “blind” to show off progress in instrument flying. Ten years ago, Roscoe Turner won the Thompson Trophy at 248mph.

Line Editorial Mr. McGraw thinks that “The Economic Reconstruction of Europe” is a  matter of concern. He advocates economic unity, freedom of trade, an end to agricultural protection and subsidies, producing a higher standard of living for European labour. American agricultural exports to Europe will be helped in the first instance, American industrial exports in the second. Also, something about continuous strip steel mills.

Major General Follett Bradley (ret.), and R. E. Gillmor, President, Sperry Gyroscope, “Research for Security” The robot bomb is crude in comparison with what could be developed and used. For example, monster rocket torpedoes with an intercontinental range are possible. New York Navy Yard or Willow Run might be levelled by their payload of many tons of high explosive before the slightest warning could be given. They would be accompanied by fleets of long range air transports with loads of infantry, artillery, and auxiliary troops to consolidate the advantage of the initial strike, winning the war at a stroke. To prevent this, we must have research and development, for example of giant bombers.

Clinton R. Harrower, “Put Those Surplus Plants to Work” War plants should be turned into “trading estates” on the British model.

Charles I. Stanton, Civil Aeronautics Adninistration, “More Airports for the Personal Flyer” these should be funded and built, although not by the CAA, which is busy with more important things.

Rear-Admiral E. .L Cochrane, Chief, Bureau of Ships, “Our Navy Builds Flat-Top Mastery” The Bureau of Ships is very pleased with itself. Buried in the article are points that tend to suggest that the Essex-class are too small. They present problems in accommodation, and protecting gasoline supplies to aircraft on deck. They are potentially unstable due to all the weight at the flight deck, and are  limited by the dimensions of the Panama Canal. New slipways had to be built to accommodate the rapid construction programme, but the real bottleneck was in naval machinery. James rolls his eyes and suggests the likelihood of extremely expensive machinery refits to keep the Essex-class in service through the 1960s, although “fortunately” sound-reduction is going to require that work irrespective of defects.

William F. Durand, Stanford Professor Emeritus and member of the NACA Advisory Council, “Ames Laboratory Crowns NACA Progress” It’s very nice.

John Foster and Chester S. Ricker, “Design Analysis No. 9, The Focke-Wulf 190” Although perhaps the most technically significant aircraft of the war due to its forced-air cooling, it’s also rather old at this point, isn’t it? James attended a seminar on its “Kommandogerat” at MIT almost six months ago, now. And even that was a “catch-up” for men like him who had been out of the way when it first appeared.

G. M. Kuettel, “Bullet-Checking Plastic for Pressure-Plane Glazing” The story of a new plastic laminate developed for aircraft cockpits and other visual domes that suffered minimal damage from bullet penetrations, and the testing process that confirmed this property.

W. J. Griffey, Senior Weight Engineer, Glenn L. Martin, “Favoring the Classical in Flying Boats Hydrostatics” I hope that all of this wasted effort is redeemed somewhere.

J. D. Miner,. “High Frequency A.C. ‘Ups’ Motor Performance, Part II” A continuing discussion of equipment tested on the XB-19. Speaking of wasted effort… Although this is unkind. The exact circumstances of a high-frequency alternator linked to an aeroengine feeding a power circuit are unlikely to come up in the future as described here –jet engines rotate too fast--, but the engineering is not going to go to waste.

Maintenance papers this week include material on hot doping, servicing modern magnetos, a fabric doper, and “The System for Servicing Hydraulic Unloader Valves” These are the equivalent to grounding circuits in electrical systems and vital for hydraulic systems subject to a wide range of variation in loads. So if your hydraulic system does ambitious things in the automatic control field, it is pretty important that the unloader valve is working properly, which is apparently a very difficult thing of which to be certain without the maintenance methods described here, which have mainly to do with cleaning, it seems to me. In fact, contaminated oil is pretty clearly rearing its head as the serpent in the new high-pressure hydraulic circuit paradise.

Charles Carroll, “New Latin America Requires New Thinking” If we want to fly Latin Americans all over Latium, we shall need to do new things requiring thinking.

William R. Nelson, “LandgrafHelicopter has Unique Design Features” For example, it comes with a vacuum pump to directly suck money out of the wallets of gullible investors. Specifically, all the eccentric accessories added to wings and airscrews are tried out on its rotors..

It certainly seems interesting to have ailerons on a helicopter rotor, but what kind of impractical mind could think that this would be practical on a helicopter lifting a useful load at a useful speed?

Major Eliot F. Noyes, AAF, “Gliders Have Changed War Tactics” I think that, on balance, “will” is safer, “will not” more likely. In Major Noyes’ defence, though, this would have been submitted well before Arnhem.

“Navittrainer Teaches Dead Reckoning Accuracy” this contraption has appeared in the paper before, and I do not see any obvious improvements here.

Aviation’s Sketch Book of Design Detail

The feature today presents the first sketches of the B-29, which is certainly impressive.

(That is the pressurised tunnel which runs through the unpressurised bomb bay to provide communications with the tail turret. It seems a little impractical to me.)

For Better Design

“New Rivet is Plastic” S. H. Philips has developed a plastic rivet for use in plastic laminate sheeting such as acrylic resin. Being softer, it produces less crazing.

Raymond L. Hoadley, “Don’t Put a Boy on Man-Sized Terminations” Contract termination negotiations are potentially man-sized, so definitely use men, not boys, to negotiate them. Because boys are bad negotiators. Why, for a chocolate bar and a comic-book, you can get them to give away the entire factory!

“Bell’s Jet-Propelled P-59A Airacomet” Pictures are at last available.

Aviation News

Wright’s appointment is noticed. So are the remote control turrets of the B-29, which have James so hot and bothered. The math here is quite interesting. Who would ever have imagined human attention as a variable in a mathematical equation? The sale of 4000 Army trainers is almost complete. The new 18ft propellers, designed to take 3000hpin the “sub-stratosphere” have passed testing.

*

America at War

The Airborne Army exists, might be used soon! The Far East is big, but B-29s have long range. Our air forces in China are now superior to the Japanese. However, B-29s might start flying from bases that can be supplied from tankers rather than over the Hump might start at any time. The Mark XIV Spitfire with its five-bladed airscrew is noticed.

Washington Windsock

Blaine Stubblefied thinks that the flying bomb will be a major weapon in future wars, and that Stanley Hiller is a real swell guy. I agree,having met him the other day in company with Uncle Henry. Affability is an advantage in a swindler, and will take him far, though not into helicopter manufacture, at Willow Run or elsewhere.  “Great demand for tricks in Europe was partly due to to lack of rail facilities, which were knocked out by Allied air forces during the time the enemy held them.” You can see why Uncle George thinks that Mr. Stubblefield is drunk most of the time, although you might also charitably assume that he is being very careful to avoid saying anything so specific as to be censored. He also thinks that automobile manufacturers will not get into the small postwar aviation market.

Aviation Manufacturing

“Nazi Fall to Allow Switch to Civil Craft; 3000 cut in Monthly Warplane Output” Also, August plane production down to 7,939. So will our production go negative when the “Nazi Fall Cut Allowance” goes into effect? Note that the August production total was again below the target, this time by 3.5%. It is irrelevant to the outcome of the war, but something that the Economist might pay more attention to it in its comparisons. Our monthly production of heavy bombers is 1500, by the way.

I quote, because I cannot do anything less. “Twice as many Nazi warplanes are reported kayoed by RAF skyfighters since the adoption of this gyro gun sight…” As it is a British contraption instead of an American, James pats himself on the back, having played the crucial role in its development of having beers with its designers on several occasions.

Transport Aviation Is well behind Aero Digest in developments.

Aviation Abroad

Four German jet type aircraft have been identified, and word of the Miles M. 20 and the Ju-88/Me-109 piggy back bomber is heard. The jet aircaft include the conventionally powered He-219, which has an auxiliary jet engine for speed, the Heinkel He-280, a twin-engined type, the Me-163, a bat-wing plane said to be able to achieve 600mph for short periods of time, and the Me-262, another double-jet type.  The paper also knows about the Hawker Tempest, which has been shooting down “robombs,” and the Henschel Hs-130, an experimental high-altitude fighter for shooting down B-29s, with a third engine in the fuselage to drive the superchargers on two wing-mounted engines. The prototype is said to have crashed. It’s also an idea that dates to 1939, if I recall correctly.   German bigwigs may escape a failing Germany in the Me-264, the He-274, or a submarine. Where they might go is less clear. Japan?

Side Slips

A story is told of an old-time aircraft dealer who was swinging a deal to sell a plane to a wealthy family looking to be able to inspect their various farms spread through the country more quickly. He crash landed on his way to their estate, called them to let them know that he was down on “So-and-So’s” field, and was surprised when he didn’t get the sale. Side Slip also jokes about the pictures of giant flying boats in various places, saying that one reason they are so big is that they have to carry their own machine shop to make replacement parts for their engines. Also amusing is the fact that men fired at one aviation firm often end up hired at another, and sometimes end up by hiring the man who fired him. Yes, it certainly is hilarious to imagine that the firms that design the planes my husband has to fly in are running an old boy’s club!

Fortune, October 1944

Fortune’s Wheel

F. Lawrence Babcock has been to Palestine, sees difficult times for America there. Also for the Jews and Arabs, but they deserve it for being so Semitically stubborn.

Letters

Last month’s Fortune Survey said that 45.7% of those surveyed thought that servicemen ought to be kept with the colours until it was certain that there was a job waiting for him, and that 31.3% thought that servicemen should not have a preference for jobs coming open. This month’s letter column is devoted to servicemen writing to share their opinions. “Spanish Fury” comes to mind. The paper points out that the 45.7% are motivated by solicitude for servicemen, even if they are out of touch with their actual desires. It offers no defence for the 31.3%, who are simply terrible.

The Job Before Us

“Oil: The First Agreement” America and Britain are working on an agreement on how to divide the Arabs’ oil. This can’t possibly go wrong, as see above, "Palestine."

“Air: The U.S. Position” Now all we have to do is persuade the British that it will be best for them if American carriers fly passengers into London on American planes! The British, being inbred and upper-crust, seem to have difficulties grasping this point, and counter that colonials feel better when their betters fly into New York on British planes. That doesn’t look like it will fly, either. In fact, the only things that fly will be the things that are allowed to land at Washington and London.

“What Price Glory This Time?” America’s plans for providing for some thirteen million discharged veterans are comprehensive, but things could go wrong, and that’s why all the servicemen should be kept in the colours until jobs are lined up for them. It is supposed that it might be hard to reintegrate them into society (they might be violent and angry) The sorry treatment of WWI veterans is a bad precedent. Still, the servicemen all want to be released, and released quickly. All this said, the GI Bill has a great many provisions to handle postwar problems, such as 52 weeks of unemployment benefits, tuition subsidies, etc. There's also the question about how the "superpreference" for soldiers returning to their prewar "permanent" jobs will be handled in practice.

“If the War Ends Now, Where do we Stand?” For the handwringing over demobilisation above, substitute handwringing over reconversion. It is, however, supposed that social spending might balance the loss of consumer spending in the postwar slump. This will be a novelty for America, but there is evidence from abroad that it will work.

“Commercial Solvents” Commercial Solvents Company did well in WWI by making gunpowder, and penicillin in this one. In the future it will look to the manufacture of butyl alcohol and acetone through fermentation processes. It also makes nitroparaffins for industrial solvents, and  antifreeze.

   

“Pushing the Pens” Parker PenCompany makes pens, and ink, with remarkably heavy equipment.

Its classic line of pens have been improved with better nibs, and its ink is now packaged mechanically, although the pens are packed by a “bobby socks brigade” of summer workers. Bobby socks really have swept the nation, and both "Miss V.C." and our little housekeeper are just the cutest little things in them. 

“The Freight Rate Battle” The Interstate Commerce Commission is at the end of a five year political battle to reduce the freight rates into various states that see themselves as disadvantaged. The paper offers the opinion that rates to the West Coast are favourably low, which seems to be the economists’ consensus, but will find its dissenters out here. It is the Southern states that have been pressing for better rates.

“Bombers by Beall” Wellwood Edmetson Beale was head engineer on the B-29 and one of the main developers of the B-17. Beall recalls the old days for the paper –the old days of eight years ago—when Pan American flew its “Pacific clippers,” strictly, Bealll thought, as a stunt, with the future of Pacific commercial aviation a decade or more away. But then Pan American came to them with an order for the Pacific Clipper. Beall thought it couldn’t be done, buit, on the other hand, they’d learned a lot from the B-15, and there was no other work in sight, so he and a team of 10 engineers went onto the Clipper….Now he has “3300 engineers, draftsmen, researchers and clerks” under him. Beall studied mechanical engineering at the University of Colorado, but was drawn to aviation by the Lindbergh flap. He studied aeronautics for a year back east, then got on with the Boeing School in Oakland before being sent to China to sell the P-26 and 247, and did a pretty good job. I wonder why?

 Soon after he returned from China he got the Clipper job, then the Stratoliner, then, as chief engineer (because something happened to the old chief engineer of the Stratoliner project, I take it), he got the B-29. Beall is the sixth chief engineer at Boeing, with a line stretching back to Wong Tsoo, followed by C. L.Egtvedt, “brilliant and eccentric” Charles N. Monteith,” who scorned wind tunnel data and jeered at flaps, and who shot himself in 1940; then came Robert J. Minshall, now with Pesco, then Jack Klystra, killed in a flying accident, then Beall. Under Johnson as President, and Egtvedt as chairman, Beall has built up the research and development side of Boeing ever since the disappointing water trials of the Clipper revealed its control deficiencies. This in spite of younger critics who think that the apparatus of tanks and wind tunnels and cold rooms is a “boondoggle.” As Beall recalls it, the wind tunnel trials of the Clipper were adequate by the standards of the day but failed to reveal the design’s shortcomings, an expensive lesson. Adequate testing before hand might have saved $250,000.

In the B-29, Beall deprecates the importance of pressurisation and automatic turrets. He prefers to emphasise the aerodynamic improvements. The B-29, simply to move its bulk through the air, ended up with a 70 lb/square inch wing loading and an aspect ratio of 11.5 required the thickest gauge skinning ever attempted at Boeing. The structure, the aerodynamics, all perfection which Air Force and crews have desecrated, costing speed and range with their armour and radar and guns. Now the company is looking the future. What might it make in peace time with its expensive production processes? Other companies have a leg up in the commercial aircraft market, and the company can hardly turn to making eggbeaters. But perhaps the life of the Stratoliner can be extended. The company also expects to stay in the big-bomber business, while finding its way into the airliner business once it figures out whether the public wants a 2.5 cents/passenger mile economy 200mph “feeder,” or an 8 cents/mile luxury nonstop transatlantic plane.

Whatever happens to Boeing, however, I am sure that Mr. Beall will do well. 

William B. Benton, “The Economics of a Free Society” America needs free enterprise, unions (as long as they are not too powerful), social spending (as long as it is not excessive), etc, etc.

The Farm Column

Ladd Haystead’s working year is coming to an end. Or perhaps it is just beginning, as he finds things to write about in the off months. This month’s column is on the possibilities of industry on the farm. This might mean milling soybeans for oil with cooperative mills,or making brassieres in small towns, as in a factory at Cherokee,Oklahoma, or distilling alcohol from livestock feed residue and using it to run farm machinery. Or perhaps companies will buy farms to run, because reasons. In Georgia someone in the state government is experimenting with this. The scheme seems to be something that Haystead has mentioned before. At least, I remember the words “kudzu,” and “lespedeza,” suggested forage crops to rotate with small grains on these farms that for some reason corporations will run. Also, corn cobs might be used as raw material for industrial alcohol production, and manure removal might be mechanised. It's going to be a long winter for Mr. Haystead.

Source

Business at War

Uncle George’s beloved Mr. Janeway is absent again and without his peculiar gifts, we are left with a review of the business of “Previews, Inc.,” a national real estate broker which claims to have transformed the way that real estate is sold, and United Wall Paper Factories, which markets its patented “Ready-Pasted,” an adhesive that stays wet fifteen minutes to allow amateurs to fiddle with the paper set. That is, if you want to hang your own wallpaper, it will be easier with this product, although, as critics in the industry point out, it will still be quite hard.

Fortune Survey

Americans tend to think that the two parties are more alike than different, that a third party would be a waste of time. Republicans are favoured by those who dislike unions, favour business, Democrats are favoured to keep unions strong, reduce unemployment, and prevent foreign wars. It seems that Democratic supporters are less likely to vote, though they have more supporters than the Republicans. I am straining at teal leaves to see whether there is anything to this idea that the Republicans are going to make inroads on the Coloured vote. It seems a little outlandish to me, as the Republicans are painfully obviously the party of the rich, implying the party of tax cuts, hence less government service, Time's incredible advertising series attempting to suggest that cutting corporate taxes is favoured on both sides of the aisle, since Leon Henderson is an "old New Dealer" yet told the Chicago Chamber of Commerce that he would abolish corporate income taxes altogether, as a disincentive to investment. A cleverly chosen picture shows how Mr. Henderson exudes sympathy for the common man, below.

The real point of the survey is that Roosevelt has a strong lead at the polls. An election isn’t much fun if it is  a foregone conclusion, and so we need to find reasons to imagine more GOP voters coming out. Since the Party seems to have mobilised all the reactionaries it can without cutting into the Democratic Party's lead, I still hold out hope that it will be a California Republican who finally breaks the Southern hold on Washington. 

What can I say? Uncle George is not convinced that Governor Warren is the man to carry the banner. As a former District Attorney, the thought is that he carries too much of the persecutor's air about him, but I quite like him. And if all else fails, Uncle Henry has certainly cultivated the Democrats enough that I can turn to him . . . if he will just leave off asking for our money for that  steel mill. I hope that at least the Earl has seen through the Engineer's hypocrisy in urging us to fund it.