R_. C_.
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada.
Dear Father:
This is the second installment of "Things I wrote on my Honeymoon When I Should Have Been Having Fun." Good thing Reggie is here to make sure I have fun. And I did! Now darkness is falling and in a moment the Goose is going to come in and it's back to the real world, or what passes for it in the Gitmo's Formosa and at the studio.
Writing with a bamboo shoot (or maybe drinking through it),
Your Daughter,
Ronnie
Time, 17 July 1950
Letters
Lots of letters about the Picasso profile, including Louis Eagan of New Orleans pointing out that it was a good field test of Time's new "scanning colour-separator." Reinhold Niebuhr isn't winning many fans. Lutherans are divided as to whether Masons are minions of Satan sent from Hell ot lead us astray, or possibly businessmen who like a nice lunch. David Weinberg corrects Time's math. Our publisher explains the heroic logistics of getting Asian editions of Time into the hands of our fighting men in Korea.
National Affairs
"What It Takes" The Administration is now saying that it underestimated the North Koreans and had "gone in too slowly with too little." Now America needs to mobilise. The National Guard isn't right for the job, because it is too big, and only taking selected divisions would be discriminatory. The Army needs "at least" three divisions to replace the ones that have gone to Korea. The Navy wants to take four carriers out of mothballs to ferry fighter planes, then another five when it has the men ot man them. The Air Forcer has both planes and pilots, but not the money to keep them flying. Still, the Army wants 244,000 men, the Navy 240,000, the air force 152,000. The Navy and Air Force need mainly technicians and don't need (and wouldn't be able to use, I think) the draft to get them. The Army is going to need the draft, and the first call for 20,000, out of 1.44 million registered 1-As, has gone out. Industry is being "creepingly" mobilised, as the Administration doesn't want to trigger a new rush of consumer spending or a Russian reaction. They have provoked some kind of reaction, though, with Tom Dewey complaining that we're not doing enough to stop Communism. I thought the Governor was going away!
"It's Going to Be All Right" The President is optimistic about Korea, upset at the Republicans and Edwin Johnson for voting Sumner Pike's nomination down, and has asked Congress for 260 million for the hydrogen bomb, but all quiet like in case someone puts two and two together and gets the "five" that means that he intends to use it in Korea.
"The 8 O'Clock Broadcast" As of this issue, Kenneth Shadrick of Skin Fork, West Virginia, was the first American soldier reported killed in Korea. That's also how his parents heard about it, on the 8 o'clock news. The fourth of ten children,
The Shadricks have no idea what the war was about, and are very sad about Kenny.
"Not For Export" The Soviets and Czechs are accusing the United States of dropping potato bugs to eat their harve. The United States denies it. Also, Henry Luce wants to be invited to Senator Benton's parties.
"Confirmed" The Senate has voted (55 to 24) to confirm Sumner Pike, which is a bit of an embarrassment for Hickenlooper and the gang.
"The Skyroom's the Limit" Paul Douglas is so dreamy. Oh. Yes! The story! The Senate Finance Committee released some embarrassing information about the Reconstruction Finance Commission this week, including some loans to a Reno hotel and casino, the Skyroom at the Mapes Hotel. People are saying that the RFC needs to go. Paul Douglas is saying that the RFC needs to go. In conclusion, Paul Douglas's piercing blue eyes make Henry Luce's knees shake. 
"All Quiet on the Potomac" Secretary Johnson promises that no-one at the Pentagon is going to give a speech all month, because they are busy with that whole "Korea" thing.
Oklahoma Democratic politics are super exciting, and a spectator at a Brooklyn Dodgers' game was killed by a stray bullet fired to celebrate the 4th of July, in spite of which (and slow growth over the last ten years) New York is still the second biggest city in the world after London at 7.8 million. 
"The Taming of Art Glover" Glover is the man who took the Switchmen out on strike two weeks ago. The Administration stepped because the strike was inconveniencing farmers, and Glover is annoyed because it shows that you can't strike a railway in this country. Plus, nine people are dead in the derailing of the Santa Fe's El Capitan express, caused by a brake rigging dropping off the mail car. Time points out that the roads were even worse, with 491 people killed over the four days of 4th of July weekend. Then just for fun it's off to twit Henry Wallace about the Korean War. It turns out that he won't comment because he doesn't know the facts.
War in Asia
"Somewhere" MacArthur and General Dean have a plan, which is to keep the North Koreans away from the supply port of Pusan and maintain lateral mobility, for which the double-tracked railway from Pusan to Taejon is so vital, which is why the first American battalion to arrive in Korea were committed at Osan, which is well north of Taejon, along with a battery of field artillery. Tokyo explains that the unit was attacked by "the best Red division, supported by 40 tanks, which were extremely skillfully manoeuvred . . . [A] resourceful REd commander . . . skillfully applied frontal pressure with envelopment." Time calls the rapid defeat of the unit a dismal outcome and that it is too bad that "this realistic appraisal of a really formidable enemy came after the fight and not before." Sydney Smith of the London Daily Express reports that the routed South Koreans are driving south in everything from "sixteen-wheeled tank recovery vehicles" to small patrol cars, and that the South Koreans are so terrified of American strafing that they are all carrying tree boughs to signal the pilots that they are friendly.
"The Best I Can Do" After the defeat at Osan, the Americans tried to do mines and bridge demolitions, but the troops were too panicky, and by the end of the week had retreated all the way past Chonan, "only 22 miles from the Kum River," which is apparently an important river. We're told to look at the map, where I finally found the river, mixed in with so many helpful symbols that I couldn't really make out what was so special about it. It is, however, much closer to Taejon than Osan was. After withdrawing from Chonan, the commanding officer noticed that the Red weren't following, so he sent a patrol up the road to ask why. The Reds helpfully explained brrp-brrp, but one man got away to do an interview with Frank Gibney on the general theme of, "We don't know what we're doing." The Pentagon now wants six divisions for Korea, and the Far East Air Force is making excuses about how the monsoon weather grounds aircraft, and notes that the enemy supply lines are still in good order in spite of B-29 raids in the north and attacks on the Han River crossings. US medium tanks and heavy artillery are now arriving. (I guess that means that light tanks were already there.)
"Buildup" 2nd Infantry Division at Fort Lewis has been told to get ready for Korea, as have antiaircraft units at 4th and Sixth Army headquarters in Houston and San Francisco. Elements of 1st Marine Division and 1st Marine Air Wing are preparing to load with Douglas AD attack planes and F4U Corsairs. Fifteenth Air Force's 22nd and 92nd Bomber Wings, with 75 B-29s, are on their way, with the first 30 passing through Honolulu on 7 July. Rear Admiral Walter Boone's TAsk Force Yoke, with Philippine Sea and the cruisers Helena and Toledo and nine destroyers are also on the way, along with the submarine Pickerel and the escort carrier Sicily, loaded with reinforcement planes. Boxer and the escort carrier Badong Strait are currently off the California coast, but will head to the straits in a few days.
"What They are Using" The North Koreans are armed with tanks, specifically, T-34s and T-70s. Time is taken with the T-34, which features an 85mm main gun of "high muzzle velocity" and "unusually broad treads" for good mobility on mud. "Russian-made North Korean artillery and mortars also had the edge," not because they were better designs, but because they were bigger, with both 120mm mortars and howitzers, in contrast to the Americans' 105mm howitzer. Everyone wants better antitank weapons. The 105mm howitzer is not designed for antitank work. In the air, American F-51s and P-80s are fighting Yak-3s, 7Bs, and perhaps some Yak-9s. Ilyushin attack planes, probably less modern than the -10s, are attacking ground targets. Because of range and weather, the P-80s can't stay over the battlefield long, and the moment Russian jets show up, the F-51s will have to skedaddle.
"Cast of Characters" Time runs down the "little-known Americans and some Koreans" running this war
, with a handy Korean pronunciation guide to go with it. The Air Force men seem to be a lot more "high powered" than the Army men. I'm told it's because MacArthur doesn't pick a very good staff. The "some Koreans" are Syngman Rhee and Brigadier General Chung Il Kwon. North Korean enemies include the leader, Kim Il Sung, foreign minister Pak Hon Yong, chief of staff marshal Ch'oe Yong Gun, and the head of Soviet Mission, Colonel General Terenty Shtykov. A box story explains the situation in Formosa from Time's perspective, then it is off to cloud nine for a grand strategic tour of the horizon as seen from Stalin's office. "Stalin's Russia can move forward, sidewards, or backwards." You heard it here first, folks! And then it is off to the UN for some diplomatic manoeuvring. Attached to the bottom of that story is news that the North Koreans are executing American prisoners of war.
, with a handy Korean pronunciation guide to go with it. The Air Force men seem to be a lot more "high powered" than the Army men. I'm told it's because MacArthur doesn't pick a very good staff. The "some Koreans" are Syngman Rhee and Brigadier General Chung Il Kwon. North Korean enemies include the leader, Kim Il Sung, foreign minister Pak Hon Yong, chief of staff marshal Ch'oe Yong Gun, and the head of Soviet Mission, Colonel General Terenty Shtykov. A box story explains the situation in Formosa from Time's perspective, then it is off to cloud nine for a grand strategic tour of the horizon as seen from Stalin's office. "Stalin's Russia can move forward, sidewards, or backwards." You heard it here first, folks! And then it is off to the UN for some diplomatic manoeuvring. Attached to the bottom of that story is news that the North Koreans are executing American prisoners of war.
Foreign News
Schuman Plan! The British really, really don't like it. On the other hand, they're fine with the European Payments Union. It's a crazy old world.
"Best Quarter" Britain has increased its gold and US dollar reserves from $1.34 billion to $2.42 billion in the last quarter, reversing a trade deficit of $632 million into a surplus of $438 million, the rest coming from ECA and Canadian aid. The reversal isn't from exports, which are doing about as well as in the first quarter, but from sterling bloc raw material exports, fewer dollar imports into Britain, invisible earnings and gold from South Africa. While in Witgoor in the Kempen region of Flanders (that's near Turnhout!), Martha Minnen brought civil suit against her village for accusing her of being a witch, and awarded her $80 in damages, making her luckier than Salvator Giuliano, finally shot by the carabinieri this week. Just to show that Latins are like that, Madrid is having a crime wave involving people not wearing neckties while promenading.
Science, Medicine. Education
"Johnson Grass, Alas" Johnson Grass is one of the many, many pests that were introduced to the South as miracle crops and turned into weeds. It stands out from some of the others in a new way now. It is showing signs of becoming immune to 2,4-D.
"Martians, Maybe?" Gerard de Vaucouleurs, author of the recent The Planet Mars, wishes that people would spend less time debating the existence of the canals and more time looking for saucers full of still, cool minds armed with death rays. No, seriously, he is pretty confident that there is seasonal vegetable growth in the equatorial regions, that there is some kind of regular and perhaps artificial feature behind the canals, and that science doesn't know nearly as much as it should about the conditions on a planet so like our own.
"Breaking the News" Should doctors tell patients they have cancer? In the current Surgery, Drs. Stanley R. Friesen and William Kelly argue that they do want to hear, and should hear.
Then it is off to Santa Barbara, where doctors told John Guy "("Mr. Glencannon") Gilpatric that his wife's breast tumour was maignant. Mr. Gilpatric got out a .32 calibre pistol and shot Maude Louis Gilpatric.
"Change of Life" Time reviews a new book about menopause, Miriam Lincoln's You'll Live Through It. Synthetic hormones can treat the symptoms of menopause if they are particularly difficult, but Dr. Lincoldn says that most women don't need them. She also assures her readers that menopause doesn't mean the end of foolling around.
"Safe in the Wide, Wide World" The typical Princeton graduate is probably married, makes on average $8000/year, is an Episcopalian, votes Republican, likes Gone with the Wind, War and Peace and Kipling.
Fon W. Boardman of University of Columbia Press has Princeton-related news. The top ten most boring novels, as voted by readers, are Pilgrim's Progress, Moby Dick, Paradise Lost, Faerie Queene, Life of Samuel Johnson, Pamela, Silas Marner, Ivanhoe, Don Quixote and Faust. George Eliot is the most boring author, while William Shakespeare has the most works listed in the top fifty. (Seventeen!)
"How to be Respectable" Remember Steven Potter's The Theory and Practice of Gamesmanship, which explained how to win games without actually cheating? School and Society had an article from Dean H. T. Morse of the University of Minnesota's General College laying out the rules of "Academic Respectability," or how to be a good academic without actually knowing how to teach. It's not nearly as funny as the premise makes it out to be.
Business
The aviation industry is partying like it's World War II. But it's not, because it can't produce like WWII without economic controls. 
State of Business reports on the ongoing "creeping mobilisation" of the American economy. Notwithstanding generous Army truck orders (placed before the outbreak of the war), car production hit a record clip of 70 a minute. No-one is to hoard cars. There'll be enough for everyone. (Bad news for Uncle Henry!) In spite of which, there's been a run on tires, rubber futures have taken off, and three of the Government's twelve mothballed synthetic rubber plants have been ordered back into production. the War Mobilisation Board is looking at the 1527 plants built by the Government at a cost of $12.7 billion. There are 270 under military management, 200 in reserve, either mothballed or in civilian production that allows them to be put back into military production on 120 days;' notice, and . . the rest, which I guess have been sold or perhaps knocked down. Base metals are in short supply, but, once again, the Administration assures us that there will be no controls. Only "creeping" mobilisation.
State of Business reports on the ongoing "creeping mobilisation" of the American economy. Notwithstanding generous Army truck orders (placed before the outbreak of the war), car production hit a record clip of 70 a minute. No-one is to hoard cars. There'll be enough for everyone. (Bad news for Uncle Henry!) In spite of which, there's been a run on tires, rubber futures have taken off, and three of the Government's twelve mothballed synthetic rubber plants have been ordered back into production. the War Mobilisation Board is looking at the 1527 plants built by the Government at a cost of $12.7 billion. There are 270 under military management, 200 in reserve, either mothballed or in civilian production that allows them to be put back into military production on 120 days;' notice, and . . the rest, which I guess have been sold or perhaps knocked down. Base metals are in short supply, but, once again, the Administration assures us that there will be no controls. Only "creeping" mobilisation.
Wall Street is up, GE has a new electric alarm clock that goes off the same time every day. Joe O'Connell has left the CAB, perhaps because the President is ready to go against the CAB's recommendation and approve the Pan-Am/American Overseas merger. An Italian airline is doing well. Four years into the industry existing at all, frozen orange juice makers have a Big Two, with Manhattan's Snow Crop Marketers squeezing into first place ahead of Bing Crosby's Minute Maid by buying up 1100 acres of orange groves around Sarasota, bringing their total to 17,000 acres. (Thirty square miles!)
Radio and Television, Art, Press, People
Leopold Stokowski has taken a turn as a disc jockey. It's official! Everyone is doing it!
"The Mushroom Cloud" Bob Hope, of all people, had a four part documentary about the hydrogen bomb, The Quick and the Dead, on NBC last week. Also, a handbook for television advertisers has suggestions like painting appliances canary yellow so that they will appear white on television; to take the high polish of silved and metal since the camera picks up the glare; to give beer a good head with bicarbonate of soda, and add "make-up" to virtually all foods. Oh, and Communists are terrible. (Banning Radio Free Europe division.)
Corcoran Gallery borrowed lots of big paintings for its big show, which everyone will like because it has the same bloody pictures as every other show like it. Death of Wolfe! that one of an operating theatre! Not much of an Art section!
"No Phony Heroics" The Korean war has been tough on the press, with three war correspondents wounded already and others having been caught off behind communist lines. Also, they've been writing plenty of stories about undertrained, poorly equipped American troops breaking and fleeing. Reviewers think that Michael Todd's Peep Show is very tawdry. The Gumps have been kicked out of the Chicago Tribune and replaced by a British import, Caesar, from the London Sunday Graphic. Probably a bigger deal for the ancients of days who remember when The Gumps were funny! Time is appalled that the Shanghai Weekly Review now toes the Communist line. 
William Z. Forster went to Mother Bloor's 88th birthday. Bertie McCormick made sure that several of his editorials went into the Chicago Tribune's new time capsule, in case the future forgets about him. Here's hoping! Gertrude Moran shocked the world by turning out at London Airport without pigtails. (Look, it's a bit thing for women. It really is.) Ezio Pinzo's second wife, Doris, is expecting his third child. This year's winners of the Horatio Alger award are Conrad Hilton, Alexander Harris and Thomas E. Courtney. William Grant Sherry is divorcing Bette Davis and marrying the babysitter. Izvestia hates John Steinbeck, Upton Sinclair, Jean-Paul Sartre, Andre Malraux and Andre Gide. Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip have traded in their 1948 Daimler to afford a new Rolls-Royce Phantom. Victoria Quirino, the only surviving daughter of the Philippines President, has married. Ismail Sidky Pasha, Henry Ingraham Harriman, Field Marshal Chetwode, Bessie Smith White and Kate Cross-Eyes have died. Kate was the last surviving wife of Geronimo.
The New Pictures
The White Tower is a Swiss alps mountain climbing film. Yes, it is a genre. Swiss mountain climbing. Other mountain ranges are a different genre. What makes them special is that they have to have allegories. Mountains and Vallis are also recommended. I'm sorry, that doesn't come off in translation at all. Time does that bit where it mentions that a good looking actress makes the movie much more worthwhile, and that would be "Valli," 
The Secret Fury has Claudette Colbert and Robert Ryan in the "kind of cinematic nonsense that has turned a lot of moviegoers into television fans." The Gunfighter has Gregory Peck as a desperado with a dozen notches on his gun, worn, broke, and "hankering to live out his days peaceably with his estranged wife and son." Instead, assorted ghosts of his past line up to shoot him dead, and eventually, they do. Time liked it because it was mostly shot in doors, so a bit of a change there. Crisis has Cary Grant as the American brain surgeon who has to save the life of the brutal dictator, or let his scalpel slip and give the country over to revolution. Time also liked it. It did not like Please Believe Me.
Books
Marion Crawford tells the story of being the nurse for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. Bruce Tuttle's complete guide to fishing is . . I suppose, whatever. Liam O'Flaherty's collection of short stories is funny, just like the Irish, now that there's no Troubles going on. And there's a new edition of Turgenev's The Sportsman's Notebook.
Aviation Week, 17 July 1950
News Digest reports that the YF-96 has had its first test flight, that the F-89 is in production, that Dr. Eric Walker is the new executive secretary of the Research and Development Board, that the widow of the TWA navigator who was blown through an astrodome in March of 1947 will get a $67,000 settlement.
Industry Observer reports that the specifications for a short-haul commercial transport issued by the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee closely resembles the Chase XC-123, leaving just the question of what the IFCC thinks it is doing writing specifications for airliners. The Air Force is looking at a "tactical" airplane again, maybe a Douglas A2D with swept wings. The armed forces should probably combine the Air Force and navy parachute testing centres, some people think, Glenn L. Martin just delivered the first 2-0-2As to TWA, the Convair turboliner prototype witll fly soon, and the XC-99 is still flyin.
"USAF Buying Due to Change" Because of the Korean War, you see. It is going to need more planes for tactical use along the way to a 70 group air force. An appropriation for $2.3 billion is before Congress. Not the last, by any means. Aviation Week scoops Time with the Pan Am/Overseas merger compromise, but since I've already written about it under the Time issue, I'll leave it to the big magazine.
"Korean Summing Up" Too much distance, too few planes. The USAF started out with 10 groups in the Far East, one B-29, five fighter, one all-weather (F-82), two l ight bomber (B-26), one transport (C-54.) The army was short on forward controller capability, air strips are in short supply. F-51s, too. The air force is moving an undisclosed number of F-51s up in an undisclosed way (that's the Boxer story), out of some 1000 available to the National Guard. That's not a lot of planes when expected attrition is taken into account, and of course they don't make F-51s any more.
"Tunnel Gives Mach 8 Speeds" Transsonic and supersonic wind tunnels are hard to make and operate, which is why we hear this same story over and over again. This one is the NACA tunnel at Mofffett Field in California. None of them do very well in getting realistic wind speeds over rocket nozzles.
"Bendix Wins Autopilot Order" That is, for the CAA's 13 DC-3s. It is actually the Eclipse-Pioneer PB-10, and was one of four autopilots competing for the contract, the others being from Sperry, Honeywell and Lear. The unit costs $20,000, and is the only automatic aproach systems with automatic airspeed control. The throttle and elevator movements are controlled from the ILS cross ppoint meter, so the pilot can control air speed from the pitch trim control knob. Position control is from the localiser and glide path signals. Electric gyros control the throttle and elevators to drive the plane to follow the location indicators. Pitch control intervenes to keep nose up or down, depending. Altitude control is pretty good, too, and the whole is going to be pretty important with jet approaches, which are touch and go at the best of times.
"Wax Rain Repellant Is Effective" A pitch coating keeps windshields clear without distortion. It wsa developed by the Canadians' research council, and is being made by Dow, which I'm sure paid Aviation Week a pretty penny for this advertorial.
New Aviation Products is super impressed by the rotary phase converter from Eastern Air Devices, which is the size of a big cigarette pack and takes 400Hz current. Ideal for gyros. Brown Instrument's new thermocouple has a every fast response and is ideal for measuring the temperature of molten metal. Schaffer Air Industries has a circuit breaker tester that is fast and easy to use.
Aeronautical Engineering profiles the Grumman Albatross, which isn't a big technological deal. I mean, one light amphibian is pretty much like the other. Okay, that's not true. The Supermarine one with the adjustable wings is something, although I think probably the helicopter has passed it by.
Fairchild has a "mobile runway that simulates landings," and Aero Weld's new fuel tank is extra tough, while Turbodyne justifies its existence (the engine sure isn't going to do that!) with a metal inspection process that involves spraying it with red dye that catches on minute flaws. It has been "thoroughly tested at Turbodyne." I'll bet! The National Bureau of Standards has done an exhaustive study of how silicone rubber stands up to low temperatures. Better than expected, is the summary, down to -100 Celsius! It gets cold in the stratosphere!
"Comet Maintenance is Simpler" Thanks to devaluation, British companies can afford advertorials. It's true, too. Turbojets are simpler. De Havilland didn't help its case by hiding the Goblin in the wing, but all the other airliners have their engines in the wings, too.
Letters is mainly devoted to "Pullman's vicious ad," although Golden North Airways writes to complain that it has been lumped in with the "Arctic Travel Club," which is bad, Beech is very happy with articles about light plane sales, and something about feeder airlines.
Traffic is up, Bendix is selling more, AiResearch will make complete pressurisation systems for the new Constellations, Swissair is buying the DC-6, Israel can now report on the successful airlift of 47,000 Iraqi Jews to Israel, and might also mention the movement of 40,000 Yemeni Jews, also to Israel,.
Editorial is still fighting with the railroads. They get too many subsidies, can't fly to Korea, and can't operate when there's a hurricane. Or, shortly after a hurricane, anyway, since airlines can't operate through a hurricane either.
Time, 24 July 1950
Letters
Kemp Catlett Christian warns that the Korean War isn't likely to be over by Christmas. Paul Fontaine notes that Russian "thank you" actually means "God Bless" so Communists shouldn't say it. Louis Untermeyer points out that he isn't the first to revive Christopher Smart's poetry in the last few years. Robert Pearson points out that the Levitt-built Roslyn Country Club houses are by Levitt, near Levittown, but not Levittown houses, as they're too big, sell for too much, and are for richer people, while Adiel Moncrief writes in to complain that Levittown doesn't seem to have any churches. (Actually, it does. Four Protestant, one Roman Catholic, one synagogue.) Everyone hated the article about Earl Puckett. Evarts Graham writes to point out that he is only the first surgeon to remove an entire lung for cancer. Other surgeons have removed lungs before. Our Publisher writes to point out that this is the fourth time General Bradley has made the cover of Time, last week was the eighth for Stalin, and two weeks ago, MacArthur got his seventh cover. Time looks back at the previous covers with illustrative quotes.
National Affairs
Washington is like a run-over ant hill as everyone runs around trying to make sense of the Korean War. Owen Brewster wants to let MacArthur drop atom bombs at his own discretion. Billy Graham wants a national day of humiliation and prayer. Senator Eastland suddenly wants to give out even more than 1.2 billion in foreign military aid. Various Congressmen and Senators want to cut this and that because if you're going to spend more money on guns and Korea, it's only right, somehow. The FEPC failed to get past cloture, killing civil rights in the 81st Congress, and Congress will allow eleven government departments to fire employees as security risks. Gordon Dean is the new chair of the AEC. Communists are terrible, but Henry Wallace supports the war.
"Where Do We Go From Here" This is the Bradley cover story, about the armed forces doing whatever it is they're doing. Not mobilisation, exactly, but at least de-mothballing and calling up reserves. Corsairs, Hellcats, B-26s and B-29s are coming out of mothballs. one Independence-class light carrier, the Bataan, is coming out of mothballs while the modernisation of the (1942) Essex-class has been accelerated. (Reggie says that the Essexes that have been modernised so far are the 1943 class, which have slightly longer hulls.) Pershing tanks are loading onto LCTs. Meanwhile everyone is asking where $50 billion in four years has gone. The answer is that the difference between the $18 billion budget the service chiefs asked for in 1948 and the $14.3 billion delivered (a full third of the national budget) was the difference between a 12 division army with 420 warships including 16 carriers, and 98,000 Marines with 70 air groups, and ten army and two Marine divisions, 238 combat ships including only seven large carriers and 48 groups. The atomic bomber force got priority, with 65% of all procurement going to the Air Force. Now the question is, just how much and how quickly can the damage be made up under "creeping mobilisation."
"Returned in Kind" The Senate subcommittee report on the hearings into McCarthy's little list did not go well for McCarthy. Of course, it was written by Millard Tydings, Theodore Green and Brien McMahon of the Democratic majority. Senators Lodge and Hickenlooper didn't read the report, didn't read the loyalty reports, and think that whatever was in the report, it was superficial and inconclusive. Senator McCarthy just says that they're all now on his enemies list. Oh, and the Senate races in Louisiana and South Carolina aren't living up to stereotypes. Russell Long is too well-educated and polite to be a real Long, and Strom Thurmond yelling at Olin Johnston isn't gentile at all. Johnston says that Strom Thurmond once entertained Sally Rand in the governor's mansion; Strom says that Johnston once stood on his head for reporters. Also, both men accuse the other of not being racist enough. The Kefauver committee has been having a fine old time investigating gambling in Florida, which apparently pretty much pays for sheriffs and the governor, and shouldn't someone!?
"Back Pay for Utes" The Utes get $31 million for the loss of their reservation in western Colorado, although the elders think that 15 million acres of western Colorado with shale oil, uranium deposits, a big chunk of two oilfields and 500,000 acres of coal is worth a lot more than $31 million. The Indian Claims Commission also awarded $3.5 million to the Choctaw and Chickasaw for Oklahoma lands taken after the Civil War, while the Navajo case for $10 million for 20,000 square miles in the Southwest has just got under way. Scottsboro boy Haywood Patterson is out of jail.
Manners and Morals reports that the Pulaski Skyway was jammed to a standstill by a mule that had gotten away from the man leading it. Doris Duke wants to build a barn for 2500 hogs on her farm. Noble County, Ohio, voted to ban Saturday night folk dancing on the courthouse square as an immoral practice. The Korean War has led to the biggest spurt in wedding ring sales since WWII. And how!
War in Asia
"Focus of Hope" Time explains the Pusan Perimeter, a last-ditch defensive line surrounding the southeast Korean port of Pusan. Lieutenant General Walton Walker will be responsible for holding a perimeter big enough to make room for three or four US divisions and the regrouped South Koreans, while keeping the port out of artillery range. Meanwhile, south of Chonan, the first significant American counterattack featured the commitment of Sherman tanks to the battle for the first time. One T-34 was knocked out and captured, but the next day the Reds counterattacked with 80 tanks that out-armoured and out-gunned the Shermans, knocking all but two of them out of action. Meanwhile, MacArthur points out that for all the talk of disaster and heavy American casualties, the actual total so far is less than 500, including 42 killed, 190 wounded and 246 missing, as of midweek. By the end of the week . . . . Speaking of which, the first DSC of the Korean War goes to Colonel Robert R. Martin, who stood down a Communist tank with his bazooka, firing his last rocket when the tank was only 15 yards away. Then he got killed. Frank Gibney went to see the South Koreans and finds that they're improving quickly.
"Last Train from Vladivostok" Time's Wilson Fielder took a cruise on Juneau, an anti-aircraft cruiser that just missed the war. (The name is a tribute to the ship the Sullivan brothers died on.) It is shooting up Red movements along the east coast of Korea. That boils down to truck headlights in the darkness. Our host is extremely skeptical that it is actually shooting at Reds, but what do you expect a pirate to say? The next night as landing party (hopefully) blew up a tunnel on the railway to Vladivostok.
"Deadlier" Time's man with the Far East Air Force reports on their strafing missions and the trouble the FEAF is having maintaining air strips in Korea before moving on to the point of the article, which is that Russian jets have been spotted in action over Chongju. "Smaller than the American F-80, with swept-back kwings, a stubby fuselage and blunt nose." Time also checked in with South Korea's cabinet, which believes that as soon as the UN starts winning this war, it should sweep past the 38th parallel and reconquer the whole of Korea. Trygve Lie is at least not ruling it out.
"What the Gitmo Thinks" Time's senior Far Eastern correspondent is, of course, on Formosa attending on the Gitmo, "Who receives no correspondence and grants no interviews." He does, however, explain exactly what the Koumintang want, and that is for MacArthur to be in charge and for the United States to be really, really nice to the Koumintang so that then it can tell them to stop making so many waves.
"How to Lose the War" Nehru is floating a "general settlement in Asia" that sees recognition of Red China as the price for ending the Korean War. Time has no time for that!
"Background for War" You would think that Korea deserves a cover story more than General Bradley, and there is a nice explainer of Korea from Mount Paektu all the way to Pusan. 75% of Koreans are peasants, 20 million in the South and 9 million in the North. The Japanese found the Koreans to be backwards and "otherwise minded," much like their ponies.
Foreign News
France has its thirteenth cabinet since liberation, Schleswig-Holstein in Germany has a new party, representing the eastern refugees. Switzerland has jukeboxes now. Some of Switzerland loves chromed, high fidelity jukeboxes and Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy. Other Swiss think that they, I don't know, clash with the mountains. (Which are allegorical.) [Some] Greeks are very happy with General Van Fleet and sad to see him go. Yugoslavia and Bulgaria are squabbling again. Britain, France and the U.S. have asked Russia if they can come in and have a good look around for, oh, say, 80,000 German POWs that might have slipped behind the couch cushions. They don't really think that the Russians will let them, but want it on record that they think that Communism is awful.
"Gross Interference" Remember when President Jackson defied the Supreme Court and said, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it," and went ahead with kicking the Cherokee Indians off their land and onto the Trail of Tears? What a scamp Old Hickory was! South Africa is the same. The International Court of Justice says that South Africa has to get the expletive deleted out of (the former German) Southwest Africa, and South Africa says no. After all, Southwest Africa is a "part-desert, part-fertile country" with only about one person per square mile. Which is to say, 38,000 whites and 317,000 blacks, so at least that's an improvement on counting the blacks as three-fifths of a person. (Andrew Jackson joke, there.) It's got "diamonds, minerals, karakul pelts and farm produce," so very valuable. 
Time concludes that Malan is much worse than Jackson, who at least sent the Cherokees Indian Territory, whereas Southwest Africa's blacks are pretty much stuck with living where they are and working for the white man.
Time concludes that Malan is much worse than Jackson, who at least sent the Cherokees Indian Territory, whereas Southwest Africa's blacks are pretty much stuck with living where they are and working for the white man.
"Maori Knight" Back in the old days, New Zealand was all for exterminating the Maoris, as long as it was done through gentle, kind means, like tuberculosis. But then the Maoris didn't die out, and so New Zealand became a paradise where "racial discrimination is unknown," and just to show that the Maori have "paid the price of citizenship" in their ancestral homeland by getting killed a lot in the wars, and have learned to "farm their land economically" thanks to the white man's science, they knighted that one Maori back in 1927. Now, Apirana Turupa Ngata has died and all of New Zealand is very sad. Except for all those New Zealanders who think he was a Liberal bagman, but since they're all Labourites, they don't count.
I don't know if you can tell, but I was being a bit sarcastic there. I'm not sure why Time is ready to denounce South African racism and not even notice it in modern New Zealand.
"Hardly Necessary" "Peasants Outclass the Mighty USA" says the Beaver's London Evening Standard. "There was no doubt," Time says, "that some Britons were drawing sly comfort from the US reverses . . ." Not sure "comfort" is quite the right word. Say hello to Uncle George, for me! A city council in, it says here, "Uttoxeter, Staffordshire" kicked a district councillor and "householder" named William Clarke out of "his" house, because, according to Time, they wanted it as a district office. But then he jimmied a window and snuck back in, and except for the usual bit about "socialism" and "planning," that's where were are now. It's Time, so I assume that there's probably more to the story, but it's not The Economist, which I almost miss, so it's not guaranteed.
Business
State of Business reports that commodity prices are up (again), consumers are rushing to stockpile the things that they most missed last war around, and the aircraft industry is doing its part by getting a headstart in stockpiling labour. On the other hand, this week the stock market is down.
"Tattered Ensign" The military sealift for Korea needs lots of bottoms, so San Francisco got to see mothballed freighters from the National Reserve Fleet this week, the first of perhaps 134 to be brought back into service, and they were not pretty. American yards haven't launched a freighter in twoyears, so they're not exactly going to get any prettier. There are only 43,000 workers in American shipyards, and the convertible liner fleet is all middle-aged. The usual lot of suspects are accordingly getting ready to rush Congress to ask for the usual mix of tax breaks and subsidies. Anything but pay precious American dollars to charter European fleets, because . . . I think my fellow Americans deserve to pay through their nose for ECA loans.
"Political Compromise" The Pan-Am/American Overseas merger has gone through at last, but the decision also allows Pan-Am to fly to Rome and Paris, previously exclusively TWA territory, and allows TWA to fly to London, previously a Pan-Am exclusive. In other words, while it reduces overseas American competition from three airlines to two, it levels the playing field by giving TWA an entre into Pan-Am's most profitable overseas destination.
"Operation Airlift" The Air Force has so far only alerted the airlines that it might need passenger and cargo airliners for the Korean airlift, unlike WWII. But also unlike WWII, the American airlines are huge, with 1660 planes compared with the 1941 fleet of 453.
Oil consumption is up to 5.45 million barrels a day, just short of the November 1948 peak, making the industry regret the state commission regulations that restricted oil production last year to prevent a glut, since now it is leading to a shortage. Texas has already increased production allowances by 700,000 barrels a day, to 2.5 million. A grocery store chain in New Jersey is trying to sell cars on the floor of their stores because that's the natural next step. (My host took one look at the picture and told me that the owner is an idiot. "He needs custard apples and mangoes up there, not cars. A lady puts a mango in her basket, then when she is in the back of the store, she buys duck and eggs to go with it. She buy a car, nothing but rice until New Year!") There is talk in Hollywood that United Artists has been sold by the original owners (Charlie Chaplin, Marie Pickford, you might have heard of them) to an investment syndicate fronted by Tom McNutt. The deal isn't final, but would fetch the owners $5 million if it goes through. Gerber's baby food business is growing like gang busters because of all the babies. (I miss the days when Time put babies in ads. They were cute!) 
Science, Medicine, Education
"Sorcerer's Apprentice" Last year it didn't rain enough in New York, and the City hired Wallace E. Howell to seed clouds upstate. This year, it is raining too much and the Orange County Board of Supervisors has asked the City to fire Howell. No can do, it says. The silver nitrate is going to keep right on falling.
"Birth of a Bomber" How long does it take to "birth" a bomber? Twice as long as it takes to "send a boy through college." (No-one knows how long it takes a girl to go through college, because she marries a chiropodist from Poughkeepsie in her Junior year and drops out to have 3.5 children. As see Pearl Buck story below.)That's the USAF's story for not "activating" the first B-47 squadron for at least another eight to ten months. That's how long it takes a jet to study for the last-chance English Composition sitting. Or finding a co-ed to sit it for him. Margueritte Higgins of the Herald-Tribune has been ordered out of Korea. It is because she is a woman, "said angry newshen Higgins." Someone's upset at having to pay a cool twenty to pass the English Composition makeup exam!
"Of Two Minds" The latest cult to make it big in America is science fiction writer Lafayette Ronald Hubbard's "dianetics." It's all in his book, Dianetics. Basically, everyone has a conscious and unconscious mind, only Hubbard gives them different names, and the unconscious has a way of nursing grudges ("engrams") that are like muscle knots that have to be worked out with counselling, only instead of psychiatrists on couches, dianetics uses technicians ("auditors") with lie detectors. Which, since lie detectors are expensive, are replaced with home made gizmos based on galvanometers 
"Lift Up Your Head" Pearl S. Buck's The Child Who Never Grew is about thirty years with her impaired child, who has been at the Training School in Vineland for an unclear amount of the last thirty years. I'm not criticising, just thinking, horribly, dreadfully, that the poor child's life can't be as happy as the article paints her, and to have Pearl S. Buck, of all people, imply that she couldn't afford to keep her daughter "borrowed as much as can be borrowed" is a bit much. On the other hand, this is a beautifully frank story about something most people don't talk about at all.
Radio and Television, Press, People
Bernard L. Schubert has bought the television rights to 60 musicals, which will begin airing on NBC twice a month in October. And Du Mont showed off a 30"(!!!) television tube in Chicago last week, hoping that bars and restaurants will appreciate the larger audiences.
"Needed, a Rule Book" SEAC has banned Tom Lambert of the AP from the Korean theatre for "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" by saying that "You don't fight two tank-equipped divisions with .30 carbines. I never saw such a useless damned war in my life." The AP complained, and General MacArthur reversed the decision and told the press that he had nothing to do with it and hates censorship, and that some nameless subordinate was responsible, probably because MacArthur has been on a tear criticising the press for exaggerating American losses. Time points out that the press had to make stuff up, because SEAC doesn't give enough briefings. At home, the Navy saids trooper sailings are a secret; the Army gives the schedule out in press releases. The Army asked the press ot to release pictures of F-51s on the deck of Boxer. The Navy puts them in press releases. No-one took responsibility until Secretary Johnson did, handing out detailed guidelines for censorship. Which didn't stop Senator Lucas from denouncing the news stories as "almost criminal." The Chicago Sun-Time has made a Page 1 pledge to stop giving out any thing that might turn out to be a top military secret at some later date. Time points out that back in WWII we had an Office of Censorship, and everything was fine. Which is not actually how I remember it. The one important thing to remember is that all of the mistakes were made by nameless other people. In other news, I now have an explanation for the state we left the bridal suite in. It involves a chicken colonel in my staff . . .
"Two Out of Three" Maybe only two Americans were killed in the "Lost Battalion" fight, but Ray Richards of Hearst and Ernie Peeler of Stars and Stripes were killed last week covering the fight. Richards was the "special advisor on international affairs to President Syngman Rhee" before going back into the field.
"Two Out of Three" Maybe only two Americans were killed in the "Lost Battalion" fight, but Ray Richards of Hearst and Ernie Peeler of Stars and Stripes were killed last week covering the fight. Richards was the "special advisor on international affairs to President Syngman Rhee" before going back into the field.
"Split Decision" The American press is debating whether it is more racially discriminatory to mention that a mixed-race marriage is mixed, or not. The Herald Tribune covered the old-money marriage of Anne Mather and Frank Curle Montero without mentioning thaqt the director of the Urban League was Coloured, because that's its policy, and the Daily News splashed pictures of the newly weds along with headline HEIRESS WEDS NEGRO SOCIAL WORKER TODAY, while the Times did the headline but not the pictures.
Wayne Harbour, 51, lives in Bedford, Iowa, and has an unusual hobby. He is skeptical of Ripley's Believe it or Not cartoons. This week, he scored a rare coup when his letter to the city of Delhi asking whether or not "the mayor of Delhi" had witnessed a dancing girl whirl for a straight twenty four hours without breaking the twenty-four raw eggs suspended on strings from her head, received a reply from Delhi to the effect that Americans sure are gullible.
"The Way Things Are" President Eisenhower has asked Columbia University students to say "hello" back to him on the street. Ruth St. Denis keeps her youthful appearance by standing on her head every morning. General Wainwright says that the answer to Red atrocities in Korea is retaliation in kind. Does that mean that General Wainwright is seriously in favour of shooting Red prisoners of war? Gabrielle Pacelli, "niece-in-law of Pope Pius XIII" is in New York. 
Frank Lloyd Wright very kindly told winners of a London architecture contest that their prizes were meaningless because the judges always throw out the good designs. King George VI thinks that only Whitehall would call "ratcatchers" "rodent operators." Our host, who knows a lot about running a grocery store considering that he's a world famous pirate says that you don't have to be a government official to avoid calling a "ratcatcher" a "ratcatcher." Van Heflin has been adopted into the Sioux tribe. Margaret Truman will have a tv show on CBS this October. Milton Caniff was in Colorado for the dedication of a giant statue of Steve Canyon, who is a character in Caniff's comic strip, Terry and the Pirates, which is about my honeymoon. The Air Force turned out some P-51s to fly formation above the statue, because there's only a little war on. In Asia. Because, we all agree, we didn't understand North Korea and misjudged it. Frankie Sinatra met Princess Margaret. Herbert Hoover is the "American alumnus of the year." Winston Churchill is in the column this week because his cow won a prize. Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman were both at the recent Roman open-air opera at the Baths of Caracalla. George Gard De Sylva, Howard Edward Babcock, Ann Henrietta Yule, Joseph Peter Grace, Evangeline Cory Booth and Else de Wolfe Mendle have died. No marriages or divorces this week, so I'm not leaving anything out. I do have to mention that Mrs. Yule was one of the world's wealthiest women due to a jute mill fortune
Frank Lloyd Wright very kindly told winners of a London architecture contest that their prizes were meaningless because the judges always throw out the good designs. King George VI thinks that only Whitehall would call "ratcatchers" "rodent operators." Our host, who knows a lot about running a grocery store considering that he's a world famous pirate says that you don't have to be a government official to avoid calling a "ratcatcher" a "ratcatcher." Van Heflin has been adopted into the Sioux tribe. Margaret Truman will have a tv show on CBS this October. Milton Caniff was in Colorado for the dedication of a giant statue of Steve Canyon, who is a character in Caniff's comic strip, Terry and the Pirates, which is about my honeymoon. The Air Force turned out some P-51s to fly formation above the statue, because there's only a little war on. In Asia. Because, we all agree, we didn't understand North Korea and misjudged it. Frankie Sinatra met Princess Margaret. Herbert Hoover is the "American alumnus of the year." Winston Churchill is in the column this week because his cow won a prize. Rita Hayworth and Ingrid Bergman were both at the recent Roman open-air opera at the Baths of Caracalla. George Gard De Sylva, Howard Edward Babcock, Ann Henrietta Yule, Joseph Peter Grace, Evangeline Cory Booth and Else de Wolfe Mendle have died. No marriages or divorces this week, so I'm not leaving anything out. I do have to mention that Mrs. Yule was one of the world's wealthiest women due to a jute mill fortune
The New Pictures has Treasure Island, Walt Disney's first for live actors only. Filmed in England to make use of some of Disney's impounded British earnings, it only has one American actor, Bobby Driscoll as Jim Hawkins, but who cares with Robert Newton "wallow[ing] outrageously" through the role of Long John Silver. Translated from the British-ese, Time liked it. The Men is about "the salvage of war-wounded paraplegics," which are the men paralysed from the waist down. Time liked everything but the score. Marlon Brando, in particular, is "chillingly" realistic, and gets a fairly long profile, considering that it is crammed in at the end of a movie review. Definitely one to watch! (And I do mean watch!)
Books
Alberto Moravia gets to cram two novellas into a single book with Two Adolescents. Time liked it because Moravia really understands teenagers, not like all those professional psychologists with their jabberwocky. Hal Ellson's Tomboy is also about teenagers, in this case the ones who belong to a slum gang. It doesn't really match up to other slum novels because Ellson is a "better reporter than a novelist." Leo Stein's Journey into the Self: Being the Letters, Papers and Journals of Leo Stein is supposed to be a journey into the centre of Gertrude Stein's earth. But not really, because only Alice B. Toklas explored that, and Stein hated her. So instead it is a journey into the centre of Leo's earth: Leo. Dick Bissell's A Stretch on the River is about a Harvard man who decides to be a Mississippi river boat pilot and then write about it. On the bright side, Bissell is trying to be funny and not profound. On the less bright side, he's not a funny man. Ruth McKenney and Richard Bransten are funny, so Time liked Here's England.
Aviation Week, 24 July 1950
News Digest reports that a McDonnell Douglas XF-88A twin-jet, afterburner-equipped fighter caught fire in mid air in a recent flight test and was wrecked in a belly landing. (Otherwise it is all financial and personal news.)
Industry Observer reports that Allison has delivered new J-35-A-17 engines with fuel lubrication changes that have passed Air Materiel Command tests. The problem grounded the F-84E. Jet bomber designs are moving towards separate nacelles for each engine. NACA has found that the explosive sounds emanating from diving jet fighters is due to "intensified soundwaves" and not afterburner problems. Avro Canada is testing the Orenda in the air, while De Havilland claims that the new dual-rotation, eight blade prop for the coupled Proteus is the largest propeller anywhere.
"Industry to Double Plane Output" To get to the 70 group target will also require 150,000 more officers and men, which, for the moment, means calling up members of the National Guard. Similar in the same spirit but with an Alexander McSurely byline is a story about "action" starting on "plane production." I won't bore you with that, because it is full of details about how no comparison with 1940 is possible because planes are about four times as hard to make, now. Also, Time has them scooped with factory and plant details.
"Turbo Liners: CAA Division Chief Discusses Problems of Transports of the Future"
Fuel, landing, pressurisation, automatic flight controls for high speeds, got it. Kelly Johnson responded by asking the CAB to get rid of all those dreary safety rules, because otherwise American builders can't compete.
I honestly can't keep straight when the American industry is superior to everyone else in the world and foreign airliners are doomed, and when it's the other way round. Meanwhile, Boeing is doing wind tunnel tests of a jet transport based on the Stratoliner.
"Air Force Position is Defended" The Air Force is ready to deliver and receive atomic attacks. That's the big job. Korea is just a temporary little mess and anyway the Air Force is doing fine. Yes, jet fighter bombers would be good, but they honestly might not come much before missiles replaced jet fightersr entirely, anyway.
The CAB now says that it has only bought one Eclipse-Pioneer autopilot, and the contract for the other twelve is still open. The Air Force is showing off yet another V-2 development, now called "the bumper." It's admittedly much better than the V-2, with a second stage and a 250 mile ceiling, but, come on, it's been five years!
"Purging Lessens Explosion Hazard" The Air Force notes that a fuel tank explosion recently happened to an XC-99 and takes some time to explain what it is doing about it, which is blowing an inert gas (nitrogen? No, CO2 is better) through the tanks to get rid of residual fuel vapour. I thought we'd been doing that since forever, and the buried point is that this is a really important thing to get right before B-29s refuel B-47s on their way to Moscow with H-bombs in large numbers. 
New Aviation Products reports that Plessy's new light plane VHF is pretty good for British stuff, that Simmonds Aerocessories has a new cowling latch that gets a full column, which, come on, it's a latch! Also, Boots Aircraft has a nutplate, w hich is much less naughty than you think, you dirty old man. Westinghouse has an "oil type" brightness control unit.
"Along P and W's Jet Production Line" Pratt and Whitney through a press junket for everybody! It's all about the Turbo-Wasp. Is there a plane it's supposed to go into, but isn't? Martin wants us to know that the new P5M-1 is getting water wings so that when you hit the throttle, it goes in the direction you want, and not the one it wants to go in. Speaking of mommy's darling planes that no-one else seems to care about, Avro is pushing ahead with Jetliner tests and reminding everyone that it has flown a lot and that if you want a jetliner, it is right there.
SAE has standardised turbine blade thicknesses for easier inspection and NACAC is doing air studies to find out what is happening with those "bumps" that may or may not be responsible for some ugly crashes.
Avionics reports on "Stick Force Indicators" which simplify testing. It is electronic, it has spring deflection controlling voltages, with variable voltage to measure a wide range of deflection forces on a Selsyn type indicator, which I am told is a fifty-year old device. By NBS, with a typically long National Bureau of Standards article. For a public agency that doesn't need to sell its wares, it sure sells its wares pretty hard! Good thing no-one reads the snorers.
Letters is mostly about light planes before coming round to BOAC's publicity man complaining that Aviation Week didn't cover BOAC's new Atlantic record. Leslie Nielsen of Curtiss-Wright was very happy with Irving Stone's article about the Tubo Cyclone.
Lots more coverage of the AOA/Pan-Am merger and the upcoming battle of the Atlantic. Japan is going to get a domestic airline, and 10% of four-engined airliners are already on the Korea airlift. CAB is sympathetic to Howard Hughes in the TWA case. What's New summrises the Fortune article on Slick Airways that I can't get at.
Besides Pullman again, Editorial is mainly devoted to explaining to the industry why it is wrong to complain about articles in Aviation Week. If you want your thing covered, write!
Time, 31 July 1950
Letters
Writers are divided on the way Time is handling the war. Bernard Frank nominates Douglas MacArthur as Man of the Century, since he won't be around in 1999 to do it. Robert Fellows Wood writes to explain that the machine shown in Edwin Elmer's The Lady of Baptist Corner, Ashfield, Mass, is a whip-lash maker. It's for making silk whip-lashes, which used to ornament the tips of buggy whips. Julius Kravetz agrees that Gaylord Babbit is just as awful as George Babbit, while V. P. Monahan and Robert Carey think that the only thing worse than a Babbit is an anti-Babbit. His anti-Babbitry makes him a Babbit! Oh dear. It's bad enough to vanish up your own belly button. When everyone is diving into everyone else's belly button . . . tt's a party at Berkeley! Not that I'd know. Elenor Schoen wonders if polio is linked to the rise in breast feeding because of the natural immune factors that might be in mother's milk. Readers offer many hints for discouraging pigeons. Our Publisher writes about Time and the war in Asia. Wilson Fielder, just off his cruise on the Juneau, is missing in action in the evacuation of Taejon, Frank Gibney is bedded down in Tokyo with grippe and dysentery, and Paris bureau chief, Andre Laguerre, in Saigon to cover "the" war in Asia, almost met his maker when the car he was driving in was showered with six hand grenades. Time's Background for War promises a rundown of the "main US antitank weapons," since it isn't right that Americans are being run down by commie pinko tanks when America invented gadgets.
General Stratemeyer, we're told, was very nice about Time and Life coverage. Now that's a general!
National Affairs
"Fifteen Years of War" Robert Taft warns that the country faces the threat of ten to fifteen years of high military spending, and calls for a 25% increase in income taxes so that the country can pay for it as it goes. America must become "a semi-garrison state" and not go on borrowing and enjoying a domestic spree.
"Slowly Stirring" Sounds better than "creeping mobilisation," which is creepy! a National Guards callup is confined to signal, ordnance and supply units. Several more Regular Army units have been alerted for possible deployment. The Navy is calling up 39,000 men of the Organised Air Reserve and various "left arm," or technical branches. The Marines are going all in, boosting fighting strength from 75,000 (I thought authorised strength was 98,000, so the Corps really was understrength) to 132,000. That's a lot of Marine reservists. On the other hand, the Corps will be about 50% good-quality WWII veterans, so look for some Red machine gun nests to face really skillful and experienced head-on charges! Cadillac has a contract for a new type of 28 ton tank for the Army, which answers the question of what the Detroit Tank Arsenal will be up to, although I am not sure what tank that is, considering that the Sherman is about 30 tons and the Pershing was a lot bigger. Various WWII bigwigs like Uncle Henry are in Washington to sniff the air and snag a contract or two.
"The Fabric of Peace" The President says that America has embarked on a "police action" to stop Communist "raw aggression," and that the country will need to lift ceilings on armed forces strength and to raise taxes to fight inflation and pay some of the costs of war.
"Contrasts" Consumers continue to stockpile, the newspapers continue to tell them to stop. The Commerce Department has revoked all trading licences with Communist Chinaand is looking out for "trapdoor" cheating. Senator Paul Douglas is so dreamy. Navy reserve fighter squadron VF-781 just became the first formation to volunteer for Korea as a unit and to be accepted as one.
"The War in Cicero" The question in Cicero, Indiana, is whether America should drop the atom bomb on Russia and get it over with. Some say yes, some say no, which is as good a way to introduce what actual strategists say about it as any. Vannevar Bush says that the Russians would love to see America use up its stockpile in Korea, while Sumner Pike says there are no atom bomb targets in Korea. Dwight Eisenhower says that we could drop them on airfields and warehouses, but not, for Gosh sakes, people. It didn't work in Germany, but maybe Koreans will have the good sense to stay well clear of warehouses and airfields.
"No. 4" The other shoe in the Klaus Fuchs espionage ring investigation has dropped on a former Manhattan Project employee named Julius Rosenberg. Also, the country is "Boiling Over" at Communists, Time tells us before rounding up a bunch of stories about how Detroit Council isn't sure about banning Communist news vendors, while Birmingham, Alabama's police commissioner, Eugene ("Bull") O'Connor is already arresting Communists on vagrancy charges and would like the city to make communism illegal, as the Constitution surely says it can do. A Communist, Bull says, is anyone who talks like a Communist in public or private, or passes out literature that touched a Communist's hand. Birmingham would be following in the footsteps of McKeesport, Pennsylvania if it does what Bull says. In Cincinnati, police juvenile officers warn teen-age clubs to watch out for Communist agitators and to be suspicious of any new member whose "background is not an open book." And in LA, World War II veteran Frank Zaffina rounded up a posse and attacked six workers as they came out of the gates of the Chrysler assembly plant, "badly mauling" three veterans of the South Pacific and leading Zaffina to conclude that he shouldn't take the law into his own hands. What law??!? Also, Harry Bridges, Chapter Eleventeen, Part A Gazillion. On the other hand, the investigation into gambling and corruption in the NYPD is leading to trouble from the police union, and Josef Krips can't conduct the Chicago Symphony Orchestra because he isn't anti-communist enough according to unnamed informants.
War in Asia
"We are There to Stay" Time explains the Pusan perimeter plan again, worries that "the next Red advance" might be in Indochina, where, I thought, the Reds were already advancing just fine, and goes on to explain the debacle at Taejon, where America seems to have finally got its Lost Battalion. Among those missing in action and presumed dead, besides Wilson Fielder, no less than Major-General William Dean, last seen fleeing Taejon with a small party. First Cavalry Division, under Hobart Gay, has now joined 24th Infantry, landing in Pusan in spite of Russian submarines "keeping close tabs on US naval movements." Time is pleased to report that there are some actual Coloured troops in the 24th Infantry Regiment, and that they saw some fighting in Yechon, which goes to show that the Korean War is not an American war "against the Coloured races of Asia," as Communist propaganda says. The profile story covers the Eighth Army's commander in Korea, Walton Walker, another of the many officers in Korea who came up through Patton's headquarters. From Patton to MacArthur . . .
"Hide and Seek" North Korea has a population of nine million people, which is the same as Australia. With that, it threw nine divisions into the attack on the south, and ti had an air force, which has been laying low since the Americans showed up, which is completely unsurprising to me, because how big could it possibly be? Does it even have the ground crew to keep its fighters flying high sortie rates? US observers say that they've probably all gone to ground in Manchuria or in "underground hangars built into the Korean mountainside." Which seems like the kind of intelligence report you'd get from twelve-year-old boys to me! Anyway, once B-29s started bombing Pyongyang, the Yaks showed up again. US bombers also report what they think was radar-controlled AA. Still no sign of more Russian jets, though. While on Formosa the Koumintang is getting ready for Communist invaders by conducting a good old fashioned purge against the Chen brothers and their supporters.
"Terror" So what about the Hundred Kingdoms of the South? The French have scrounged up a former Viet Minh who is willing to recognise Bao Dai as the legitimate Vietnamese Emperor, one Nguyen Duy Thanh, and also the French have appointed Doc Phu Tam as the head of their political police, to fight terrorism. So that pretty much means the Viet Minh are beat. Also, the Shah of Iran says that Russia is threatening him, and Nehru keeps trying to arrange a Korean peace settlement, which is just too ridiculous for words.
Background for War
Time tells us about the tanks and anti-tank weapons of the Korean War. The tanks are the 45 ton Pershing, 33 ton T-34 and 35-ton Sherman. The T-34 seems better designed and has the edge. The standard field artillery piece of the war is the 105mm howitzer. Anti-tank weapons in use in the conflict include the Army's 75mm recoilless rifle, antitank mine, the new "super bazooka" with a 3.5" rocket, about 50% bigger than the old bazooka rocket but not that much heavier; the 4.5" multiple rocket launcher, which really doesn't seem like an antitank weapon except in the sense that even a tank on the receiving end of so much firepower might be in trouble; the 4.2" mortar, which, come on, Time; the 155mm "Long Tom," which see rocket launcher above; 
and the 8' howitzer and 155mm howitzer. Reggie is a bit skeptical that either the Long Tom or the 8" howitzer are in Korea, since they are basically siege weapons, but who knows? Pusan looks like it is going to be something of a fortress battle.
and the 8' howitzer and 155mm howitzer. Reggie is a bit skeptical that either the Long Tom or the 8" howitzer are in Korea, since they are basically siege weapons, but who knows? Pusan looks like it is going to be something of a fortress battle.
There's also an interesting "box" discussion about the philosophy of antitank weapons. Apparently everyone agreed in the last war that the best antitank weapon is another tank, but there are no US tanks equal to the T-34 in Korea, so US troops have been making do with other weapons, of which the super-bazooka is the most successful so far.
Foreign News
I bet you're wondering what the Western European defence union is doing in response to Korea. Italy is also raising its army strength, and Denmark is calling up some reserves. Britain is likely to raise its defence budget, by far the largest in Europe. In Belgium, The Christian Socialists (who are not at all Socialists) have recalled the King, apparently hoping that once he comes back, he can go again.
"Ill-Defined Frontiers" Scotland Yard has been called in to find out why ten ships seem to have been sabotaged in the yards since December of 1948. Dastardly Communist scheming includes everything up to, and including leaving magnesium flares in HMS Illustrious' boiler rooms. At least one case, a fire on an ammunition lighter at Gosport, was clearly sabotage, the Prime Minister says. Sidney Frame is a London physiotherapist who sidelines in bringing long-term deserters back into the fold. He is "the trotter's friend." East German communists have refurbished a statue of Frederick the Great, which goes to show that communists are awful. West German non-communists just try to put elephants in elevated trams. True story! (It doesn't end well, but the story also adds that the other animals were fine. So the lion tamer's lions? The python? On a tram?)
In this hemisphere, Argentina is currently bad because of its "third way" between democracy and capitalism and for supporting the Korean war but not sending any troops. Canada on the other hand is going to send a transport squadron and those destroyers, but not any ground troops, at least so far. It is increasing recruiting, though. Mackenzie King gets a disgracefully short obituary. Sorry, Canada. General Walton Walker takes precedence.
Business
State of Business reports on creeping mobilisation. The aviation industry has cancelled all vaccations, the electronic industry has been alerted to a forthcoming $400 million in orders, the Detroit Arsenal is ramping up (making 45 ton tanks, not the "28 ton" models promised in the Publisher's Letter) and the President has ordered a massive slash in the money allowed for mortgage insurance for veterans, hoping that the credit crimp will divert raw materials to war industry. The President's proposed slate of war powers are thought by some to be too broad, while profits are through the roof and Wall Street is up, down or sideways. The President's pressure for more steel production is meeting resistance from the industry, same old story. It is possible that the police action will take the wind out of the whole "price supports" business. Secretary Brannen is scolding consumers for stockpiling staples, but it occurs that if they want to hoard all the sugar and flour that the Government is stuck hoarding right now, what's the harm?
"The Heart of the Matter" Time swings by Pratt and Whitney (it is a Connecticut company, after all) to find out what's up. Not much, it turns out. It has a brand new laboratory, but can't talk about what is coming out of it. Unlike Texas' Nieman Marcus, which is going to try to export fashion to Australia. I say again: Texas to Australia.
Science, Medicine, Education
"All Human Beings" UNESCO takes the time to explain to the world that human races don't exist in the sense of "genetic connection with racial traits." Ethnic groups, however, do exist. "How much do these 'ethnic groups differ in intelligence? Not much, if at all, says the UNESCO report."
"Comforting Tracks" Time explains what an omnirange is, as the CAB announces that 300 of a proposed 409 beacons are now in service. It's actually a lot clearer than a dozen (million? I lost track) Aviation Week articles. They're all-directional ranges, and you can get a bearing to any point from two of them.
"Exploring with Sound" The Air Force's latest approach to exploring the stratosphere involves setting off charges of TNT and timing their arrival at listening stations, which will differ depending on conditions in the stratosphere.
"From White to Khakis" The armed forces are trying to sort out how many doctors they're going to call up from civilian life, and who it will be. Mainly the ones that the armed forces paid to train, is the thought.
"From the Autumn Crocus" Colchicine, extracted from the said flower, might be a breast cancer treatment.
"A Choice for Becky" The terrible story of a newborn with a congenital brain tumour that left her blind. Doctors suggested surgery or radiation therapy , the parents, finally, decided on prayer.
"A Sweeter Smell" Chlorophyll reduces odors. So far, so good. Now Dr. Franklin Howard Westcott proposes to use it to treat bad breath and perspiration --internally. And he's selling tablets over the counter. I am not sure this is up to Medicine's usualy standards, even if that does include the LA doctor who was treating polio by crushing children with a pneumatic hammer.
Ohio State has surveyed its students and found that the main reason they pursue advanced degrees is that they're hoping for higher pay. The University of California isn't going to fire 39 of the 45 professors who refused to sign the anti-communist oath because of academic freedom. A big Carnegie study on The Public Library in the United States concludes that cities don't spend enough on libraries and they don't attract enough visitors. The New York Board of Education has concluded that it needs 200 new schools costing $511 million to accommodate an estimated million(!) new students.
Art, Press, People
A British peer seems to have found an unknown Rembrandt, The Flight Into Egypt, while renovating. These things happen! (But thirty canvasses sold as Maurice Utrillo originals have been found not to be same, in a lawsuit launched by . . . Utrillo.) Antwerp is having a sculpture show, and further on that, Josef Thorak, "official sculptor of the Third Reich," is getting recognition with a postwar show now that he has been certified 100% Nazi-free. He doesn't sound Nazi-free.
Duke Ellington lost weight during his whirlwind tour of Germany. William Beebe is in the news for some reason. Ava Gardner is in the news for very good reasons. Rosa Ponselle is getting divorced, Aneurin Bevan says that British doctors are softening on socialised medicine, the UA sale is going through, Connie Mack, Max Baer, Christian Dior, Betty Grable, Louis Bromfield, Ilya Ehrenburg, Robert Morley are in the news for hardly any reason at all. Upton Sinclair is offering his literary papers to any university or museum that can keep them secure against H-bomb attack. The Ashland (Wis.) advocates for putting a price on Joe Stalin's head. Rex Ingram, Carl Van Doren, Hartley Clude Myrick, Shigenori Togo, Sir Herbert Atkinson Barber and Robert Smythe Hichens have died.
The New Pictures
The Duchess of Idaho is another Esther Williams musical, just like the other ones, only in Sun Valley. Broken Arrow is an "effective merger of the old western and the new problem picture," because it "pleads the cause of the US Indian." Jeff Chandler plays Cochise as "an able strategist and a wise statesman." James Stewart plays the frontiersman who negotiates peace with the Apache and marries an Apache woman. Where the Sidewalk Ends is a "melodrama in monotone" reuniting the team that made Laura that mainly serves to make Laura look better. The Flame and the Arrow mainly gives Burt Lancaster a chance to do some acrobats and speak medieval dialogue with a Brooklyn accent, which is always funny.
Books
Lieutenant Colonel J. H. Williams tells funny stories about Elephants. Hans Richter tells less funny stories about Hitler's armies in Beyond Defeat. Don't think we need to hear about Hitler's armies "beyond defeat," but Richter is a certified anti-Nazi, so it is okay. Eric Partridge's A Dictionary of the Underworld and Here, There and Everywhere are what it says, together, on the tin. Admiral Ellis Zacharias was there Behind Closed Doors to tell us about what happened when Mr. Truman met Mr. Stalin. It turs out he didn't keep very good notes. Elizabeth Bowen's collected book reviews show that, as a book reviewer, she makes a great novelist.
Aviation Week, 31 July 1950
Industry Observer reports that GE has bought the Turbodyne engine and manufacturing rights from Northrop. McDonnell's XF-88 will win the escort fighter competition, fires or not. A very few Navy Sikorsky HO3S-1 liaison types are doing good work in Korea, and Army ones will follow. The NACA report on supersonic propellers is very encouraging. They will allow reduced size and shorter and lighter landing gear, an indirect benefit of the kind you often don't think of. The Brabazon is doing test flights.
News Digest reports that the "Bumper" test at Cocoa, Florida (sounds better than Banana River!) went off perfectly except the WAC Corporal that is the second stage fired off horizontally instead of vertically and hit 5000mph before it was blown up by remote control.
"Plans Rushed for Big Spending Programme" Congress is rushing a $5.6 billion Air Force aircraft procurement budget through at top speed. (The total Air Force procurement request is almost $11 billion. Good news for Time advertisers: "Huge batteries of calculating machines are groaning under the weight" of the procurement budget. Guess they'll have to buy more of those, too! 
A. W. Jessup, "Combat Reports Prove F-80 Can Take It" Good to know! The Air Force points out that the Korean conflict shows that the Air Force needs a jet fighter that can operate from front line air strips. Until it has that, it needs the F-51. F-80s have been operating with wingtip fuel tanks to extend their range, and carrying rockets for ground attack. The high speed of the F-80 has made the attacks inaccurate so far, compared with the F-51, but pilots think they can improve on that. The wingtip tanks are a problem on the frontline airstrips, because rough landings break the shackles, which were too weak. Jet engines also heat and soften the macadam of the strips, which leads to wheel resistance and longer takeoff runs. Monsoon overcast is also a problem. Pilots also think that the electric canopy isn't worth the trouble.
Ben S. Lee, "More Plane Unwrapping Ordered" A fancy way of saying that the Air Force has issued $50 million in reconditioning contracts while the Navy is using its own facilities. That's because the Navy never actually went with "cocooning," so its planes are easier to get at. Cocooning turns out to have been an "expensive economy."
More air aid is to abroad under the new appropriations, good news for the industry, but manpower control is out "for now." The industry will have to build up its work force on its own.
Some industry publicity tells us that the Canadian industry is ready for some big orders, the latest Convair Liner has more fuel capacity with a 225gallon wing tank to bring the total up to 1500 gallons. Pratt and Whitney is still on the publicity trail, with a book out, The Pratt and Whitney Story. The company sure was foresightful and smart, says the company!
The Navy is going to get 100 of its Dakotas modernised as "Super DC-3s," US m anufacturers are off to Britain to look at planes, Hamilton Standard's Turbo-Hydromatic propeller is flying on a light bomber, Douglas is talking about jet pods for the DC-6 and Cee-Bee bought an entire page for an advertorial about its new Air Wash, the best airplane wash treatment ever.
New Aviation Products has a GE electronic timer that is very flexible and easy to install. Barber-Colman's "Linear Actuator" is one of those rod pulleys, only it's for airplanes and goes into a servo. Security Locknut Corporation has a self-locking nut, which is right in the company name, I thought. But it is better than all the others and is good for 750 degrees. A. E. Brassenbach's cans for GE J-47s stores them vertically, which is obviously better. I mean, obviously.
Aeronautical Engineering has "Hypersonic and Unsteady Flow Studies: NACA Reports on Two years of Aerodynamic Tests and Calculations" A very worthy article about very important studies snore. I mean, it's not unimportant! Years of ever bigger, ever more elaborate propellers because you had to hold tip speeds down below the speed of sound, and suddenly supersonic speeds are okay with the right aerodynamics, which is a bloody technological revolution if you ask me. But until we see an application, it is all pretty bloodless and obtuse. 
"Pilot's Job Analyzed in Psychology Lab" I know some pilots who could do with being analysed in a Psychology Lab! Actually, it is mainly about designing cockpits so pilots don't die. I support that, too!
"Fiat G. 80: First Italian Turbojet Plane" It's a trainer, but has an interchangeable nose so that it can be used for photo reconnaissance and as a fighter.
Curtiss-Wright has the most Air Force contracts, so far. That's a big sigh from Ronnie. If you ignore these people, maybe they'll go away! Which is probably not fair to the non-engine divisions of Curtiss-Wright.
Letters Guess What? Railroads! Also, Louis Barr puts in a plug for the flying clubs of Washington state, which have been promoting airmindedness with free junkets instead of thrilling air shows, which gets some agreement from Aubrey Kleff of the Texas Company, who supports (static) exhibitions. Frank T. Courtney has a million word article about how "water-based" aircraft are the coming thing, universal disagreement notwithsdanding. Just look at how the Korean peninsula is surrounded by water. Where you can land water-based planes!
Idlewild is getting GCA, while the nonskeds are being hit by nosy parkers worried about "safety" again. Man! You crash a few thousand people (most of whom are Puerto Ricans) and suddenly everyone is upset just because you forgot to fasten a few screws or whatever.
Editorial wonders if, just maybe, we're "overselling the missile." The US still doesn't have any long range missiles, or, in fact, any service-tested or -accepted missile at all. Robert Wood concludes by calling for a United States Missile Force. (Not in so many words.)
[Cliched but timely.]
No comments:
Post a Comment