Postblogging Technology, August 1950, II: The Marines Are Here

R_. C_.,
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada

 Dear Father:

I hope I didn't give the wrong impression last week. I am not some daring aviatrix flying over the entire South Seas. I have just taken a few weekend jaunts to some islands here and there to meet with old friends of the family. It is so sedate that I have met Uncle George along the way! Of course I am trying to shore up the family's business, but my real motive is that it is so boring in Formosa with Reggie up flying around looking for Russian radio waves. (Not much sign of that, by the way.) As my boredom will solve itself soon, no-one needs to worry that I am about to crash the next generation into the vruel sea.

And with that protestation, I seem to have exhausted the space and time I have for this little note. I  hope I don't sound too exasperated at my well-wishing relatives. I even hope to see some out Formosa way this winter!

Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie

(It really is a cult!)

Time, 21 August 1950

Letters

Opinion on Korea varies. Eleanor Henry of Long Island thinks that we should drop the Bomb if we need to, while Lee Rosen of the Bronx and John Nihen of Squantum, Mass think Time has gone war crazy, although Clayton Lane of the American Institute of Pacific Relations drops a nice note about the quality of the journalism, opinions expressed notwithstanding. Commander Port of Juneau sends in the last photograph of Wilson Fielder. Nebraskans write to say that the Census missed some returns and their state is not losing population, but rather has gained 9000 inhabitants.  Our Publisher is very pleased with the Korean War, which is a great circulations boost. 

"I'll Tell You Why" America seems oddly peaceful compared with Korea. You can hardly even see mobilisation, but Americans have "cocked an anxious ear to the sounds of the battle along the Naktong." Also, Sir Gladwyn Jebb is Time's new hero, because he cuts Ambassador Malik down to size. (Unlike Time, which gives him a three page story just ahead of Foreign News, mainly because Time is so pleased with all the anti-communism going on at the UN right now.)

"The President's Week" Time's presidential court circular is a bit more interesting this week becausae the President and Averell Harriman are not fighting with General MacArthur, no sir! The trip to Formosa was absolutely above board and it was just some nervous nellies who don't understand how Formosa is now "neutralised" without war with China. Everything in Korea is fine, American forces will counterattack in October, and the Commies better watch out. Also, the President is fighting with several Senators over federal judgeships. They can't be patronage appointments for both! Also, he finally found someone that can maybe slip by Hickenlooper and the rest and onto the AEC, Dr. T. Keith Glennan, who, in spite of being a Yale-trained electrical engineer, doesn't know nothing about anything including Marx brothers other than the big five. (I'm not sure myself that Beppo is any funnier than Karl, but he gets more roles.) And a Presidential war mobilisation powers act was slipped through the House by the simple expedient of passing it to the Banking Committee and then voted on under the heading of "Boring Stuff the Boring Committee Wants Done," passing 383 to 12 because to have an opinion you've got to read it. That stuff won't fly in the Senate, though, where Robert Taft is still fighting it on the grounds that Korea is too small a war to require mobilisation and the President will use his dictatorial powers of control to do all sorts of bad stuff if you let him. Because he's a Democrat, that's why! The war income bill is getting more scrutiny because no-one wants to raise income taxs if they don't have to. 

Also, the Progressive Party has kicked Henry Wallace out and replaced him with Lee Pressman. Because pinkos are awful, that's why. Not that the President seems to understand that, with his weak-as-water response to the Mundt-Ferguson Bill, which will teach Communists to oppose America's freedom by, among other things, making it a crime for them to even apply for a passport. 

From the wilder and woolier frontiers of American politics, it turns out that electing a crank to be your mayor is a mistake, because they're not cranks just for the fun of it. Glenn Taylor ran for renomination with his own hillbilly band, and lost, with no less than Bing Crosby canvassing for his opponent and everyone stoutly saying that they're going to win in November. One Democratic boss has the party sweeping Taft and Capeheart out over war mobilisation, which I would pay money to see. 

Americana reports on a man who won a baking contest out Michigan way (he's a school bus driver, so different, you see); Detroit's Welfare Superintendent, who has taken an interest in three overweight women on welfare, stepping in to supervise their diets' An anti-hoarding campaign in New York with the slogan, "Don't be a Grabbit" (That's you, Dirty Old Men!);  and Harriett Hansen of Idaho who is running for sheriff of Boise County in spite of being a woman on grounds that she has shot a lot of mountain lions in her day.

Not in Americana, but should be, are short bits about the Kefauver Committee cross-examining Miami Beach "man of affairs," J. Myer Schine, who isn't a gambler, but does make money from gambling; and Wesley T. Shirai, a Hawaiian of Japanese descent who is enlisted in the US Army even though he is a Hiroshima survivor with  scars to prove it. 

"Background to War" It's been five years since the atom bomb explainers ran in Time, so here's a refresher about what would happen if an atom bomb hit your town. Everything within about half a mile will be levelled by blast (except for reinforced concrete buildings), burnt to a crisp, and irradiated to death by gamma rays. Anything more than two miles away will be fine, unless you were looking at the blast when it hit, in which case you are sunblind. The AEC estimates that it would take 755,000 Hiroshima-sized bombs to destroy the world, so with "real" atomic defence we will be fine. That will mean civil defence forces, effective bomb shelters, preferably below ground level in building, protected with a foot of reinforced concrete. If no bomb shelter is readily available when the sirens go off, we are to flee to the middle of the building, drop to the ground, duck, hide in the shadows or under anything. Even paper and cloth protection will reduce flash burns! "Death rays" can be protected against by thorough washing with soapless detergents or just water, to remove radioactive contaminants. Radioactive debris and mist may remain dangerous for many hours. 

War in Asia

"The Situation" The perimeter is holding, the Marines are here. On the other hand, the North Koreans almost overran Taegu airfield this week, and did force the USAF to leave the field. Time visits with Corporal Robert Davis and Jimmy Wright of the 24th Infantry Regiment, two Coloured soldiers who very diplomatically described the fighting around Masan without suggesting that the Army doesn't know what it is doing. That is left to John Osborne, who explains that the war is being fought by "savage" means, and as savage as the Americans are in blotting out villages and firing on refugee columns, our South Korean allies are even worse. He says before returning to the theme of American troops firing on refugee columns of women and children. (He also points out that even though the Americans occupied Korea for three years, they have practically no-one who speaks Korean.)

"Policies and Principles" Time is pleased that the Communist Party is losing ground with Overseas Chinese populations, and decides that it is because America is being "strong" in Korea, and Asians like strong countries. Time is sure that all Asia needs is American troops and advisors to reverse the Communist tide, and so it is off to Vietnam and Time's correspondent, Andre Liguerre, who visits a village in the Red River delta and finds locals who don't like Communists, which just goes to show. Time also thinks that Japan needs an army. 

Foreign News

Belgium's new king is the second story this week, but only because Time couldn't scrounge up a better first story than Churchill going on about Korea and atom bombs and, cleverly buried down at the bottom of the story, rearming Germany. Which brings us to Time's favourite Foreign filler, all the mean things the Moscow press says about America. Honestly. Korea has sucked up all the news. 

In this hemisphere, Canada has agreed to sell America guns and raw materials, while in Brazil, former President Vargas continues his comeback. And in the Dominican Republic, some of President Trujillo's opponents were killed by some of his supporters, and now the President is embarrassed, because there was a reason they were still alive until they were killed, which is that they are far too powerful for Trujillo to cross. Oops!

Business

State of Business reports that the Pentagon has spent almost a billion dollars a week on the Korean War so far. Also so far there is no sign of the feared disruption in radio and television production.The aviation industry is still building up slowly, Henry Rosenfeld, who made uniforms for the Marine Corps women in the war, just got an order for 244,000 summer uniforms for women recalled to active duty, which must be all branches because there can't be more lady marines than men marines? Nesco has a contract for jerricans (Time doesn't call them that, it's unpatriotic), Switlik Parachute has been told to double its plant, American Car and Foundry is making tanks. Cadillac has taken over the old Fisher bomber plant in Detroit to make tanks, but total contracts in Detroit will only run to $400 million, 5% of GM annual sales. Major General J. K. Christmas, the Army's G-4, promises that the next year's military steel consumption will only be about 6% of domestic production. 

"Tokyo Express" The Pacific Air Lift consists of 53 airliners and 98 MATS planes flying daily from Tacoma, Fairfield-Suisan and San Jose to Tokyo, lifting 100 tons a day, more ton miles than all US domestic airlines combined. Put together in only seven weeks by Major General William H. tunner, fresh from the Berlin Airlift and the Hump, it started only eight days after the war began with a Pan American DC-4, Singapore Trader. Singapore Trader's first flight was with Captain Francis Warner at the wheel, the same man who flew it across the Atlantic to serve in the Berlin Airlift. The route is via the Aleutians, if you were wondering, and one of their first loads was an emergency delivery of the new 3.5" bazookas. Another major load is aircraft engines, which are going back to America for factory overhaul. 

In shorter news, the FDA has laid down new regulations for bread ingredients, including an outright ban on emulsifiers. GM is soothing war nerves with a special dividend, the President has fired two of the RFC's top officials, perhaps because they were fighting the President's attempt to transfer RFC to the Commerce Department. Elmer Harber, Edward rowe and Walter Cosgriff are the new board. CBS is going to start offering colour television to industry over closed-circuit services, perhaps nudging the FCC towards some kind of decision on broadcast colour television. "You have to smoke a little opium before you really can see its potential," says CBS vice-president Adrian Murphy. 

"Contrary to Rumour" The rumour was that there was going to be a ban on new housing construction. There isn't, and the actual state of the industry is pretty good, currently roaring away at a record 1.25 million starts this year. The most the government is going to do is clamp down on mortgage credit. Charles Luckmann is in the news again with some kind of business or other, and Uncle Henry is off the  hook on that stockholder suit. He still has to pay something, but the judge finds no "fraud or deceit." Has the judge even met Uncle Henry?

Medicine, Education

"Rx for Snake Bite" Van Buren Philpot, Jr. currently a 27-year-old medical internist at Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn, doubles as the American expert on snakebites after researching them since 1946. His research has just been published, and it caught Time's eye. I feel like, once again, there's more to the story. Surely medical science studied snake bites before 1946! On the other hand you don't often see a medical student in his mid-twenties do this much research, so I guess it is a story. 

"Balloon Test" Dr. George N. Papanicolau[!] of New York-Hospital Cornell and two colleagues are in the Journal of the AMA this week for a new test for stomach cancer. The current test is inadequate because it doesn't work. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but Time says that "the results proved accurate in only one of three cases." The secretions they were trying to test kept dripping away. Dr. Papanicolau and his colleagues inserted a balloon into the patient's stomach and used it to collect samples, and now their test is accurate in 14 of 15 cases, which does sound better.  

Selective Service will defer college students who have been enrolled for at least  year; or were in the upper  half of their class last year; or "signed up for more college before Aug 1." 

"Televersity" Everyone  has been talking about doing university by television, but now the University of Michigan is going to actually do it. I find it very hard to believe that this is actually the first televised university extension course, but Time says it is, and who am I to doubt?

Art, Press, Radio and Television, People

The Museum of Natural History is having an exhibit. No, really. Specifically, they are showing Paul Wright's collection of plaster statuettes of "fabled animals." He made them when he was working for the Museum's taxidermy department, and now that he is a rich and famous sculptor, they pulled them out of storage. Take that, MoMA! 

Giorgio de Chirico is also having a show, while the American pavilion at the Venice Biennale is not impressing people. 

"Headline of the Week" "From the Dallas Morning News: DALLAS SYMPHONY NOT THREATENED BY KOREAN WAR.

"Completely Imaginary?" US News and World Report is in trouble for reporting a three page interviewewith a "top Yugoslav official," which turns out to be imaginary. When the Yugoslavian government pointed out that the magazine didn't even have correspondent in Belgrade, Editor Howard Flieger claimed that they flew a special correspondent to Belgrade who found the official and had a sit down with him without ever bothering to establish whether he actually was an official. That's the story! (It was about the Yugoslavian reaction to the Korean War, by the way. USNI had the Yugoslavs saying that it was a Communist diversion. I think that the actual Yugoslav position is that it is an imperialist war of aggression. Bit of a difference. 

"Covering Korea" There's a million correspondents in Korea now. The press guy at SCAP says that they're going to make up for poor coverage in the first weeks of the war by attaching a correspondent to every rifle squad. Joe Alsop tried to fly in with five pieces of luggage. Randolph Churchill was trying to cadge drinks out of the Tokyo press club almost before he landed, and the correspondents are sleeping three to a bed in Pusan. Jack Percival of some Australian paper (they're all the same, says Time)-- being put to bed between  Marguerite Higgins and Collier's Charlotte Knight. You would think that with everyting else going on in Pusan right now that he would have settled in for a quieter night's sleep than the alternative, but, no, he had to jump out of bed and run down to the street yelling. Or maybe the ladies snore, too. I'm a sorority girl and I know about these things! 

  Time particularly likes the New York Times and New York Post coverage, and gives a tiny little profile to Christopher Buckley of the Daily Telegraph, the latest correspondent to be killed in action when his jeep ran over a land mine. 

An Arizona weekly is in trouble for running an anti-liquor letter, unsigned, from "Just a Little Boy," because that is not ethical  journalism. 

"Continental Spread" Sixteen more US cities will be added to the 33 already linked by coaxial cable and microwave relay. Towns as far south as Birmingham, Alabama, and as far west as Kansas City will be joined to the network link. California is still scheduled to join the national network late in 1951, when Easterners will finally be able to watch the Tournament of Roses live. Or the parade, anyway, since the way college football types are talking, all the broadcasts will be embargoed by that time. And, as usual, some people think television is bad for you. Time is of two minds.

"Seoul City Sue" is still broadcasting to American troops from behind enemy lines, but the troops think she's boring because she doesn't have any music on the show.

Eleanor Roosevelt and Jimmy Roosevelt are in the page: Eleanor because she is a lovely old lady, and Jimmy because he is a horrid little publicity hound. Mark Clark and George Marshall are in the page because there's a war on and they are generals. Anita Garibaldi is studying to English in Roman schools, which is odd because the grand-daughter of the great Guiseppe (a hero of Italian independence, but I won't go into that because Reggie didn't know that Italy had ever not been independent) is 60. Pennsylvania Governor James Duff wants to hang all the Communists, while Dr. Emil Fuchs, father of Karl, has written the UN to tell them everything would be fine if people just talked more. Al Jolson is in Korea, and Seretse Khama and "his white queen, Ruth" are still fighting with the Foreign Office. Tennessee Williams thinks that the problem with American fiction is that America is no longer a romantic place and its authors are all romantics. Speaking of, Hemingway is not going to Korea because he is too old for wars. Oksana Kasenkina, the schoolteacher who jumped out of a third story window of the Soviet Embassy to freedom (and not suicide, as some said), is writing a novel, The Red Devil. It is about Stalin, because he is the red devil, she explains. Evelyn Waugh's historical novel, Helena, will be his most ambitious yet. Errol Flynn sounds like he's flying high.  

Princess Elizabeth has had a daughter. Brigadier General James Patrick Devereux has not. The retired Marine Corps officer who was captured at Wake and is now running for Congress had a son, instead. Radeusz Tomaszewski and George Franklin Richards have died. That's a Polish general and a Mormon prophet, or something like that.  

The New Pictures

The Furies is "a pretentious exercise in Freudian dramatics." I'm not sure what went wrong. It's a Western, it stars Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Huston, and it is based on a novel by Niven (Duel in the Sun) Busch, but it is "oversold" by pretentious dialogue, and if there is such a thing, pretentious filming. No Way Out is a "Negro-problem" picture. Time sort of liked it, but, you see, "like most films of its kind, the picture stacks its cards too obviously in the Negro's favour." Well, fancy that! 

Books

Louis Falstein's Face of a Hero is another attempt to write the Great WWII Novel, and Time is as grumpy about it as it just was at the movies. M. M. Musselman's Get a Horse! is about Musselman writing the history of the pioneering American automobilist. It was supposed to be about just the pioneering American etc., but Musselman kept getting in Musselman's way. Giovanni Guareschi's The Little World of Don Camillo is --Oh, God, it is Time's only Italian news story, but in the form of a novel. There's a godless mayor and a militant priest in a small Italian village, and they fight and fight and fight. Literally, since Don Camillo punches people. Now that's-a novel! David Loughlin's A Private Stair is a sail through Joseph Conrad's waters, and Time thinks the comparison is legitimate. We'll see, but off hand that seems more Dickensian, burden of great expectations --Look, I can't help it if the Sisters neglected your literary education! Alice Woodward's Merchant of the Ruby is a historical adventure.

Aviation Week, 21 August 1950

News Digest reports that a Pan-Am Stratocruiser has flown New York-Germany with 93 passengers booked, the largest trans-Atlantic manifest yet. Glenn L. Martin has received three orders increasing the contract for P5M-1, and twelve orders for Super-Constellations are reported. 

Industry Observer reports that the Navy will order as many as 10 Convair XP5-Y1s as transports only. Turboprop variants of the Douglas C-124A and Boeing C-97A may be coming. The turboprop variant of the McDonnell F-88 penetration fighter will add a turboprop in the nose to the two Westinghouse jet turbines in the wings, hopefully giving supersonic capability. The CF-100 has flown a publicity flight from Toronto to Montreal, setting a new intercity record. Cornell has a greatly improved version of the German pulsejet for guided missiles and helicopters. it is valveless, as the reed valve in the V-1 had been a major source of trouble. Careful ducting eliminates the need for valves. The Bristol Brabazon has very reasonable takeoff performance, at least operating under gross weight, meaning that it might e able to fly from any "first class international airport." NACA thinks that the use of boundary layer control devices could reduce the landing run of a liaison type aircraft anywhere between 25% and 40%. A turboprop version of the B-47 is in the planning stage, possibly as a test type to establish whether a turboprop version of the XB-52 is possible. Sperry is looking for a licensed manufacturer in Britain so it can market the Zero Reader for the RAF's big new night fighter contracts. Scandia has sold a third Saab transport to Brazil.

The big Aviation news this week is  CAB's proposal to control civil flying under mobilisation. They're working on the plan, and Aviation Week breaks down what might be in int. The Fairchild XC-120 is flying with its cargo pack. EWveryone is saying that Korea "points up freighter needs," which is Aviation Week talk for showing that America needs more air freighters. In spite of the fact that the Fifth

Air Force's Troop Carrier Wing still has capacity to spare. The big problem is that they really need a C-47 replacement, since the C-47 can't carry bulky loads into small airfields. Neither, of course, can the C-54, which can't land on them at all. This is why the whole "assault freighter" competition is going ahead, although I get the impression that those planes aren't really what the Air Force wants, either. A short bit lets us know that KLM is adopting the Zero REader on its Constellations. 

"Support Planes" Aviation Week reports that there aren't enough tactical support planes in Korea. There aren't really any jets that can do the job, so people are talking about resuming Corsair and Bearcat production for the Navy, while the Army is looking at the F-84. The B-45 was fairly good for the work, but only 139 were built and it is out of production. Another option is to demothball WWII fighters and bombers, but the Air Force has already cleared out a lot of the reserve under the MDAP aid to Europe programme. The Air Force assures us that jet fighters are not too fast for ground support, but they are too short-legged. The Air Force is working on more air strips close to the front lilne, and looking at a turboprop fighter bomber that might hit 500mph while delivering its load with a 2500 mile range. 

The Bell X-1 will be on show at the Boston meeting of the Air Force Association, and Eastern is experimenting with reversible props on a Constellation, and is planning to operate them on its Martin 4-0-4s.

Esso Fuel wants us to know that it has sold its gravity-feed fueling system to Lima's international airport, while Esso Standard wants us to know that it is selling its pressure feeders all over the United States. Someone at Esso needs to knock heads. Hamilton Standard has sold its air conditioners for fighters to North American for the F-95A, and Bendix Scintilla has sold ignition analysers to the Navy for 19 Martin P4M1s. 

New Aviation Products (because the above was not that) has a high heat rivet from Hi-Shear Rivet Tool, new instrument oil from Gulf Oil and Elgin National Watch, and a "Navigation Computer" from Quickputer of Forth Worth (just one of those old fashioned paper calculation aids). Also, radio ear pieces, metal washers, a shock-absorbing anvil (good idea!), hydrant type airport fueling system and high gain beacon antenna get short notes that I can't make much shorter without omitting the manufacturer, as you see.

David A. Anderson, "Pulqui II: Newest Argentine Jet Plane" Kurt Tank, formerly of Focke-Wulf, is still in Argentina designing jet fighters for Peron. It made 450mph and ground-looped on landing, so it is not doing much for Dr. Tank's reputation. 

"Largest Miller" Boeing's latest miller machine is leased from Onsrud and "is said to be the world's largest." Boeing is also working on presses and jogglers so that it can build very large planes very quickly. 

"Service Demands Cause Design Changes" More range, more guns. And the Navy is fiddling with the Douglas Skyraider to get more of its external stores internal, so t hat it can still fly.

"Special Valve in British G-Suit" From Farnborough in Britain news of the special valve, made by Hymatic Engineering Company (little roll of the eyes at engineer boys). It basically relieves air pressure in sections of the suit before the load does more damage than the "G" pressures they're supposed to counter. 

NACA wants us to know that it is now using math to study rolling phenomena. Wellworthy Pistons of Britain is making stator assemblies a new way, by directly bonding drawn steel airfoil sections to aluminum alloy roots using the "Al-Fin" process. This spares the need to machine the root directly. 

"Soviet's Newest Feederliner: Yak-16" Someone at Aviation Week was nice enough to punch up the copy so that this article sounds like it came out of an American shop.

Avionics reports on "Analog Computer Aids Plane Design" Caltech has built an analog computer to solve some aircraft structural problems that have to be attacked numerically, that is, by a sort of trial and error process where you plug the results of the last calculation into the next, which is very tedious when you're doing it by hand. The article explains how electrical analog computers work at considerable length considering how long these things have been in the news. Speaking of which, "Dynamic Stability, Control Simulator" describes pretty much the same machine, only built by MIT for the Navy and using several analog computers to feed a "flight table," which adds an arrangement of gimbals so that the table can move freely in any direction and test the responses of actual missile components to being tipped on their side and so on, as they will be in actual flight.Stanford, meanwhile, has a contract to do math on high level wind formations, while the National Bureau of Standards reports on its latest set of tests, establishing cast resin properties suitable for use in avionic circuirty. 

Rudolf Medley, "How Night Must Production Go?" Double, triple? Who knows for sure? It is likely that aircraft will be produced at a rate of 5--6000 per year, and that we will be producing 16 million lbs of aircraft compared with a peak of 90 million in 1944. "We are now trying to reach production levels which prevailed before Pearl Harbour." Except that aircraft are nothing like what they were before Pearl Harbour. It won't be a full mobilisation, because our production capabilities are so much higher. That's my reading, anyway, as Medley points out that we have 45 million square feet of aircraft factory today compared with only 7.5 million in 1940 and a peak of 110.5 million in 1944. Employment in the industry is similarly about twice what it was in 1940, at 180,000, ,still well short of 805,000 in 1944. 

Although weight of aircraft structure produced is up substantially since 1940, pounds per worker has fallen from 23lbs in 1941 (and a peak of 96 in 1944) to perhaps two-thirds of 1940, although we're not precisely sure. The figures do line up with a production of 6000 aircraft a year without too much trouble and without full mobilisation. Of course, the air force will be much smaller, too.

Letters

 Milton Arnold of the Air Transport Association of America takes up most of the page to talk about Captain R. C. Robson's recent article calling for better ILS monitoring. He explains that you cannot physically monitor the localisers without putting antenna right into the glide path, which is impractical for multiple reasons. automatic emote monitoring of the localiser beams will, of course, miss any bends in the beams, but the causes of those bends are well known and can be compensated for. GCA and ILS ought to be complementary, not rival systems, and when there is a discrepancy, this means that the ILS installation has to be redone, not corrected in that one instance. Also, a non-sked guy writes in to explain how nonsked coach services can't be regulated because it would be against freedom. 

BOAC has the highest profit in its history, American Airlines has graduated 26 trainee stewardesses in a special class, TWA's 2-0-2s have been recertified to takeoff at 43,000lbs, the heaviest twin transport takeoff weight ever. The 2-0-2s' troubles better be behind it! TWA has dropped its suit against the Pan-AOA merger and is continuing to replace DC-4s with Constellations.

Blaine Stubblefield writes to say that he has settled back into Idaho just fine and is even married now. Lucky woman! What's New really liked Charles Zwang's Flying the Ominrange, and editorial is just gone. Just like Blaine Stubblefield disappeared one day, although hopefully not for the same reason. 

Time, 28 August 1950

Letters

E. R. Kilcoyne thinks that Senators should be less frivolous, because there's a war on. Sherman S. Willse of New York City writes to correct everyone on drug slang. Ernest Warden tells funny stories about the hangman. Ralph Harlow is upset that his cousin, Ronald Ushur, left Martin Luther off his "irreducible list" of important events in European history. Time points out that S. Ralph Harlow can't read, and that Howard Handleman of the International News Service is also missing the point. It's not that it was okay to report on the Marines arriving in Pusan because there were bands playing and refugees watching; it was that the INS broke the wire service embargo and published first. 

National Affairs

Time spends a page wringing its hands about the fact that Korea is a very small war and that there hasn't been much mobilisation because there doesn't need to be, but also on the other hand maybe it will turn into a very big war and then we will have needed all of that mobilisation and what then, hunh? I haven't read this much journalistic going-around-in-circles since I lost my subscription to The Economist to the epidemic. 

Harold Stassen doesn't have any time for hand wringing. He wants us to issue an ultimatum to the Russians. One more Korea, see, and Moscow gets it, see? That's how we do diplomacy in the old country! By the way, in case you're looking at all those American boys dead in Korea (never mind the refugees!), and are asking yourself, "Blood on Whose Hands?"Time has the answer! It's not, as you might think, the economists and isolationists of the GOP who fought military budgets and military aid. It's them and the Democrats, who did stuff.

Although to be fair to Time, even it has had enough when Kenneth Wherry tries to shout down Millard Tydings' report that the United States gave South Korea almost $800 million in military aid before the war. It lays out Wherry's votes against the military assistance programme, foreign economic aid, the Atlantic pact, the Greek-Turkish aid package, and selective service in a footnote. In spite of which occasional injections of the actual historical record, it sounds as though the Senate race in Illinois is getting hot. 

A whole page follows on Senate politics, motivated, I think, by the fact that Matthew Neely (D. W. Virginia) successfully delayed the vote on the presidential war powers bill. This has Time so upset that it introduces Neely as "a spouter of purple poetrty and a wearer of tweed suits that come in shades of lemon and green." That's bad. I think. Honestly, why shouldn't a sweet, 75 year old man wear something a bit colourful? Anyway, Neely is going to stand in as an example of all the bad Senators doing bad things instead of the nation's business. Except Paul Douglas. He's so dreamy.  Also, the House passed bills extending Social Security to another ten million people, and excluding "fishing contests from lottery laws."

Tearing its eyes away from Congress, Time notices that another atom spy has been arrested; that the Administration has had enough of being needled in the UN about "the Negro problem" and so is sending Edith Sampson to join the US Delegation; that General Walter Bedell Smith is replacing Rear Admiral Roscoe Hillenkoetter as head of the CIA; and that unemployment is so low in New York that the state fired 500 workers in the unemployment office because there was nothing for them to do.  Speaking of an "overheating" economy, Time stops by the "housewife" department and gets an earful about rising prices. To its credit, I think this is why Mr. Luce's organ is so enthusiastic about Presidential price (and maybe wage) control powers. Without them, inflation is bound to keep on going as long as we try to mobilise while still maintaining a peacetime economy. And as Senator Taft points out (Gah! I'm agreeing with Bob Taft!) Korea is far too small a war (9000 US casualties so far) to justify a total war mobilisation. The only argument for mobilisation is that either we expect the Russians to attack us any minute now, which would be suicide, or we expect to be attacking someone. Specifically, of course, Red China. And by "we," I mean Henry Luce. Henry Luce expects to be attacking Red China soon. 

"Fortune's Child" I do not forgive Time when it stares at its own navel when the bellybutton is labelled "Connecticut." New York, on the other hand, I give at least half a pass. It is an important city. So what I am saying is that I actually read and want to say something about this very long profile of Mayor O'Dwyer, commissioned on the occasion of his resignation to be Ambassador to Mexico. Time's forensic analysis is that O'Dwyer's marriage to Sloan Simpson last November year smelled of politicking, but O'Dwyer had pretty much ruined things by coming out against Truman in '48 and running against Tammany Hall. Then on top of that he took on graft in the police force, which is always a bad way for a mayor of New York to go. When he was somehow re-elected, Time says, there developed a little scheme in New York City politics where the Mayor would resign, a Democratic ward boss would replace him, a special  mayoral election to coincide with the gubernatorial and Senate elections would bring out the voters and sweep the Democrats into Albany and the Senate, and O'Dwyer would get a cushy retirement gig as ambassador to Mexico. So it was proposed, and so it was done, and off goes O'Dwyer, arm in arm with the one and only Sloan. 

Fascinating. And a very, very long winded way of saying that the horrible Mr. Dulles was somehow cheated of his rightful place in the Senate by that (liberal Jew!) Herbert Lehman. If true, though, I am very glad to hear of the Mighty Sloan's role in the downfall of the Dulles brothers.

"20,000 Men a Month" The Army expects 100,000 draftees to be on their way to Korea by the end of October, fifty thousand more in November,with a final target in the range of 20,000 men a month. Selective Service is up to considering 23 and 24-year-olds and married men may follow if Congress can pass a dependency bill. Eighteen-year-olds, who could previously avoid Selective Service by signing up for a year, must now enlist for two years or wait for the draft. Secretary Johnson is now calling for universal military training again. It would be a six-month stint for 17 and 18-year-olds, that is, for school-leavers, followed by shorter call ups for refresher training in reserve units. The problem is that introducing UMT now is too late for Korea, and would cost too many regulars for training cadres, and we don't have enough regulars already. (Also in regulars-in-Korea news, the President has reinstituted the death penalty for desertion, aiding another to desert, disobeying or assaulting a superior officer, and sleeping or drinking while on duty as a sentinel. These are war powers, so the "police action" is getting more and more like a war.)

Americana reports on l ittle Rose Marie Ball, the four year old who was locked in a Roxbury Supermarket after hours. It took two hours for rescue to come, and Rose Marie helped speed them along by getting into the "bananas, ice cream, grapes, orangeade. She had discovered the liquor supply when the owner arrived to let her out." Quite the four-year-old! In Houston, Texas, where two wealthy residents already have their own bomb shelters, a contractor sent out 7500 brochures for a "$2000, igloo-shaped shelter that can house ten people." Keeping up with the post-Armageddon Joneses! In between atomic wars, they can be used as wine cellars or utility rooms. A San Francisco spinster has gotten off a spell in the rest home when the jury in her case decided that going off on the Secret Service when she couldn't see the President wasn't insane, because, really, who wouldn't? In Pasadena, the cops writing the sergeant's exam all failed because they couldn't define some "underworld slang" culled from, as the chief said, "detective fiction crime terms." The one officer who passed the test on the strength fo reading detective stories in The Saturday Evening Post was a bit disappointed. And longshoremen are refusing to unload Russian crab meat and furs, shipped to the United States in a British consignment from their goods-for-timber swap of a few years back. The British are upset, the AFL is upset, the Reds are fine.

Under Communist, not Americana, word that artist Rockwell Kent has been denied a passport to go sit on an art jury in Prague because Communism is bad because it deprives people of freedoms like foreign travel. 

"Bad News" Libby Holman's son has died. She's a Thirties torch singer --she still records, but that's when she was famous-- who lost two husbands tragically. Or not, since one of them might have been a murder. "To lose two seems like carelessness." I'm terrible, because she certainly didn't murder her son, who fell of Mt. Whitney. Time is pleased to report that playwright Irwin Shaw has withdrawn his anti-war play, Bury the Dead, because war against Communism is just fine. 

Background for War

"Report on Indo-China" Since we're already fighting in Korea, how about a round of War in the Hundred Kingdoms on the side? I know, I know, calling it "the Hundred Kingdoms" is Reggie's way of showing off how many cheap novels he read while getting his classical education, but this is a full page on the theme of how much Time doesn't know about "French Indo-China." France has 150,000 men, a quarter of its navy (Ooh! Ah! A quarter of the mighty French Navy!) and half of its air force in Indo-China, and following the Time line, the Asian respects only strength blah blah and therefore the question is whether the French are manly enough to fight to the weight of the men that they have. Time's local confidants try to let Time down gently, blandly implying that while Ho maybe bad in that he is a Communist, he is also strong, unlike Bao Dai ("[W]ho commands great respect," Time blithely says, later), and therefore a bulwark against Chinese (excuse me, "Red") invasion. Having implicitly waved good bye to the French and pledged allegiance to Ho and the Viet Minh as the nation's defenders against the north, the locals look at Time and wait on its response, which is to blithely ignore them, because, after all, Communism is bad.  and that's good. As for the French, the soldiers on the ground are described as Goums, (who are actually just the Moroccans, I'm told), and legionnaires, who are often blond, which means that they are all ex-Afrika Korps. Those less friendly to the French adventure in Viet Nam are more likely to say "SS," but either way I'm also told that that is romantic exaggeration. 

As you might expect, my source is Uncle George, who is enemy to all romantic exaggeration except his own. 

Henry Luce's organ goes on: "[T]here is no doubt that if Stalin threw caution to the winds and ordered Mao to march south with everything he had, the French would be swept into the sea." The local Reds are talking about a "general offensive" in the fall, but "there is no doubt" that they are too weak to expell the French. Time is polite to Ho, but posits that he is a figurehead of the Viet Minh Politburo, led by "rising young extremists" like Vo Nguyen Giap. Who is "ruthless" and "bloodthirsty" and massacres whole villages while burying French prisoners alive. 

Time proceeds to scrounge up the usual signs of better times in the offing. The one native Vietnamese official is honest and energetic; a battalion of Viet Minh defected together a few months ago; The village militias are fiercely anti-Communist. America should give the Viet Namese a bunch of money to build their own state and they they will defeat the Communists on their own. 

War in Asia reports on "The Turning Point?" US and South Korean troops are still holding a perimeter around Pusan, and Northern attacks are being punished by heavy artillery and air attack. Time correspondent James Bell checks in from "No Name Ridge," assaulted last week by the Marines after a heavy artillery bombardment and a quarter-hour attack by Marine Corsairs armed with bombs, rockets and machine guns, followed by another bombardment and then another air attack. The Marines then attacked, bravely and heedless of casualties until they were almost at the top, and then broke and recoiled. Then there was yet another bombardment, and then there was a second wave assault, and the Marines took the hilltop. Everyone was brave, the South Koreans were good stretcher bearers, and lots of brave boys died bravely. Not a word on the North Koreans who stood up to all that air attack, and, as Uncle George points out, were probably out of ammunition when the second wave went in. 

"Massacre at Hill 303" In the worst North Korean war crime yet, 31 American prisoners were killed by their North Korean guards after the prisoner of war column was cut off trying to cross the Naktong back into Red territory. 

War in Asia

The biggest news out of Asia is that FEAF B-29s are being used in tactical attacks on the Pusan Perimeter. A little less important is the killing of the Karen leader, Saw Ba U Gyi and the arrest of Gordon S. Seagrave in Burma. Britain is sending two battalions to Korea from the Hong Kong garrison as the first installment of a 6000 man commitment. Jakob Malik is an "upside down philosopher," which is interesting to me since the whole point of The German Ideology is that you  have to turn political philosophy on its head to understand it, but maybe I am a fellow traveller educated by a secret communist just for knowing that. And Ambassador Tsiang Ting-fu (confusingly introduced as a Chinese history professor, which he was before becoming ambassador to the United States and the UN, which is not mentioned in the article) gave a speech to the General Assembly that Time just loved because he says that real Chinese think that the Russians are the real imperialists. In the Philippines, Mrs. Maria Concepcion Lim Planas read the UN appeal for arms and men to fight in Korea, and patriotically offered her "several" personal arms depots containing a thousand tanks and all sorts of other field equipment. This caused a mild stir. It turned out that Mrs. Planas did own several depots of war materials, which she had bought from the Philippine Surplus Property Commission, but on inspection they were smaller than reported and had been out in the weather for several years, and there were only three Sherman tanks and three half-tracks in operable commission, which means that Mrs. Plana was some kind of lunatic, people said. Which upset Mrs. Plana, who is no longer donating her munitions depots to the UN (unfortunately, Manila is just going to take them, because let's be reasonable for a second  here), and is instead devoting her time to her Spirit Science church and running for President of the Philippines. 

"Butler in the Waiting Room" 

Speaking of insane lunatics who listen to spirit voices from the vast deep, Clement Atlee made a statement to the effect that Britain backs America in Korea but not Formosa. Atlee, "top lofty and ill-informed as ever," has singled out General MacArthur as the troublemaker getting in the way of mutual recognition of Britain and Red China and the resumption of normal trade relations. Time thinks that he is "peevish," and points out that he is doing the bidding of various "left-wing press and politicians," and that the Conservatives have "quieter misgivings" about the government's China policy. As upset as Time is at Britain's policy, it takes time out to criticise the Administration for not being more pro-Koumintang. No mention of Koumintang piracy against Hong Kong-owned shipping in the South China seas, either. 

Foreign News

Churchill's proposal for a "joint European army" has been buried. Some "members of European society," such as King Farouk and the Aga Khan are swanning about Europe as if they have no idea that the menace of hordes of Red tanks are hanging over the continent. They even ate strawberries and cream and watched a belly dancer! Other than that, the Riviera is pretty empty of high-rolling  tourists, because most people know that this is the time to be very, very serious about Red tanks and not bet large amounts of money on the roulette table. Also, the Ital-Yugoslav border has been closed because of too much cross-border shopping, and something something Rumania communism terrible.

Business

Stocks are still up, forcing Time to make up a new story about why, since the stories are only good for a week. This time, it's the war, and not those huge dividends everyone is paying. Welll, it's probably the dividends, but if Time started out by saying that it wouldn't be much of a story. 

State of Business reports that prices are up. The Federal Reserve has stepped in to boost interest rates and soak up money with bond sales. 

"Family Affair" So the story of heavy metal for the Army so far is this. Cadillac is building the new light tank. American Car and Foundry and Massey-Harris are making howitzer carriages. International Harvester is making "armament personnel carriers." Pacific Car and Foundry is making gun motor carriages. Fixed prices are not allowed, or won't be allowed until the run is well on, so that companies do not capture extra profits, as they did in WWII. Everything is to be standardised, so that all the light tanks will receive a specially-developed Continental air-cooled engine, and not the five different engines of WWII. The Ordnance Department is going to set up five tank-producing regions in the United States, each of which will be self-contained in the event of full mobilisation. This will distribute the burden of mobilisation fairly and reduce large-scale migration to a few industrial centres. No new plants will be built or converted, which means that Detroit won't be a major tank-producing centre, as its plants are too light duty for tank production. 

"Off With Their Heads" Time loves the New Haven, because that's how  Time gets to work, but it hasn't talked about it much lately, because of that accident. Well, bygones be bygones, and Fred Dumaine's backstage cuts are bothering Time so much that it is time to talk about the New Haven rail again. 

In shorter news, again, the Pan-American-American Overseas merger and divestiture of routes to TWA. WHY IS THIS STILL NEWS? (Because TWA finally dropped its suit. Ronnie is sorry that she yelled.) Booth and Flinn is on the block to cover the inheritance tax after Rex Flinn died and left it to his daughter. Robert Walton Goelet's estate has been settled. He died in 1941, and the Probate Court has finally decided that the tax man gets $15.5 million, estate and administrative fees get $1.2 million, and the heirs have to share $2.8 million between the four of them. Might as well check into the poor house on the way out the door. The liner Liberte, formerly Europa, is on its way.  Packard Motors has its 1951s out, in spite of being struck and having trouble finding a new President after George T. Christopher quit, as some people somewhere are on about rats and sinking ships. Finally, the 65-year-old Treasurer, Hugh Ferry, agreed to take on the job temporarily. He says that the $20 million that Packard has scrounged up to fund the new line will see the company through to better days ahead. If not, Ferry can still collect Social Security. 

Science, Medicine, Education

"Weather or Not" There's so little Science these days that we missed the whole page last week. This week Science gets the cover, but it is Langmuir's travelling rain-making show, in New Mexico this week. Time faithfully points out that the Weather Bureau thinks that Langmuir and his proteges[!] are so full of so much tommyrot, but they are just "conservative meteorologists," says Time, which has evidently picked a side.  

There you go. Science. At least last week we also learned how atom bombs kill you, which is sort of science.

"Hope for the Greying" Drs. James Hundley and Robert B. Ing of the National Institute of Health recently stopped the copper in some rats' diet for eight weeks, at the end of which time their fur went grey. Put back on copper, they regrew black fur. They suggest a copper-rich diet to address premature greying, but carefully point out that native copper is poisonous, so don't take that!

"No More Interns?" Dr. William Leet Hart, Dean of the University of Texas' Southwestern Medical School, thinks that medical internships are a big waste of time and should be done away with in favour of a year's practical training as an assistant to a "small-town doctor." Get 'em out and earning, and also married with kids, Dr. Hart thinks. 

"Call the Doctor" One exciting job that former internists could do is stringing telephone wire. Country doctor Leander Bryan of Rutledge, Tennessee, has gotten into the business of late due to the telephone company not keeping up his service. He has his own lineman and sometimes drives the lines to find breaks himself. And he has his own switchboard and operator and even some party line subscribers. Are we sure he's still actually a doctor?

"A Finger for an Eye" Time got a copy of Dr. Daniel B. Kirby's Surgery of the Cataract over the transom, and is dying to tell us what's in it. Did you know that cataract surgery is mentioned in the Code of Hammurabi? (Never mind, it was a long time ago.) Ever since, this doctor and that doctor has been doing it. Except in the Dark Ages, of course.

"Smarties" The "smarties" at Oxford do not attend lectures, unless they have nothing to do with studies, do not do science, "must have read" Waugh, Capote, Raymond Chandler, Nancy Mitford, and must not have read Beverly Nichols or Elizabeth Bowen. They know no women, and certainly no women undergraduates. They have cars, Bentleys and Allards if rich, Humbers or Triumphs if not, and will not be seen dead on bicycles. "As it is virtually impossible to obtain smart food in Oxford, most smarties do not eat." I think someone's pulling someone's leg. 

Lucy Sprague Mitchell's Our Children and Our Schools is out. If you don't know the name, she has been running a "progressive nursery school" in Manhattan since 1913. She's Time's favourite kind of progressive, the progressive who saves most of her ammunition for other progressives who go too far and allow too much "chaos" and "tommyrot."

Art, Press, Radio and Television, People

Giovanni Antonio Bazzi, "Il Sodoma," is getting a retrospective on the 400th anniversary of his death in his home town of Siena. Francis Guber, who may or may not have been a "Sodoma" on the strength of his ghastly nudes, is getting a gallery show. Oh, wait, no, he was an "overpowering gay blade" who died of asthma and TB at the same time in 1948 at the age of only 36. Sounds like one of those. And now he's dead and famous and is having, like I said, a show. 

That New York newspaper strike is over, which is a shame because it always guaranteed a good long article in Press that I didn't need to talk about. There has been a reshuffling at the Hearst board so another Hearst grandson can get a job. There are 300 international correspondents from 19 nations accredited to Korea, but only one of them, the Daily Worker's Alan Winnington, is with the North Korean army. He is in trouble for quoting "Party line" comments from American POWs. Time is pleased to report that in the rest of the world, "the communist press was having no such freedom." Japan and Germany are both cracking down on the communist press (yay . . .?) and William Pardon Burns (which is a real name), who is the editor of the Sydney Tribune, has been sent to jail for nine months for sedition. 

"A Few Fungoes" Well. A few weeks ago, Time tells us, nightstick-wielding cops broke up a communist "peace" rally in Manhattan. James Wechsler, editor of the New York Post, was very upset and complained that if you let police bash in the heads of Communist protestors just because they are spouting the party line on Korea, that's not really freedom, is it. Also, beating peoples' brains in is probably wrong, I think. This week, a staffer blasted back that because the "rioters" were giving aid and comfort to the enemy, they should have been thrown in jail and tried for treason, so really they got off lightly what with the heads being bashed in and all. If you'd seen the casualties, the staffer concluded, you would probably grab a baseball bat and start bashing in the heads of a few "fungoes" yourself. And Wechsler printed that, too. Which goes to show that I wasn't being facetious when I summarised the article. Time really does think that you should grab a bat and go bash in the heads of a few Communists. I have no words.

Paramount is going to show four Western Conference football games in theatres this fall on closed circuit television, no hip flasks allowed. Spoilsports! There are now 25 radio reporters with the UN forces in Korea, up from six at the beginning of the war, which makes radio as undermanned as MacArthur's forces. TV hasn't managed to find a way to compete with radio yet, rebroadcasting newsreels, although CBS has a keen relief map of Korea which Doublas Edwards can point at as he reviews the day's events, and radio ratings are comfortably up.   

Patricia Morison, William D. Leahy, Bernard Baruch and the Eisenhowers are in the page for some reason. Dorothy Parker has remarried, her second husband.  Harold Medina and Chester Nimitz received gold plaques from the New York Board of Trade for being so wonderful. Elsa Schiaparelli is in trouble for trying to smuggle $1485 and some jewelry out of France. "Klondike Kate" Duren showed up for something called "the 19th Annual Reunion of Alaska Sourdoughs." Stephen Spender tells a Harvard poetry conference that "[W]hat has always been the essential condition for creating poetry --the assurance of a continuity in civilisation-- is lost." WHAT DOES THAT MEAN, STEPHEN? Someone got in a good one at Hedda Hopper, Hedda Hopper reports. 

Princess Alix of Luxembourg has married, as has Samuel Goldwyn, Jr. Rosa Melba Ponselle has died, as has Christopher Smith Reynolds, which is what we call Libby Holman's boy when we need reminding that he was a Reynolds heir. So have William McGarel Hogg and Stephen Duggan. A bit of a departure for Milestones are short notices of the deaths of Saw Ba U Gyi and Julien Lahaut, "boss of Belgium's Communists," who was "shot and killed by unidentified assailants." It really seems like that should have been a news story. 

The New Pictures

The Petty Girl is "an apocryphal account" of how George Petty discovered his talent for drawing cheesecake.  Time likes it and was happy with Joan Caufield as a real life Petty girl who can also fall over things (because farce!) and with Elsa Lanchester, who is past being a Petty girl, and Melville Cooper, who was never a Petty girl, falling over twice as many things because otherwise they'd be on half pay.  Difficult Years is the latest Italian serious movie, directed by Luigi Zampa, who, we're told, is one of Italy's big four, even if you haven't heard of him yet. A quiet Big Four. The movie has Fascism and kids and sadness. Edge of Doom is an RKO dramatisation of Leo Brady's novel about "a twisted youth who kills a priest." Time thought it was pretty boring.

Books

Blah blah William Faulkner blah.   Victor Serge's The Case of Comrade Tulayev doesn't promise much of an improvement over a fondling review of a bunch of Faulkner short stories at the head, but it saves itself by being a hostile review of the true-life murder mystery by the late Russian emigre. I think maybe he wasn't anti-communist enough for Time? Just a guess, mind you, as the reviewers at the back are sometimes allowed to go off the party line. Hah! The Time party line. How do you like it when it's turned around on you, Time? Never mind me, I'm getting giddy about being almost done with this horrid paper for another month. Still better than The Economist, but I've had just about enough of Henry Luce's Grand Guignol routine. Frances and Richard Lockridge's Cats and People is a nice book about people and cats. With pictures. That's better. And Betty MacDonald's Anybody Can Do Anything is a girl's work  memoir from the deep of the Thirties, when she was struggling to make a living as the worst shorthand typist in Seattle until she made it big with The Egg and I. 

Aviation Week, 28 August 1950

News Digest reports that the Electronics Mobilisation Committee is calling for $1.5 billion in electronics production in the next 15 months. For mobilisation. TWA will start 2-0-2 service out of New York in September. An American DC-6 recently lost the No. 3 engine, "presumably due to propeller failure," resulting in the death of one male passenger in a heart attack, and five others and a stewardess being "slightly injured as a result of damage to the fuselage between the first four rows of seats." In other words, a blade tip smashed into the cabin. A third AJ-1 Navy bomber has been destroyed by its R-2800 tearing loose, this one at 25,000ft. The test crew bailed out and survived. The New York Port Authority forecasts a 238% increase in passenger intercity air miles by 1980, by which time I may expect my grandchildren to be flying to see me. Everyone is making huge profits.

Industry Observer reports that Stanley Aviation is stepping up its work on heavy-duty cargo dropping equipment to drop heavy things on rugged terrain. Cessna is making liaison planes for the Army, while Aeronca is also bouncing back making bazooka launchers. The first Canadian-made F-86 flies just fine. Boeing is extending its airfield to 10,000ft for the XB-52. Aeronautical Radio is building a big station in Hawaii. British sources report that a new jet bomber, expected to fly at over 600mph and above 55,000ft and twice as big as a Lancaster, will roll out next spring. 

"New Orders Coming for Tactical Planes" The Army is ordering assault transports, light bombers, copters and long-range fighters. B-45 production is going to be restarted, and the Army is making a new push for air mobility. The Army is particularly concerned about the time it takes to unload existing air freighters, which really aren't designed for loading and unloading. The army wants freighters with unloading floors at truck height and possibly ramp loading. The Army is also answering the Air Force's claim that jets are just fine for ground support in spite of their higher speeds. The Air Force had hoped to bring the jets in and out faster by using air controllers using "radar intercept methods," but that didn't work out. Enemy piston-engined planes, which came in low below radar and struck their targets without interception, show what is needed. The Army wants an "on-call fighter" with good loiter, possibly a swept-wing version of the Douglas A2D or the XF-88, a new helicopter, and perhaps some kind of convertaplane. 

"Bigger Prop for Bigger Jobs" Wright Aeronautical is showing off an eight-blade dual prop with blades that look at least 7ft long. Exactly what engine would produce enough power for this prop isn't clear, as the biggest plant anyone is working on is the Northrop Turbodyne, and even though GE has bought the Turbodyne from Northrop I'm not sure it is going anywhere. I guess the idea is it might go on the XB-52 if it is built as a turboprop. 

"Australia Builds British Designs" The Hawker P-1081 is the latest, following the Canberra, Lincoln and Vampire as domestic production.

Alexander McSurely, "Props on Top" The  big new air procurement programme probably spends more money on props than jets when all is said and done, because of all the transports and because of the prospects of the new turboprops. This is due to Korea showing that the short range of existing jet fighters is a real problem. We knew that, didn't we?

A short story points out that the Pacific airlift still isn't a big drag on air carriers. 

What's Ahead in Congress appears in the middle of the paper to talk about "new leadership in Congress," which mostly consists of Representative Vinson taking the bit between his teeth. Other congressmen have views about postal routes and railroad subsidies.

Equipment reports that "Airlines Buying Dural Propellers" Hollow steel is out and aluminum is in as weight matters less, maintenance more. Also, the Air Force is buying more Lear autopilots and someone has a keen new life jacket. The above, once again, are not New Aviation Products, which embarrasses itself once again with more fuel bowsers and Foreman Insulating Screw Corporation's plastic-metal screws. Look, I know that Sorority Girls (and, yes, I know that Stanford Sorority Girls aren't real Sorority Girls, so shut up!) aren't supposed to be handy, but I've stripped enough screws in my time to be suspicious of someone making them even more flimsy! But they insulate, and that's good. Also, better windsocks (seriously?), a "tube reducing machine," a new potentiometer, and an improved die filer hit the Also on the Market featurette. Hey, manufacturers! You want to be mentioned by name and address in my highly prestigious, much-read family newsletter? Pony up for the main section!

Aeronautical Engineering checks in with the trainer competition. Yawn. 

"France Pushes Plane Production" Pictures of slightly dubious new French planes.

Production reports that there is plenty of aircraft aluminum for the number of pallanes we['re making.  

Air Transport has "Passenger Reaction to Turboprop" They like them. Not only is the service flown in 57 minutes, compared with 90 minutes on existing planes, but it was very quiet and comfortable. The cabin air pumps were more irritating than the engines. The Viscount, by the box score, took off at 42,500lbs, with 5305lbs fuel on board, enough for an endurance of 2h 14 minutes, and a payload of 6765lbs, for a flight of 57 minutes, 1 hr 6 minutes block to block. Fuel consumption was 325 imperial gallons, 11.11 lb/minute, with consumption at 300 gallons per hour on th eclimb, 285 on the cruise, 165 on the descent. Cruising speed was 265mph true at 10,000ft, engines at 13,500rpm,, engines delivering 625shp each. Windows are pleasantly large but the seats were a bit pinched, although this will be fixed in production Viscounts. Production models will carry 40 pasengers and some cargo and be a bit faster, cruising at 312mph true. Delivery of production models will start in the fall of '52.

What's New lets us in on the new Aircraft Seat Manual, by Burns Aero seat Company, which is arranged to allow insertion of monthly bulletins to keep it up to date. (Even better, How to Increase Profitable Sales!)

Robert H. Wood's Editorial is back, hitting where it hurts with a full page examination of the voting record of Oswald Ryan of the CAB. He has been a very, very bad, pro-Pan Am little boy.