"Canon," it turns out, is the Japanese form of Guanyin, Bodhisattva of Mercy. Gung Hey Fat Choy!
Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada
Dear Father:
I have now had a month to test the idea that third year law school isn't a very serious affair, and so far the conventional wisdom seems about right. Most of my classmates are looking for jobs with firms which they will hold as "articling students" while they prepare to pass the bar so that they can be real lawyers. So many hurdles to jump over! Once again, I am going to fall behind my classmates for family reasons, but while it is not fair, it is the life that we wives have signed up for. Although I can't remember actually signing up for something? I must have, though. No-one would just impose these rules on you!
Yes, yes, women complaining. And meanwhile I am telling you how to do your business (developing subdivisions departments.) But there really is just the most interesting article about Levittown in the current Fortune and all the men in the family (but especially Uncle Henry) should read it.
All that said, I do actually have some homework to do, so I should go do it, signing myself,
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
Leaders
"A Real Fighting Force" The RAF is splendid' "Ups and Downs" BOAC is splendid! (Because it made money. BEA, which lost money, lost a lot of it to things like taxes and wages, so that's a good thing!) That's Flight, hard hitting as always, and it gets worse!
Professor A. M. Low, "The First Guided Missile" Professor Low remembers the old days, before the war, and not any known manual of style, which would have told him that he needs to use initials or a Christian name, and not a title. Think of the poor cataloguer! (It's Archibald, says Who's Who.)
After all of that it will not be surprising to hear that the Canberra has set two more records of the "fastest flight time over 7999 miles carrying 1000lbs cargo" or such. And the Chief of the Australian Air Staff says that Australian airfields are going to be built to carry a two-engine supersonic aircraft, which is what Australia will probably be flying by the time they're done.
A. H. Yates, "Those Supersonic Bangs" Supersonic planes make very loud bangs The author speculates as to why. Production of aluminum in Canada is up to 444,000 tons per year.
"Airworthiness in Operations: Precis of R. E. Hardingham's Commonwealth Lecture to the Royal Aeronautical Society" The author explains at great length how airworthiness criteria for extended operations is established.
"Radio-Aid Accuracy: How it is Maintained by the Ministry of Civil Aviation" The MCA flies around in a Dove specially equipped with a long list of electronic equipment, including a radio, a radio compass, a Decca receiver, SBA, ILS, a radio range receiver, a radio altimeter, an autopilot, two instrument recorders, an F-24 camera, a drift sight, and, pending installation, a Zero Reader and a Decca Flight Log. I didn't know the Dove could carry that much! With all that, it essentially flies the courses set by the radio aids (mainly ILS) while checking it against all the other ones to calibrate it.
"The NATO Exercises: Part II: Flying With HOLD FAST Squadrons: Last Phase of MAINBRACE" The Most interesting part for me of Flight's experience wandering through the exercise air space in a Balliol is all the details of the way that the Dutch and Belgian air defence radar networks are integrated into the forward air control of the Tactical Air Force supporting British Army of the Rhine. That's because it uses lots of electronics. Money for electronics makers! MAINBRACCE, the naval operation off Norway, was more interested in the weather, which limited flying, than electronics. 
"Fatigue in Metals: Conclusions From Major Teed's Society of Licensed Aircraft Engineers Talk, Extracted for Flight" Fatigue failure continues to be of interest to aircraft engineers. Low stress use does not reduce fatigue life; notches are bad; strain concentrations are baffling to investigate; polished aluminum surfaces don't always help.
Various air shows are going on around the country. And one in Kenya.
Correspondence
D. R. H. Dickinson has a theory about how supersonic bangs happen. Peter Wright thought that the Avro deltas were the highlight of Farnborough. Norman Brittain suggests names for the Avro 698, and so do everyone else. "Arrow" seems to be in the lead.
Civil Aviation reports that every seat is booked on the first Comet flights London-Johannesburg, and that Luton's new airport tower is quite nice. BEA's books are given a thorough going over. Details on SAS's proposed northern routes. A postscript to BOAC's annual report discusses the possibilities of flying the Comet II on the London-New York route. Meanwhile, Comet Is will fly to Singapore starting in October, and Tokyo in January. BOAC has now placed its order for Comet IIIs, but is willing to give up part of its order to Pan Am if it buys the III, as is now expected. British vegetable farmers are interested in using helicopters to speed their produce to market. Canadair Sabres will soon ship to the RAF, and the rescue of stranded North Greenland expedition personnel is now complete, recalling that they went down with their Hastings while it was air dropping supplies to a base on the 8000ft ice cap. The first, injured, man was flown off in a Grumman Albatross operating from Thule on 22 September, the last nine men were lifted off by a ski-equipped Dakota two days later.
The Economist, 4 October 1952
Leaders
"Private Lives of Nations" People are being mean to Britain at the United Nations just because it has lots of colonies that it oppresses. We should point out that they oppress people too, and then they'll be sorry!
"Correspondence Colleges" These courses by mail are probably a good way for the working classes (are accountants included? Must check this!) to learn things. Although all that printing and tutoring is expensive.
"Germany in Proportion" Germans say that their recovery isn't as strong as it seems and they're right. Notably, German agriculture still has a ways to go.
Notes of the Week
Why not both?
From The Economist of 1852 comes "Class Legislation," which is about how some of those lower class people are just going too far these days. This might have something to do with a debate about steerage class on steamboats and cheap fares on trains.
Letters
Books
D. E. Butler's The British General Election of 1951 is a very worthy book that reminds us that the Irish are very silly people. Kurt B. Mayer's The Population of Switzerland is also quite worthy, although perhaps a bit too cautionary. John Coast's Recruit to Revolution is a memoir of the Indonesian revolution. Walter Kolarz's Russia and Her Colonies is about how the Soviet Union isn't actually a "Union of Soviet Socialist Republics," and how it got that way. Hewan Craig's The Legislative Council of Trinidad and Tobago is the sixth in a series of studies of colonial legislatures. Oh my God, will no-one think of the trees!?
American Survey
"Professionals in the Saddle" The "professionals" are the people in the Eisenhower campaign who thought that the campaign had to bull through all the criticisms of Vice-President Nixon, and it looks like they won, and not the "amateurs," including the President, who wanted to get rid of him. Because, thanks to his television speech, America thinks that he is too nice, and that his dog is too cute and his wife is too pretty for him to be a bad person. On the other hand, American Coloureds are going to vote for Stevenson because they know that they can trust Democrats more than Republicans on civil rights, and civil rights do matter to them, especially after the economic gains they have made since Pearl Harbour have given them the liberty to worry about equality. 
American Notes
"Gloves Off" Yes, Eisenhower is going to win, but it doesn't help when he makes false claims about how Dean Acheson somehow personally gave the Communists permission to invade Korea, and President Truman tears him a new you-know-what over it. Also, people are saying that Governor Stevenson has been supplementing his expenses with campaign funds, too, leading the Governor and Senator Sparkman to release their income tax returns for the last ten years. Nixon says he doesn't have to, because the public already has all the relevant information, and General Eisenhower is preparing his returns for publication as soon as he figures out a way to explain his capital gains claim for the royalties for Crusade in Europe. In general people are saying that if we're going to be so sticky about people giving Congressmen money under the table, they should probably get a pay raise so they won't do it as much. The Economist's roundup of all the anti-Communist actions going on down here in the next Note makes almost as depressing a read as hearing about Eisenhower embracing McCarthy. 
"Gas Among Good Neighbours" The natural gas pipeline that Canada is building from the northern Alberta fields to Vancouver only makes sense if it is extended into the United States, which will require approval from the Federal Power Commission, which is hearing a proposal for an alternative plan that would pipe it directly from Alberta to Spokane, missing out Vancouver. Canada is not impressed. Another plan, to feed the upper Midwest via Winnipeg, is less controversial.
The World Overseas
"Uncertainty at Strasbourg" You know what's not uncertain? That no-one is going to read this latest pagelong yawner about the Council of Europe's secretarial pool! It even lacks an organisational chart, like "From Cell to Kremlin," which is about how the upcoming All-Union Congress is likely to be boring. The Economist backs Delhi over Kashmir against the United Nations, and a correspondent rides along in a Centurion tank with three British, three Belgian and two Dutch divisions, plus a Canadian brigade, with a total of four armoured (three British) divisions. General Harding's defensive plan involved a light armoured screen falling back on a main forward defence line of armoured divisions falling back on several "defended localities" that would be built up after the fighting began, from which we can learn that there's money in light tanks, since the British don't actually have one right now, and that it's all a bit fantastic in the atomic age. The German national railways cooperated magnificently and it all depends on command of the air. 
The new leadership of the Social Democratic Party in Germany wants more welfare and a more neutral foreign policy, and everyone likes de Gaspari's government, because Italy is no longer a "crisis country" and has ten divisions to spare for European defence. Anyone for a chorus of "Giovniezza?" The Lebanese have overthrown their government, because that's the fashion these days.
The Business World
Business Notes
Leaders
"Polar Air Base" Flight goes to Thule, which is only 900 miles from the North Pole! The new air base, which will extend across 85,000 acres, was built with 20,000t of heavy engineering brought in by icebreaker, which is impressive, but not as much as the Eskimos who live and make their living 900 miles south of the North Pole! There's also an interesting story about the nine days that Hermes crew spent on the ice cap. It was cold!
From All Quarters reports that the RAF is to get between 300 and 400 Canadair Sabres, that SAAB will test its new jet fighter before Christmas, that Bristol has been ordered to build more Type 173 helicopters, with inquiries from abroad about a license to produce them in some faraway country of which we know nothing. The Air Ministry is sending some Canberras to South America on a sales tour.
Flight flies with a weather reconnaissance Hastings 4 in "On Track of the Weather" from Aldergrove around Ireland down to Finisterre. Avro Canada's Malton plant has officially opened, Canadair is hiring, the French Coupe Stemm helicopter competition in Paris's latest event is a time to height race, won by Jean Moine in a Bell 47. Flight is very pleased with an American congressman writing in the Philadelphia Inquirer about British contributions to aviation. It is not always America giving and Britain taking, he says! A letter about sonic bangs in Canada escapes the Correspondence page to land under Here and There. 
"The Young Technician: Precis of a Lecture at the University of Nottingham by Lord Hives" Hee! Nottingham is a real town! And it has a university! The upshot is that Rolls Royce would rather train its own technicians, although it is happy to have the universities give them the first three years. (It doesn't want to teach calculus, in other words.)
"Tougher Lightness" Magnesium Elektron supplies an advertorial that, after beating around the bush long enough to scare off anyone who isn't willing to give radioactive airplanes a chance, introduces Magnesium-Thorium alloys. Which are perfectly safe except for the part about burning fiercely giving off radioactive fumes. The National Bureau of Standards has found that high-temperature chromium-magnesium pieces last even longer when given a ceramic coating.
"Trooping by Air" The charter airlines want us to know that they have taken over the job of getting troops out to the colonies and are doing a bang-up job of it, no need for Transport Command to trouble its pretty little head over it. They're in the Army (or Air Force), so that can't complain about flying in Yorks and Solents. 
Pratt and Whitney sends in a postcard about their laboratory, which is working on turboprops and the J-57 and ramjets. Flight huffs that Britain is working on ramjets too!
"World Gateway Examined" A look at continuing building at London Airport, followed by a feature on the Bretagne, now up to the Mark 2.
Our American Correspondent Reports that American builders have responded to Farnborough in the usual way, with excuses, this time for not having jetliners ready before 1954 at the most optimistic. On the other hand, Time points out that not being able to meet Eastern's demand for Comets counts against the British, and mass production of the J57 and J40, which is imminent, is more impressive than the trickle of Avons and Sapphires. American jetliners will probably take the market back from the Comet at this rate, Time thinks. On the other hand, OAC is more optimistic that American operators will buy British, The Rickenbacker offer is probably just to inspire the American builders to work faster, but TWA and United can't afford to let their competitors get a jump on them. The 143 wing air force is now delayed to mid-1955, and it is all someone's fault. The Administration, probably. Certainly not the Air Force for ordering another 11 types to replace some of the existing 13 modern combat aircraft designs in production. The Administration is talking about rationalising again, but also about "stockpiling" for an "extended confrontation," that is, a long period of peace and propaganda and not an imminent shooting war. Canned music on airliners was floated, and shot down, good news for everyone.
Fighter pilots say that the speed of modern jet air combat is a challenge for human hands and eyes.
Civil Aviation reports on expansion plans for Gatwick, the activation of a German civil airline (Lufthansa) by the spring, probably flying Viscounts. Sabena had a good year; the practice of producing local altimeter reading corrections will be discontinued from 1 November in favour of spot readings. Puerto Rico's new airfield is quite nice. Mesters Vig is the first airfield on Greenland's east coast, a single, 5000ft gravel runway to support lead mines being worked in the district. The British charter airlines had very little work last week. Forty seat DC-6Bs with Sleeperettes will replace Constellations on Pan Am's New York-Johannesburg flight in October. SAS will launch a luxury and tourist service on the North Atlantic this month.
ARDENT: The First Phase: Largest Air Defence Exercise Since the War" The first three phases of ARDENT are now complete, involving some very old-fashioned, WWII-style air raids on British cities, complete with Canberra Pathfinders dropping flares for a show. 
Correspondence
More letters on "sonic explosions," and instead of telling us about things that happened years ago, before the war, Geoffrey Dorman passes on a letter about same from Harry Busteed.
The Economist, 11 October 1952
Leaders
"Tory Touchstone" The Tories are enjoying a surplus in the balance of exchange and should celebrate it by being much more right wing.
Correspondence courses are perfectly good for those people, part II.
From The Economist of 1852 has "The Importance of Wine," which might have been written under the influence, because I can't find a continuing argument. The British drink wine, which is expensive due to import duties. So instead the British make wine domestically with imported grapes, which isn't as good, because you can't expect them to do without wine, with all its health benefits. I mean, do you want them to drink beer? That's for the working class!
Notes of the Week
"A Bomb of One's Own" While we're waiting for "Churchill's bomb" to blow up Australia, we can make ourselves feel better by wondering if it might be a new kind of atom bomb and not just a "poor man's bomb," which is just embarrassing. And what if it is expensive and Britain can't afford to have its own atomic deterrent all by itself? What then, you anti-American types? It might also be a good thing to get rid of the McMahon Act in general, so if Britain has an atomic bomb, the Act seems less necessary. That makes two notes, a third taking almost as much space as the first two to talk about the new British ambassador to America, who must be Geoff Crowther's bridge partner or something.
Also, Labour is fighting amongst itself over this Bevan person, fancy that, and a bunch of German generals have been let out of jail, because WWII was a long time ago, and let he who hasn't exterminated an entire nation cast the first stone! Britain definitely didn't succumb to German pressure, it was just a good will gesture and all those upset French and Belgians should sit down and be quiet. Anti-Communist activities in Berlin leave The Economist feeling very confused about whether to support which of them. You'll also be surprised to hear that the Saar situation is dragging on and that the upcoming British byelections will be read as indications of how the next general election might go. Really! It says so here! Will there be an engineering strike? Maybe! People in the United Kingdom who think that the fuss in Kenya is just about European settlers getting hysterical, are wrong. The Mau Maus really are a problem, it's nice that there's a George VI Memorial Fund, and something about the secretarial pool at the Council of Europe. 
"Statistics and Inflation" Britain is having the fastest rise in the cost of living of any country in Europe, but this is misleading because the major cause is the reduction in food subsidies, which is a disinflationary move to "mop up" "surplus income." French prices have been repressed by government action, but there has been no move to get rid of those nasty excess wages that will push up the cost of living. Honestly. Does this magazine like to kick puppies, too?
"Icelandic Fisheries" Iceland is following the Norwegian precedent by extending its claimed territorial waters, leading to a dispute between Britain and Iceland over fisheries in which Britain is right and Iceland is wrong. However, it has to be admitted that restocking is an issue, and there should be some arrangement, and it is pointless to leave the talking to the fisheries interests, because they are not going to agree on anything when British trawlers pulled "2 and a half million hundredweight" of fish out of those waters last year and "this country still has to eat a lot of fish." Also, a dispute about who gets to conduct performances of Porgy and Bess in England shows that trade unions are pretty awful and that James Petrillo is just about the worst. A British trade mission to the Caribbean and places like that is awfully significant. The Communist Peace Conference in Peking goes to show that Communists are bad and hypocritical. 
Letters
W. H. C. has a long letter about the Council of Europe's secretarial pool. E. G. A. Grimwood writes for the Hong Kong government to say that all the rubber boots being imported into Britain from Hong Kong, are made there, and are not illegitimate foreign imports from China or Japan, and all this fuss is over £3 million in imports when Britain exported £38 million to Hong Kong last year. Various European correspondents have opinions about European export subsidies (not so big as all that, not so important, and temporary.) The Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales writes to point out that it has nothing to do with the Scottish Institute. John Childs of Oxford is upset at The Economist being upset at the "microbe hunters" looking for war plagues in Korea.
Books
C. M. Kohan's History of the Second World War: Works and Buildings is the latest volume in the official civil history of WWII. The reviewer thinks that it is an important book and well worth a study, but spends three quarters of the review looking at the long fight to bring the ministerial works works departments under the Ministry. In other words, the part that fascinates the reviewer and the author is the administrative history, and not the building of factories and such. And that's the part we care about! J. A. Camacho's Brazil: An Interim Assessment will do until the final assessment is available just around the time of the trump of doom. Or until 1960, either way. Graham Hutton and Edwin Smith's English Parish Churches is about England's churches, with lots of pictures. They need some money to fix them up, is the conclusion. Arland Ussher's Three Great Irishmen is about Joyce, Yeats and Shaw. So, a patriotic celebration of the three men voted most likely to be thrown through the wall by the average apoplectic old Irish "patriot." Current Legal Problems 1952 is apparently more interesting than it sounds. The review doesn't start out promisingly, beginning with the obligations of corporate directors, compulsory land purchase and the Schuman Plan, which are certainly contemporary legal problems but still boring; but it ends with a teaser about essays about "abortion," "infancy," and "the family." More about that, please! Jean Brunhes' Human Geography is the English translation of a 1910 classic that might be a bit overtaken by scholarship. Sir Edward Bailey's Geological Survey of Great Britain is exactly what the title says it is, a history of the organisation called the Geological Survey. I hope no-one ordered it for their geological sciences library on the basis of the title! Although the review does say that it will be more interesting to geologists than "the general reader."
American Survey
But who knows? Maybe Eisenhower's got a secret plan to reverse the New Deal, and all these fruitcakes will be his shock troops! Wouldn't that be exciting! American Notes beats the drum some more.
I don't know. Eisenhower really did step in it, but it is still strange to see the press line up on him like that. Is the moral that you shouldn't cross Bob Taft and Dick Nixon in the same election? Could be! Also, something about how Republicans are upset that Howard McGrath has slipped out of the crosshairs and won't deliver a definitive report on all that Truman Administration corruption before the election.
Construction is set to go like gangbusters this year with the end of the steel strike, the Agriculture Department says that you shouldn't put woolens and furs in the freezer for the summer because it is bad for the fabric, Americans spend an incredible $10.72 on confections each per year, and various alternatives to polling (chickens feeding off pictures of the rival candidates, which kind of cigarette sale is associated with which voter, the usual) suggest that either Eisenhower or Stevenson will win in November.
The World Overseas
"Malenkov Reports to the Party" Summary of Georgi Malenkov's seven hour report to the All-Union Congress is that everything is getting better in Soviet Union in every way. Especially, heavy industry is moving east, and so is agriculture. The Council of Europe, meanwhile, is looking into its secretariat. I kid! They're worried that Europe isn't getting enough raw materials or capital and are looking to finance to improve both of these things. That is, a coordinated exchange policy to buy more staples and a European development bank. The fight in Egypt betwixt Naguib and the Wafd leader ("Naguib versus Nahas") continues. European steel production continues to expand, suggesting that the slump is not around the corner, and Germany's production matched Britain's in the second half of the year. It's still short of the 18 million ton peak of the Hitler rearmament boom, but the likely annual rate for both countries will be 16.5 million tons if nothing gets in the way. By the end of 1954, German production might well hit 19 million tons/year, annualised. New Zealand is going to arrive at this year's Commonwealth Conference with some sense that it needs more capital, needs to cut down on its dollar spending, opening opportunities for British firms, and ready to cut the welfare state, which is, always and everywhere, too expensive, says The Economist. Speaking of not having much time for this tired story, the Socialists have made some gains in the Japanese elections, but can't run the country because the two Socialist wings are divided, and will have nothing to do with the Communists. Also, the Social Democrats have lost their majority in the Swedish elections due to the Communist vote draining away, not to the socialists as expected, but to the rightist parties. The Social Democrats will still govern with the aid of their coalition partners in the Farmer's Party, but more moderately, it is supposed.
The Business World
"Unexpected Surplus" Some people say that the current exchange deficit of last year was engineered to bring down Labour. Those people are crazed conspiracists --and, what's that you say? An unexpected current accounts surplus in the first half of 1952? It is almost like some payments were held over until after the election! Will similar things happen in the last half of this year, causing the balance to fall back into deficit? "The Government is quietly confident" that it will not for various reasons, none of which have anything to do with the socialists being out of power. Let's bore you with schedules of invisible earnings payments, instead! Unfortunately, the overseas dominions, and, really, overseas everyone else, have seen nothing like the same rebound for whatever reason having nothing to do with election seasons here and there.
Then someone said, "I know all these stories about the Council of Europe are boring, but I bet we could be more boring," and there was an article about the agenda for the next meeting on the General Agreement on Tariff and Trades. Britain and Australia will probably fight Japan's accession, which, The Economist points out, is stupid because it looks bad and will fail, but there you go.
Business Notes
At least there's still Products and Processes. New oil drills, a channel for multiple electrical outlets, a Japanese 15mm camera (the Canon IV), to be marketed in the United States by Balfour, Guthrie and Company, several varieties of spray-on surface treatments, m solder, construction equipment, drawing, phonograph and film, equipment for portable gasoline engines, "whole milk in cans." Not a product or process, but interesting, is Edwin May's concept of a National Credit Card, which is expanding so quickly that he has no idea how much money he is making. Ahem. Uh-oh.
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Following our look at the Senate races, Fortune checks in with "Selfish Arkansas Power," which not only provides electrical power and light to Arkansas (who knew?), does exactly nothing else because Arkansas is its empire and it brooks no competition. We follow up with a story about a New York radio station, the art of selling these days, and the sand and gravel business. Mark H. Woolsey reviews the Supreme Court docket for the term, where the steel seizure and decisions on collective bargaining saw important decisions. Articles about running an in-house magazine and "Legal Aid and Democracy" follow, for some reason. Fortune has read Brownell's book about the state of legal aid in America, and is appalled, but I don't understand what this has to do with "business." 
William Stolk of American Can, he of the "canned whole fresh milk" blitz this week, gets a nice profile from the magazine (but then so does the new industrial wonder material, lithium, handy as structural metal or hydrogen bomb making material), and then we check in with Levittown and the Levits with a feature entitled "The Most House for the Money," which looks at the ways that Levitt builders cut the cost of houses in their massive subdivisions, and this is actually interesting, so I have passed the article on to Uncle George, who will pass it on to Edgar, who will hopefully manage to catch his father's attention. Maybe we want to reconsider how much land we want to part with in San Jose? I see that the Levitts put full insulation and double-glazed windows into their "economy" houses, which I know we haven't been doing, West Coast climate and all of that, but maybe it is worth looking into? Alfred Levitt has an interesting explanation for why the prefab dream died; it's about the land, not the house. The costs go into preparing the site (an estimated $1100 of the $9900 Levitt house selling price), and you can't modify a prefab to reduce those costs. "Mass housing means mass labour."
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