Postblogging Technology, January 1953, II: Outsourcing Leviathan

R_. C_.,

Shaughnessy,

Vancouver,

Canada

Dear Father:

I would comment to the effect that I am feeling much better this week except I would be setting myself up for patronising comments about the "little ladies." I am writing these words absolutely the last for this month, which is what you get when I end up doing both installments together. Which is to say that I have a full month of the last semester of law school under my belt, and get to trade stories about trying to find articling positions with stories about my condition that no-one wants to hear. It is a beautiful mystery they say, and then stick their fingers in their ear. Honestly, we live in a world of treading lightly with fingers in our ears these days. If you can't hear about Communism, you can't be a communist! (Although some say that the fever peaks before it breaks, and when McCarran and McCarthy see Communists deporting Jews, the gears will finally strip. We'll see.)

Your Loving Daughter,

Ronnie

The Economist, 17 January 1953

Leaders

"Labour's New Leviathan" Labour's policy position for the next election will call for more nationalisation of more important industries. The Economist thinks that is a terrible idea.

"Confusion Behind the Curtain" It turns out that creating a socialist utopia in eastern Europe is harder than it looks. 

"Will the Right be Realists?" Eisenhower, Churchill, and Rene Mayer are leading a conservative resurgence in Atlantic politics. Will they be realists, and continue with Nato, the United Nations, united Europe and the Columbo Plan, or will they retreat into crabbed and narrow nationalism? Also, will they be warmongers?

"The Fiscal Lever" The purchase tax, introduced during the war to discourage consumption, turns out to raise so much money so politically painlessly that it is time to think of it as a tool to push the economy in the right direction. Which is to say, more virtuous exports, fewer wasteful domestic purchases. (This also serves as an answer to the textiles and and motor industries' requests for a reduction in their purchase tax rates to encourage production. It's not good production unless it is exported production!)

Notes of the Week

"The Kremlin's Doctors;" and "The Offence of the Jews" This is the first mention of the rapidly developing crisis of the "Doctor's Plot" in the Soviet Union, which will, by the end of the month, escalate into plans to deport the entire Soviet Jewish population to the Soviet Union. I feel so helpless here --either it will all blow over, and it is so horrible that it is hard to imagine that it will not, and I will need to leave an explanatory note here, or it will go down in history with the Hitlerian extermination of European Jewry, and I will just be repeating common knowledge for the reader of twenty years from now. I think I am going to take a break over a glass of McEwan's. (The doctor says that the iron is good for our condition, although I cannot say that a full bottle is very good for a law student's condition. Heaven knows this story isn't.)  And in related news, British authorities have arrested several former Nazi officials in the British Zone for plotting a Nazi restoration in Germany, and German authorities will now surely see what a good idea it was to reserve these powers to the British High Commissioner under the peace treaty. 

The Economist is still upset about all the debating and voting that is going on in the House of Commons. It is getting to the point where MPs have to be professionals, and not part-time amateurs who only show up for planned votes. (And that's a bad thing, I feel I  need to explain! So bad, in fact, that it has to be explained twice. Also in English politics, there's a Note about "The TUC and the Socialists," which now you know. Am I going to summarise it? Of course not! Am I going to read it? No.)

In foreign news, things are going ahead full steam in the Sudan, where the British and Egyptians have agreed on suitable safeguards for Sudanese independence, but not so well in Iran, where there seems likely to be an agreement, about which The Economist is dyspeptic on the grounds that it will lead to Communism. Some how. (On the bright side, the "Aden Supreme Court" has ruled in favour of the Anglo-Iranian Company in the case of the Mary Rose, which goes to show that international law works. I'm sure that's how the Iranians will see it, too!) The next step in decontrolling food, eggs, is also certain to go wrong somehow. Please don't press me on how, as the words sort of blurred into each other. I blame Scottish ale.

"Home Rule for Kenya"  The Mau Mau, because, if you will recall, they are upset at all the English who come to live in Kenya and have taken so much land that the remainder is accounted "overpopulated" in spite of Kenya having a population smaller than London in an area greater than Great Britain, are terrorising the land. This is leading to the European settlers' "commendable restraint" showing "signs of breaking down." They are demanding home rule, which seems to me that they should get the British Army for enforcement but not the Colonial Office for rule of law. This is obviously not on, and the moral is that left wing critics of the Kenyan situation should shut up, because they are the problem. In France, the new Mayer government may be scuppered before it can even be formed, and somehow everything is going disastrously for the United States of Europe due to lack of enough administrative whatchmacallit. Never change, Economist! Speaking of which, it turns out that the British public isn't saving enough.

Padding out Notes, The Economist  gamely tags behind every other newspaper in the free world and elsewhere in reporting on the 24 new cardinals. In its defence, I think some of them were only finally announced this week, but not the important appointments.

 

"Between Belgrade and Ankara" Is Bulgaria? Is that the answer? Well, no, it is Greece, and the moral of the story is that these former bitter enemies are drawing closer together and coordinating (and there is nothing this magazine likes better than "coordinating"!) and that is good. 

From The Economist of 1853 "Mr. Gladstone's Seat," which is about how 'Mr. Gladstone" is running for election to the Oxford University seat after resigning to become Chancellor, and there is some thought that he will lose,  which is a travesty. I am feeling an overwhelmingly unfamiliar, even nauseous (no jokes, as I am past that stage) with agreement with the old grey mare.

Letters

A series of letters in response to a Leader on the shortage of British private savings and the solutions at hand, draws more letters in response from "Brand," W. L. S. Fairweather, and Gerald R. Guinness. (And a brief suggestion from A. C. Stalker of Edinburgh that increasing the income tax deduction for life insurance premiums would do the trick.) I'm not going to bore you, although I was taken by the suggestion of some kind of collective share that the ordinary working person could buy that would go into a fund to buy a pool of all the industrial concerns in Britain, thereby allowing them to invest in industry without buying expensive and chancy shares in individual companies. Gerald Owen proposes a revised voting scheme. Y. M. Mangsha writes a letter greatly overstating the proportion of Ethiopia's trade with Britain, and "Another Actuary" corrects "Actuary's" figures on  broker's fees for life insurance policies bought by pension schemes. 

Books

Kingsley Martin's biography of Harold Laski calls him a "man of the depression." That is, besides being a terrible liar and Jewish, what made him so hard and difficult was the depression. Harold Orlans offers Stevenage: A Sociological Study of a New Town, which is about reconciling town and country planning with democracy. Specifically, hardly anything has actually come of Stevenage so far, probably because of too much democracy. 

I'm reaching here!

Books goes to the "high Himalayas' next, for Maurice Herzog's Annapurna and H. W. Tilman's Nepal Himalaya. They're about mountaineering and nature, and not lamas and Communists.

W. Isard and V. Whitney have Atomic Power: An Economic and Social Analysis,  which explains that atomic power will need a lot of capital to get going and does not promise high profits, and so will be most suitable to countries with large economies but also growing populations and economies and undeveloped regions, such as Russia. Atomic power will not be of much use in America for several decades because it already has enough fuel sources. Maurice Ashley's England in the Seventeenth Century presents it as  the century that shaped the modern nation due all that Revolution and Interregnum stuff. Shorter reviews of Harrod's Economic Essays, R. A. Humphreys on The Career of James Paroissien, The Annual Abstract of Statistics, No. 89, 1952, Register of Research in the Social Sciences, James Edward Meade's A Geometry of International Trade, and The Hospitals Year Book 1952 follow. Harrod just wanted to republish some essays; Paroissien was a British adventurer involved in the South American revolutions against Spain, the "geometry" is literally a claim to model international trade with methods drawn from that branch of mathematics, and the indices and year books and statistics are about what the title says that they are about.

American Survey

"Inherited Budget"  One of the ridiculous things about our constitution is that the outgoing President has to give a State of the Union Address and present a budget, which then binds the new Administration for a year. The new budget forecasts a $10 billion deficit, which gives Republicans a whole year to talk about tax cuts versus budget cuts, or budget cuts and tax cuts adding up to a balanced budget, before having to deliver on the miracle. Better than 1946, anyway! The Economist then offers a bizarre draft inaugural speech to Eisenhower stitched together with one commonplace after another from earlier inaugurals. Why am I paying for this?

American Notes

"Mr. Dulles' New Men" I should at least give thanks to Heaven that some of the men who could have been Dulles' new men, are not. But A. is  one of them, which tells me all that I want to know. The Economist, on the other hand, thinks that he is restoring the shaky morale of the State Department. If by that is meant that he will call of the Congressional opportunists attacking it, I respectfully think that the magazine can't possibly be further wrong. Even The Economist wonders who is going to be "applying the brakes" to the Dulles brothers in their plans for "psychological warfare" against the East Bloc. At home, Eisenhower is handing out the patronage plums to his party, and has been rewarded by having Taft abandon the Labour Committee, which also loses Wayne Morse, to join Foreign Affairs to make trouble for the President. Everyone can now agree that American employees of the UN should have to take loyalty oaths and undergo loyalty investigations, because they need to be of the highest character. As to who was to blame for Communists getting in there in the first place, it was the other guy. Adlai Stevenson will probably run in 1956, is how I read a thumb sucking bit about his "future." American materials policy proposals include repealing the "Buy American" Act, and doing something about giving private capital reassurances about government takeover of anything they do in the atomic area.
 

The World Overseas

"The Year of the Snake in Japan" Japan's precarious economy is heavily dependent on Korean War outlays, and peace would be disastrous, and the budgetary situation shows it. Anticipating that it is more likely than an expanded war, the Japanese are trying to get their trade situation in order, since only trade offers a solution for real economic growth and their monstrous population problem. (Which is that Japan has half again Britain's population on half again its land area. Maybe they can all emigrate to the Kenyan highlands!) The Pakistani Constituent Assembly is considering paying attention to the mullahs, causing all the non-religious Pakistanis to get upset. SOLLAC (Societe Lorraine de Laminage Continue) is quite the thing; a Lorraine-based constellation of continuous strip rolling mills built with American equipment. They're also now going in for worker housing, and will also have mines and smelters. 

"Canada's Diplomats" Were all recruited overnight rather than coming up through the civil service, and are amazingly good at being diplomatic, says The Economist, which is mostly just trying to get on Lester Pearson's good side in this article. 

"Medicine, Treason and Plot" The Doctor's Plot is explained in a bit more detail. The other shoe of a deportation/pogrom hasn't quite dropped yet. 

"The Future of Foreign Firms in Nigeria" A Correspondent explains that Nigerian nationalists can't wait to ship their "expatriate burden" back where they came from. Commercial agents may fall in the "Given Time to Pack" category, if not the exclusive "Allowed to Stay" group, because right now business is good and bitterness over export prices is at a minimum thanks to the marketing boards. 

The Business World

The big Leader is "Bank Profits Now" They're pretty good, notwithstanding the crisis of 1951, which was expected to be disastrous for bank deposits and returns. 

"A New Wheat Agreement?" I heard a lot about this while I was home over Christmas, as Dad is in it up to his ears. It is probably going to be good news?

Business Notes

"The Chancellor Takes Stock" The Chancellor points out that, given the burdens of the defence programme, it is amazing that foreign trade is back to a surplus and that industrial production has regained its 1951 level. But there are not likely to be significant tax cuts. Birmingham Corporation is the first to issue debt now that the Government has lifted its ban on local authorities going to the market, the trade balance, as noted many times already, is improving rapidly from the crisis of 1951, but there are no prospects of a slackening in the "battle of the gap" in 1953. Britain is talking with the OEEC about pound-dollar convertibility, and needs to be clearer about what is possible and not. The latest Monthly Letter of the Bank of New York was authored by Randolph Burgess, who is off to Washington as the new Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, so it is especially worth noting that it is an attack on the idea of a higher price for gold in dollars that has been promoted the world around as a solution to the dollar shortage. It would have highly uneven effects, it is pointed out, and contribute to American inflation. The Coal Board and the National Union of Miners seem headed for a clash over working condition talks, mostly not having to do with wages. (The NUM is keen to see the end of Saturday working.) BEA is introducing domestic and European tourist-class flying. The new Iron and Steel Board will definitely be supervising British foundries, in spite of the protest movement which has broken out amongst the ironfounders. Blah blah stocks, Brazil's currency exchange is in question, the oil cartel case is going ahead to criminal trial in America, wool prices are up, government revenues from indirect taxes were a record high this year, wholesale and retail sales were up this year, Pye and Murphy Radio is buying nine radio/television relay stations owned by Philips of Eindhoven

Aviation Week, 19 January 1953

News Digest reports Chrysler has a missile contract, but I am working through my Aviation Weeks in reverse order and there's a fuller discussion next week, so you'll just have to wait! The Convair YB-60 exists, tip of the hat to Convair's PR department. The Navy has ordered a bunch of Grumman F3H Demons.  (We can't say how many, but it's lots!) Flying Tiger crashed a "four engine transport" (DC-4) into the side of a mountain more than a week ago, killing seven, but it's a bright young nonsked and not one of those boring airlines, so we're just going to let it pass. On the same note, test pilot William Sunday was killed trying to land his F7U-3 Cutlass this week. I don't think we've mentioned Glidden Doman in the last page or so, so here goes. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup is back from vacation, which I mentioned first, but as you read it, last, under next week's issue. (Yes, it is confusing, but it made sense to me at the time. I stick my tongue out at the reader!) It reports that there will inevitably be deep cuts in aircraft money, beginning with money not actually spent. Stuart Symington is back, as a Senator on the Armed Services Committee. The CAA is reshuffling. Pat McCarran wants to put all aviation agreements with foreign countries on a six month cancellation basis, requiring confirmation from Congress each time. Congress has five bills before it authorising an Air Force Academy in one state or another. 

Industry Observer reports that the leading propeller companies are working on titanium propellers. Veteran F-86 pilots are pleased to see that North American is cutting the useless weight of the F-86's semi-automatic leading edge slats. Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated, wants us to know that its engineers have licked all the problems with "storage" type cathode ray tubes for airborne weather and distance-measuring radars that no-one has ever mentioned before. Hughes and RCA are not aware that there were any problems with their storage tubes, and will continue to use them. The Comet 3 might be the last Comet, since the next Comet will be so different it will need a new name. The Pentagon is refusing MSA money to the Supermarine Swift because it is a bad plane. The USAF has been neglecting the very promising trials of turbo-powered supersonic propeller-driven fighters like the Wright T54 powered Republic F-84H, says Republic and Wright. The Vickers order for sweptwing Valiant bombers will include some tanker versions. The new mark might be used for "new types of pathfinder techniques to fit the high subsonic speeds" of the new bombers. Aeroproduct's answer to the Curtiss extrusion method will be a  new Ajax roll machine, which produces much more accurate forgings than the Curtiss hammer forge. "But indications are that Aeroproducts will use a two-piece blade." Should have paid for the "premium" news story slot, Aeroproducts! Glidden Doman does, and look at where he places! The Navy plans to equip a "large number of its combat units" with guided missiles in 1953. These will include the Sperry Sparrow and the Regulus ground-to-ground missile. 

  Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week that "Record Postwar Air Spending Predicted" The budget will peak at $21 billion in 1954, the Air Force will hit its 143 wing target, 5900 new aircraft will be bought, after Republican members of the 83rd Congress are beaten back in their attempts to impose economy. Unless they aren't! I'm not going to go into the numbers too far, as they're all astronomical, and I'm not sure they mean very much. Avionics is up 50% from 1952 to 1954, but "laboratory operations" is actually down by almost two million from $8.5 million to less than a tenth of avionics spending. Research and development is up from 436 million to $537 million. NACA wants $77 million, up from $66 million last year, but no guarantee they're going to get it.

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw Hill World News about the "Nod to Hunter." The Hawker Hunter has won MSA funding along with the Dassault Mystere (as reported by Ross Hazeltine for same). The MSA is requiring modifications, including to increase the Hunter's range, but these can be completed before 1955, unlike modifications proposed for the Swift. The British are likely to start selling Hunters in Europe immediately, even before the RAF receives aircraft from the 500 on order. Vickers is still hopeful that designer Joseph Smith will have a sufficiently modified version of the Swift in the air by the summer to win export contracts, and points out that subcontracting is giving Short Belfast and Boulton Paul work. MSA is also considering proposals to subsidise production of the Gloster Javelin in Belgium and Italy. Fiat and Macchi had already tooled up to produce the Venom, but it was ruled out early in the MSA assessment for technical reasons, so they would "face some unemployment" if they cannot get a contract.

The page is filled out with filler stories about the excessive rail rates being paid to move subcontracted aircraft parts, Robert Lovett's parting address to Congress warning that the Defence Department is still not organised for war, and plans for the big military fly by at the Inauguration (including the first public B-47 squadron showing) that will be cancelled next week for safety reasons. 

Alexander McSurely reports that "L-F Range Blamed in AF Crash" The CAA is replacing the low frequency radio ranges in Alaska, which are being partially blamed for the two recent Fairchild C-119 crashes there. 
 

Aeronautical Engineering has a pictorial on the evolution of wing folding and a long article on Cessna's experiments with boundary layer control on the C 309.

The much missed NACA Reports is back from vacation. A tanned and relaxed E. B. Klunker finds tht he can tolerate working with Conrad Reumann to produce "Effect of a Finite Trailing Edge Thickness on te Drag of Rectangular and Delta Wings at Supersonic Speeds."  M. M. Focht and R. Guernsey, Jr, worked on "A Special Investigation to Develop a General Method for Three-Dimensional Photoelectric Stress Analysis" at the cottage. They think that British report on the limits of photoelectric analysis is wrong, because the British don't take into account the use of some new films. 

Irving Stone reports that "Planting of AF's Press Giants Begins." Work on the massive foundations required for giant presses with parts weighing up to 100t, has begun at Kaiser Aluminum's Newark works. McSurely goes on to review other particularly big pieces from other installations which will require foundation work. In this week's low point for advertorials, Fenland Micro gets into print for a sharpener for carbide-tipped tools. (It's a regular sharpener with a carbide belt.) Marquardt is proud of its rotor mill, while du Pont's Tensolon "high temperature hook-up wire" is insulated with Teflon, and can resist a boringly normal range of temperatures. 

Everyone is reading copies of Grover Loening's speech "lambasting increasing government control over aviation." Aviation Week spreads extracts over four pages.

Letters

Paul Conton of Collins Radio really liked the article about the Collins Navigation Computer. "Contract Observer" is given three pages to complain about how Air Force contracts are negotiated these days. A letter! Three pages! Stephen Goerl, of Stephen Goerl Associates, writes to correct statements about Resort Airlines' intentions for future expansions of service. 

Philip Klein reports for Avionics about "New Gyro Simplifies Polar Navigation" Eclipse Pioneer's directional gyro gave better headings than a flux-gate magnetic compass during the recent SAS proving flight from Stockholm to Alaska. Three pages to explain the engineering details that make the new gyrocompass more accurate and reliable than older directdional gyros. 

Filter Centre reports that Aeronautical Radio, Incorporated, is working on a newer, better automatic direction finder for aircraft. Four companies are working on the USAF's Sperry-designed K1 radar bombing system. Johnson's new capacitor has the best capacity ever, while Precision Paper Tube makes parts for fractional horsepower motors. 

George L. Christian is allowed to report for the big boy's section this week, with "Plexiglas Craze-Resistance Raised," which explains that Rohm and Hass' Plexiglas 55 has the highest resistance to pressures and temperatures ever. And it prevents sunburn! 

New Aviation Products reports that US Electrical Motors, Incorporated, has come up with a bomb hoist motor. Pacific Laboratories' Photographic Recorder Camera is light and compact and records accurate and quickly, so it is ideal for test flying. Pantex Manufacturing is proud of the flap valve it has designed for the 4-0-4.

  Aviation Safety gets a European vacation for "Full Report on Comet Crash in Rome," which is a summary of the Ministry of Civil Aviation report blaming pilot error.

Air Transport reports, among other things, that Lufthansa is negotiating to buy the Convair 340 and that the latest modifications of the C-46 are the safest and most fireproof yet. 

 

What's New has received Stuart Leavell and Stanley Bungay's[?] Standard Aircraft Handbook, and information about operating information for Metron Instrument equipment, available from Metron.  On the other hand, Tenney Engineering has gone to the trouble of actually doing up Bulletin TR about its controlled temperature-humidity test chambers, and Universal Metal Products has an illustrated one about its services. Truarc Catalog Service will send you a 52-page illustrated brochure about its retaining rings, while Apex Machine and Tool's Catalog 27 is about heavy duty universal joints. GE's Accessory Turbines for Jet Aircraft, Air Turbine Drives, Aircraft Afterburner Fuel Pumps, and Aircraft Turbine Starters are all available for the cost of a postage stamp.

Robert L. Wood's Editorial is about how Continental Air Lines' compact group of air rights in the Midwest are paying off, and he also has some advice on "Making the Most of Business Planes."

 

.
 The Economist, 24 January 1953

Leaders

"Challenge from the Capitol" Eisenhower's inaugural address was a relief in that he doesn't want to start a war, and not so much, in that he does want to start a crusade. This is a bit of aproblem in the FAr East, where crusading hmight lead ot more war, but on the other hand the Churchill government is for more war or something so that is okay. Strangely, though, Eisenhower is not so much up for crusading in the Middle East, where it is needed. That will need work, and, in general, Britain had better act like it is all for crusading, or Americans will be disappointed. 

"Economic Prospect" The economists who do that sort of thing are issuing their predictions for next year. Either it will be stable, or there will be "difficulties" ahead. If that sounds vague, it is because economists have learned their lesson from last year, when they predicted inflation in America and unemployment due to disinflation in Britain. Humbled, they now accept that "public confidence" is the main factor they have overlooked, and what a mystery it is. In any event, just because Americans are now worried about deflation and the Conservative deflation only briefly caused major unemployment doesn't meant that Britain shouldn't increase its deflationary efforts.

"India's Neutrality" India's foreign policy of anti-colonialism and neutrality is silly and wrong. Dont' we give them useful advice and also some wheat th£at one time? And the Communists are just biding their time and pretending to be India's friends before they show their true colours. 

"Plans for the Country" TOWN PLANNING IS ACTUALLY IMPORTANT, MEN! DON'T IGNORE ME! I WILL YELL LOUDER! 

Notes of the Week

Westminster is calmer these days, which is good. Bread is being decontrolled and the national loaf with 80% extraction rate is losing its subsidy advantage, so bread will get whiter. A White Paper on leasehold reform proposes very worthy changes. General Naguib's police arrested a number of his political enemies in the Communist Party, army and the Wafd party on the night of the 16th, ahead of national celebrations ahead of the anniversary of the Cairo riots on the 26th. The Mossadegh government has won a major parliamentary vote and is celebrating by exporting another tankerload of oil that RIGHTFULLY BELONGS TO ANGLO-IRANIAN and terrible things will happen because of it, and certainly not British piracy, which is not what happened to the Mary Rose, just you ask the Supreme Court of the British crown colony of Aden, more objective than which you cannot ask for. It turns out that some Germans did get upset when British authorities arrested a bunch of politicians for no better reason than that they were allegedly still Nazis. Fortunately, they were still Nazis, and while the political parties they were infiltrating are embarrassed, the trade unions are upset, too. So it will probably blow over.  People are talking about bringing flogging back. The Economist points out, again, that it is a terrible idea. A bill to allow sport on Sunday, on the other hand, is a good idea, no matter what the Lord's Day Observance Society says. The National Dock Labour Board is making another attempt to encourage up to 10,000 dockers (an eighth of the total work force) to get out of the pool, where they receive £4 8s when not working. The record volume of 1951 is not coming back, but on the other hand there is not much work on Merseyside for unskilled former dockers. The French are trying to find some compromise that will let them keep their army (particularly for North African service) and still have some kind of "European" army that will include the Germans. Having reached the end of the two years allotted for winding down the Groundnuts Scheme. It was hoped that mechanised farming would be going on around Kongwa in southern Tanzania and the whole Scheme shut down. That hasn't happened, more money and time is needed, and Conservative members will have to be convinced that it isn't throwing good money after bad. The Economist really enjoyed "The Structure of Industry and the Technical Revolution," in Planning 19 (Number 350), and hopes that some researchers are given some money for a big, statistical survey that will get to the bottom of why sometimes technical changes lead to a few big firms dominating an industry, and why sometimes it is the other way around. Ceylon is in trouble for offering to trade rubber for rice, just because it needs rice and China needs rubber. Professor Bernal answered President Truman's comment about Lenin being a "pre-atomic man" by suggesting that Lenin understood the economic implications of atomic power long before capitalists thought of it. That is very embarrassing for Bernal and Communism. The new survey on household spending will be distributed to households next week.

The Economist of 1853 wants to talk about the Empress Eugenie. And who wouldn't want to talk about a foreign royal woman? Because it is a very serious paper, it talks about the risks of foreign entanglement instead of dresses, but you can tell it wants to. 

Letters

Roger Pinto of the University of Lille points out that the only possible source of manpower to strengthen the French in Indo-China is Koumintang troops, and no-one wants that. France can't send conscripts to Indo-China without serious political consequences and problems in North Africa. The war isn't going to come to an end in two years. It will go on and on until a negotiated settlement is found. Roy Jenkins points out that tax cuts will not necessarily lead to increased investment. It might just be frittered away on spending. He suggests nationalisation, instead. Public industry will be required to reinvest its profits, while risk capital will be flushed out of those industries and made available elsewhere. J. H. Smith of King's College, Aberdeen, points out that even if de-controlled egg prices rise to the level where farmers receive the full, old, subsidy on eggs, they will still lose out, because that will be less than the black market price. Charles Fisher of Oxford points out that the recent map of the Balkans published in these parts was out of date and wrong. 

Books

D. W. Brogan's book on Roosevelt and the New Deal must be very important, because the review is very long.  And boring, just like the book, it says her. George Lenczowski's The Middle East in World Affairs is a guide for the perplexed. (Sorry, couldn't resist a reference.) Ernest Benn's The State The Enemy is a self-parodying treatment of classical liberalism. Speaking of which, S. E. Piner's The Life and Times of Sir Edwin Chadwick explains why the reviled architect of the New Poor Law as actually a humane social reformer and great civil servant. Since he was also involved in creating the Boards of Health, I will allow that he learned from his experience, but still. Solomon Fabricant's The Trend of Government Activity in the United States Since 1900 is a massive statistical exercise in abolishing simplistic cliches about the nature of the expansion of government in the United States. Social Sweden is a look at the Swedish welfare state by the Social Welfare Board of Stockholm. Very worthy, I'm sure. Also, J H. Warren on The Local Government Service and Banking and Foreign Trade and Clyde Phelps on The Role of the Sales Finance Company on the American Economy. 

American Survey

"Eisenhower's Signpost" The Eisenhower Administration is off to a rocky start as his inaugural address failed to promise the immediate abolition of the TVA, and the Senate has made difficulties for Charles Wilson's nomination as Secretary of Defence.

"Future of Prosperity" Truman's last economic report, combined with the report of the Council of Economic Advisors, makes it clear that the Democrats gave us prosperity, and that the new Republican Administration may well be giving us a depression, and it won't be due to the tailing off of the defence programme. If so, what will it mean to the rest of the world? Probably nothing good.

American Notes

"Caesar's Wilson" Senator Morse is the proximate cause in the delay in confirming Charles Wilson, but the Armed Services Committee has a point, which is that Wilson really needs to do something about his GM stocks before he becomes Secretary, perhaps by abstaining from any decision involving GM. The Federal Reserve rediscount rate has been raised from 1.75 to 2% to show that the Federal Reserve has been freed from the Treasury Department's apron strings. President Truman's declaration of the tidelands as a naval reserve to keep them out of the states' hands notwithstanding the Supreme Court ruling is a last bit of politics for Eisenhower to deal with. Senate committee memberships are being published, and so far unions are living with Taft-Hartley in hopes of getting it revised.

World Overseas

"Where are the Neo-Nazis?" While hard to find, they seem to be everywhere. The question is whether they have that much influence in Germany and its new army. The recent Iraqi general election was "cooked" by the police, which is why the same old faces were re-elected, and the new party hoping for major gains in the assembly on the back of Shiah (an Islamic denomination) peasant votes did not do well. Instead, the pink shirts of election boycotters were everywhere. M. Monnet has a new report on what's keeping the United States of Europe. The implications of the Doctor's Plot are teased. Are the rumours of a deportation true? The Economist may or may not have heard them by now as it looks at who the Soviet Jews are, and where they would be coming from. The section closes with a look at Tito's government. 

The Business World

"Network and Patchwork" The Board of Trade's Census of Distribution allows a statistical picture of the retail industry in the United Kingdom, highlighting the growth of chains of businesses, although the clarity of the picture is a bit confused when it groups a firm that owns five department stores with one that owns five one-worker dairy, which seems awfully small for a dairy! "Profits on the Ebb" says that profits are ebbing!

Business Notes

Bankers are pleased that higher interest rates have removed inflationary pressures, but disagree about what should be done next. Lord Balfour of Burleigh's thinks that it is foolish to try to hold prices down so that we the cotton and shipbuilding industries can pay less; that is a game Britain cannot win. The grain trade is the latest to be decontrolled. Government expenditures are running ahead of the estimates due to supplementary estimates largely covering unexpected increases in pensions and other costs. The price of sterling is being held down by various measures so that Europeans and others can get enough of it to cover exports. Increased stock dividends in the face of declining profits are not sinister at all. They just reflect the firms' increasing earning potential. The volume of exports for 1952 will be down over the previous year for the first time since the war, Car exports are up, particularly in Australia and Europe, but also America.

 Furniture decontrol is on, but it's confusing because the purchase tax is still going to applly to bad furniture and rich people furniture and Parliament and the industry is tied up in knots over what that means. An example from The Economist to illustrate: folding card tables are good, because community centres want them for whist tournaments, which get old people out of the house. But they are flimsy, which is bad; and they are cheap, which means that poor people might buy them instead of good card tables. IT IS ALL SO CONFUSING!  Everyone is worried that privatisation of the American artificial rubber industry will lead to subsidised artificial rubber prices by some underhanded manoeuvre. 

Coal stocks are at last showing signs of sensitivity to the cold, and probably also more industrial demand, but a coal shortage is not on the table unless "there is a slacking in Saturday working." Six day weeks for miners forever! British steel production is up over last year, so it is hard to understand complaints about a steel shortage. The world's merchant fleet is the largest ever, at 91 million tons, 18.7 million tons of it British. The United States still has 25 million tons, but half of it laid up, in spite of falling out of the league tables for shipbuilding. The British fleet is growing more slowly than the Norwegian and especially the Panamanian, and that's bad. Average ship size has increased notably, with the biggest category now the 10,000 to 15,000t range instead of the prewar 6000 to 8000t range. 39% of the world fleet is now diesel, 28% in the British fleet, up to 70% in the Scandinavian. Only 15% is coal-powered. Tanker demand  has fallen in the last quarter.

The Economist, 31 January 1953

Leaders

"The New Voice of America?" Dulles' first big speech as secretary of state has not gone over well with The Economist, which is having a temper tantrum over his support for "European unity." (Although it likes his promise to not start a war.)

"Farmers and Free Markets" British farmers want protection in case prices fall. Good thing The Economist still has a few temper tantrums in reserve.

"Self Help for Developing Nations" Without reading this screed, I am guessing that it is going to say that they should help themselves while we govern them, and if they're very nice we might even scrape up some investment money for them unless they have something extravagant in mind like a standard gauge railway.  And, as it turns out, the question is which countries count as "developing," and which count as "stagnant;" countries shouldn't count on getting much money; and they certainly shouldn't listen to Communist or nationalist agitation. 

"The Tradesman's Friend" Tantrum, tantrum, well-intended but patronising musings; and then you get this kind of thing, and a reminder that The Economist is actually worth paying for. I have no idea what prompted this, but it is a wonderful explanation of the trade and technical press that we hear so much from around here. There are "perhaps five or six hundred" of these journals like Flight and The Engineer published in Britain. They are targeted at the industry and any enthusiasts carried along with the industry, their economics turn on advertising, and the advertising is popular and welcome because the readers want to hear about new developments in their particular industry. We get a nice explanation of the difference between the boring magazines pushed by the trade association (Flight), and the more lively ones that "stick up for the little man" and "carry letters signed 'Disgusted.'" And it is pointed out that the trade is at least slightly threatened by consolidation, as small papers and small chains are bought out by larger ones. That, of course, describes Aviation Week perfectly. There are both advantages and disadvantages to being run by McGraw-Hill. I honestly don't know if it leads to more articles being written by advertisers, or if that is just an American thing. I am also not sure that those articles are so bad, even if obviously you have to be skeptical about their claims. Anyway, if you buy The Economist occasionally for good articles, this is one. If  you're reading this in twenty years, I'm sorry, go back to your copy of Personal Helicopter Weekly. 

Notes of the Week

Fighting in the Labour Party, fighting in the French National Assembly, where the Indo-China-sized hole in the Mayer budget is to be balanced by a major loan issue. This has all the horrible people salivating over possible inflation and domestic demand, when what is needed is restraint, increased productivity (mainly through new investment and not the magical changes in the minds of men and women, as in Britain) and disinflation.

"The Soviet Economy Catches Up" As the Soviets get ready for trials and purges, there is speculation about what is on the Russian mind. Has Stalin given up on his peace offensive? Is he preparing for war? Because the Russians can plough more of their production back into investment, Soviet planners claim that their economy is rapidly catching up with the West. National income and gross industrial production increased by 11% last year, they say, with great progress in heavy engineering, coal, oil, iron and steel. And yet the rate of increase is tapering off with the declining rate of increase in labour. Speaking of labour, negotiations in coal are at a deadlock.

"Declining Confidence in Kenya" The European demonstrations in Kenya have frightened The Economist, which is worried about the development of an ultra movement and "settlers' commandos." Also, Britain is all in a fluster over a death sentence case, and The Economist speculates about General Naguib's long term plans.  

"More Nazis in Trouble" Germans continue to be completely unreasonable about the British arresting Germans on German soil on suspicion of being Nazis. Other Germans suggest that the Nazis are allied with the East Germans and are "National Bolshevists." Most Germans are not  nearly anti-Nazi enough, The Economist thinks.

Berlin is having trouble getting shut of the East German refugees it already has, so it is trying to prevent more from coming in, which is a tragedy. The price of school dinners (British for "lunches") is going up, but that is fine because only children from the middling classes have to pay in the first place. A four paragraph story quotes an amazing number of experts along the way to worrying that modern housing is ugly. The Milk Marketing Board is terrible because someone along the way to final sale slipped some non-Channel Island milk into Channel Island milk bottles. Defectors say that Viet Minh morale is bolstered by the Chinese saying that they will intervene if the Viet Minh starts to lose; the mora e of the story is that the UN has to beat the Chinese soundly in Korea and dispel their aura of invincibility so that Viet Minh morale will crack. The new member of the French Academie, elected to Marshal Petain's old seat, said nice things about the Marshal, as is the custom, but it is still appalling. The Economist feels that as long as the wagging fingers are not withheld, it is time to readmit Franco into the comity of nations, as long as he can keep his mouth shut about Gibraltar. 

The Economist of 1853 has "Disposal of Criminals," which points out that there are really no good ways to "dispose" of the 60,000 or so criminals that the United Kingdom throws up every year. Only 80 are hanged, and 5000 transported, and prison is worse than useless. Judges should probably keep that in mind. 

Letters

"Royalist" and Lord Brand have at each other over the best way of getting the British public to save. Milton Friedman of Chicago just doesn't see the problem with floating exchange rates, since "adverse movements in the balance of trade" will simply lead to an international rebalancing of labour and "a more efficient internal organisation of production." L. A. Jackson and F. A. Roberts have opinions about the voting reform scheme put forward by Gerald Owen the other day, while J. W. F. Morton has thoughts on the"fiscal leverage" that the purchase tax exerts over the type of things made in Britain, and comes out against it because it taxes the "high quality" products that foreigners want out of existence by denying them a home market. 

Books

Like the grandson of the 1st Earl of Sandwich

The Private Papers of Senator Vandenberg leads off the column. It turns out that the Senator was a sex maniac and a dope fiend, and was in the pocket of Big Mustache Wax while acting as a deep cover Communist agent for the Nazis. Or he was the middleman explaining bipartisan foreign policy to his fellow Midwest Republicans, but I prefer my version. Edward Hughes' North Country Life in the Eighteenth Century: The North-East, 1700--1750 gets the subtitle "Lords of Coal." Fascinating considering that the Founder's father was a lord of coal, while the Founder came out of the colliers. Although Hughes looks further north than Yorkshire to County Durham and, sees the "coal lords" as upstarts replacing a decadent Catholic gentry. And there are too many quotes.  Former President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Raymond Fosdick, explains that in 1908, Frederick T. Gates, who was a colleague and a Baptist minister, told John Rockefeller that now he was enormously rich, he had to do nice things for everyone on Earth, and so he founded the Rockefeller Foundation, which has been doing that ever since, as detailed in Fosdick's The Story of the Rockefeller Foundation. David Stafford Clark's Psychiatry Today is an excellent summary of psychiatry and what it can and cannot do for you, except for the part where he agrees with Freudian psychoanalysis but disagrees with Freud's view of God, which seems unscientific to The Economist, which broadly implies that it should be the other way around. There's not much to say about the new edition of Chamber's Twentieth Century Dictionary or the 1952 Statistical Year Book, which are both very worthy references.

American Survey

"Dulles at Work" Last year when Dulles was leading the charge against Harriman, Acheson, and Democratic foreign policy in general, he was all for raining "tommy-guns and sticks of dynamite" on the subject peoples of eastern Europe so that they could liberate themselves, if not doing the liberation for them with a copious administration of unnamed measures. (With plenty of renegade Air Force generals helpfully explaining that atom bombs were just the thing.) Plenty of frantic European shushing gestures have had the desired effect. Which is to say, he is in Europe, Harold Stassen in tow, to prod the United States of Europe along, and especially that European army we've heard so much about. On the other hand, he does want Europe to know that, contrary to any mistaken impressions they may have gathered from the plain sense of what was said in the campaign, that American foreign policy will be Europe-first, not Asia-first. With maybe a dollop of Latin America, since America doesn't want "another China" down there where the Latins are looking curiously at the advantages of Fascism or Communism. The other big Survey story is about the Texas beef industry, with not much of a clue as to why it is newsworthy this week. (The King Ranch is a hundred years old.)

American Notes 

Charles Wilson has given up and accepted that he can't have a huge financial stake in a major Defence department contractor, even though the laws against it were "obviously directed against men of less undoubted integrity." I think The Economist is being a bit sarcastic. Now, of course, the Assistant Secretary and the incoming Secretaries of the Army and Air Force will have to do the same. What a to-do! The proposed Secretary of the Navy doesn't have major stock holdings in Navy contractors, so he is all right. "It will take Mr. Wilson a long time to live down the impression of self-satisfied obtuseness he gave during the hearings." And the rest of the Adminsitration hardly id any better. 

"Citizen Truman" Truman's departure has been anticlimactic --the magazine even refers to "undoubted pathos." His last interview as President was typically contentious, and, for his critics, even typically mendacious, as he denied that the Soviets have an atomic bomb. The latest version of a Bill to give ex-presidents a pension doesn't seem like it would pass, which is unfortunate since Truman would rather give speeches to schools and colleges than take a job, and wants an additional $1.5 million for a presidential library in St. Louis. On the other hand, his flurry of last minute initiatives are a good foundation for a future Democratic campaign. Speaking of last minute action, it looks like the constitutional amendment banning poll taxes and property qualifications for voting is going to go through, now that the committee is headed by Senator Langer and not McCarran. The Southern anti-civil rights bloc seems to have written the poll tax off as a lost cause, anyway. The rules for President Eisenhower's press conferences are in the works, and we get some idea of what they will be. The Economist points out that they have become a pretty important part of the way that American  government actually works, so that's good. 

The World Overseas

Do the French hate Americans? Since 350,000 Americans are likely to visit France in 1953, it is not surprising that there is some friction. The French already resent British tourists, and while there will be more of them in 1953 (450,000), they won't stay as long. French Communists are especially prickly. On the other hand, the French like Eisenhower, so maybe it will all work out. The latest Monnet report on the European coal community is out, and it points out that the community is the only way forward. Europe simply cannot generate the private capital needed for the necessary scale of investment, at best only reaching 30% of what has already been ploughed into iron, coal and steel since the war. 

"The Fate of the Soviet Jews, II" As the month nears its end, The Economist reviews the sad story of Soviet Jews, who have gone from allies of the Bolsheviks to the enemies of Ukrainian nationalists under Nazi occupation, which required a heavy hand from Soviet authorities before the Ukrainian Jews were safe again; and then to literary opponents of the regime when Zhdanov launched his criticisms, to being unfortunately anti-Zionist when the Soviets flirted with Israel, to, finally, a dangerously pro-Western minority which needs to be deported wholesale from "vulnerable areas." It's horrible. 

In Greece, Field Marshal Papagos' new government is tasked with saving the Greek economy. 

Business World

"Premium or Pool at the Pump" Esso will launch two premium gasoline grades in the British market next week, 78 and 83 octane. These will be cheaper than other premium gasolines and there are actually few cars in Britain that need it, but this will free the auto companies up to produce them. The question holding up the reintroduction of premium gasoline since the war is shortage of refinery capacity and the resultant potential need to import American gasoline, but evidently with all the new refineries that day has passed. (Investors will also be interested in knowing how it is going to affect stock prices! The Economist takes a stab at that, proposing that "branded" gasoline will gain ground at the expense of less-well advertised sellers.)

Business Notes 

The French are likely to devalue the franc because of convertibility problems, th eBank of England has been holding the price of sterling down by buying dollars, bank deposits are at a new peak --I have no idea what that might have to do with the Letters battle over encouraging savings--. Lord Aldenham at Westminster Bank says that the consumers' "buying strike" against high-cost merchandise has been a success in reining in industry, and hopes for more of the same. The new "rubber scheme" will probably include a stockpile to even out price fluctuations, but that may not be enough, what with American artificial rubber and all. 

"Aircraft for Dollars" The British have been negotiating to have the Americans buy British aircraft for distribution to Nato allies for so long that we've forgotten exactly where we were. Unlike with the Centurion tank order, which could be filled while the idea was on the front pages, we have been waiting for deliveries of Hunters and Swifts, and this has given the Americans time to develop cold feet. The Americans have $225 million to spend, but it is not clear how it is to be divided between Vickers, Hawkers, and European makers. 

"Atomic Policy Restated" The Ministry of Supply's revised plans call for an experimental "breeder reactor," which will make plutonium and generate electrical power at the same time; and a simple, experimental uranium reactor exclusively for power production to attack the various engineering problems that are expected to arise.  Off the table for now is a design study for a nuclear submarine to use a simpler version of the reactor "on which work in the future will be concentrated." Which I take to mean that the British atomic submarine will be later, but better, than the current American one. Stocks are up, "discount houses" had a good year, shipbuilding in Britain is down, due to lack of steel, it seems, and not of demand, while it is increasing abroad. This might be a response to the long delivery times being citied by British yards. Or it might be that Japanese yards pay their workers less, as Uncle George points out while placing his contracts! Silver prices are up, hurray.

"Patterns of Income" The Customs and Excise brought in £1682 million last year, up £268 million thanks partly to the 6d increase in income tax rates in the 1951 budget. In all, 20, 350,000 incomes were assessed last year. Half of all incomes fell in the £250 to £500 range, with just under 6 million earning less, mainly single and widowed persons without dependents, while only 60 people in the whole country earned more than £6000, with an average income of £8000. The Economist spends several sentences saying that it is terrible that there are so few rich people without saying that it is terrible. 

"Trail of the Comet" It sure is starting to look like jetliners are good business, with orders for 49 Comets received from 8 airlines not counting Pan Am, which will be announcing an Atlantic service soon.  BOAC will trial the Comet III on the direct London-New York route in 1956,. with Pan Am following quickly if it proves practical. 

Coffee prices are down in Kenya, Brazil is auctioning off its cotton crop, and the British working group visiting American heavy chemical plants declined to make the usual comments about productivity, since there is nothing to say, and no wonder. The British industry has crammed vast amounts of investment into plants during the war years and since specifically to keep up with American investment. They are, however, still keen to see British firms adopt various American managerial innovations. In paricular, the Americans have one technically trained worker for every six employees, compared with one for sixteen in Britain, leading the working group to recommend less stringent apprenticeships in favour of trade exams, which seems like it will lead to less technical expertise but a more favourable ratio, which, of course, is what Uncle George has been saying about the whole "productivity gap" exercise from the beginning. The British auto industry did well at Monte Carlo, a court ruling on the definition of borrowing seems consequential to British business, and the House of Commons is considering a bill to allow farms to put penicillin and other antibiotics in animal feed. 

A special report on British steel follows. You know the story. British steel production was down last year, and 1.8 million tons of American pig iron had to be imported. Industry suffered from a general steel shortage for reasons which are not precisely clear. Imports were £20/ton more expensive than British steel, and will be £7/ton more expensive this year. This doesn't really explain why there are steel imports, although between shortage of domestic production and the existence of specialty steels, I guess we can figure it out. Plans for expansion of British steel production to 20 million tons hinge on increasing native pig iron production, and British expansion plans are paralleled by plans for expansion around the world, having already increased from 70 million to 134 million tons over the last four years. Some 45% of world steel production is in the United States, while the Schumann Plan countries hope to reach 50 million tons by 1957, following on the end of all internal tariffs and barriers to coal, iron and steel next week. The East Bloc is expected to reach 64 million tons by then, for a world total including lesser developments in the rest of the Commonwealth and Latin America, of 270 million tons. British and European expansion is likely to put supplies of iron ore to the test. 

Besides volume of steel, production methods and quality of product matter. Everyone is excited about continuous casting methods, while alloy steels and improvements in heat treating give us better quality steel. 

Aviation Week, 26 January 1953

News Digest reports that the Defence Department has cancelled the planned 460 aircraft fly past for the Inauguration  over concerns that it would be unsafe. National converts its LA-New York coach service to DC-6s seating 65 each next week. The USAF has authorised a controlled environment testing area for new bomber armament at the GE Johnston City, New York, plant. The first of the CAA's new surveillance radars will be installed at Newark Airport in the next 45 days.  Delos Rentzel has left the board of W. R. Grace unexpectedly, while General Quesada, currently Vice-President of Olin, has joined that of the Flight Safety Foundation. Glidden Doman wants everyone to know that the Japanese just love their YH-31, which will sell like hotcakes over there this year. Air France has bought an electronic trainer from Curtiss-Wright, while Canadian Pacific is delaying its Pacific service until 28 April because of delays in delivery of their Comet aircraft. 

Industry Observer reports that  Chrysler's new missile contract is for the Redstone missile, which is based on the German V-2, as developed at the Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama, by a group led by Wernher Von Braun, of Peenemunde fame. It will be produced at the Detroit factory that was previously building the Pratt and Whitney J48. Fairchild is testing a C-119 rigged for aerial refuelling, while the Navy is developing refuelling capability on all of its fighters, and is adapting the Convair XP5Y-1 flying boat as a tanker. McDonnell is shelving its XH20 ramjet helicopter. Difficulties with Westinghouse turbine engines is delaying the Douglas X-3. A new version of the Napier Nomad diesel-gas turbine will be installed on an Avro Shackleton later this year, and Nomad-Shackletons will be standard Coastal Command equipment. The first fleetwide installation of distance measuring equipment (DME) will be in Mohawk Airline's DC-3s. The FAA will loan the airline equipment for the trial, as well as to seven other airlines that are also trialling it. Pentagon sources say that the de Havilland Vampire was disqualified for MSA funds because it drops a wingtip at critical Mach numbers. The Aircraft Industries Association is forming a Guided Missiles Technical Committee. The Mutual Security Agency has scrounged up $2.075 million for the Netherlands to buy American  aircrcaft parts and ground equipment. Boeing is making initial tests on the interchangeability of parts being made for the Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas B-47s to see if they come up to Air Force requirements for full interchangeability in the field. 

Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup is back from vacation or wherever she was to look at the new Administration's plans for air mail, the CAA, and the CAB. The new Congress will give them back to the executive branch by extending existing laws. The House Appropriations Committee is looking for cost savings in the defence budget, particularly aircraft procurement. If the services still haven't been able to spend $85 billion in appropriations, do we really need the planes, asks chairman John Taber. His deputy, Richard Wigglesworth, seems to be one of the men behind the B-52 vs B-47 debate. Also interested in aviation at the Senate Appropriation Committee is Homer Ferguson, he of the Howard Hughes probe that evolved into investigations of Senator Brewster's alleged involvement in the PAA/TWA merger and the Bennett Myers scandal. (Which, retrospect, could have taken a lot more scalps.)

Nat McKitterick reports for McGraw-Hill World News Service and Aviation Week that "Eirope Plans All-Out Switch to Aircoach" All the airlines are going in for it, and the British are pushing even lower "colonial" rates, with Airworks and Hunting bidding for a really cheap service down to the Rhodesias and Aquila to Gibraltar and the West Indies. Brigadier General Samuel Russ Harris is the new head of the USAF's Arnold Engineering Development Centre.   Alexander McSurely reports that "CAA Blasterd on Tower Hazard," which is to say, a water tower at the Youngstown, Ohio airport, which has somehow become a national case.  Lincoln Mercury has a contract to build more Westinghouse J40s at a new navy plant at Romulus, Michigan. Chance Vought has built the last Corsaid, Number 12,571, and will turn the production line over to the F7U-3 sweptwing Cutlass fighter. The US is the odd country out at an international conference on air damage liability while Bolivia has plans for its new national airport. Continental's 225hp flat-six is the neatest, smallest aircraft engine ever.  The Air Force is ordering a new automatic safety belt with an exploding belt buckle from Stanley Aviation. It's for safety! (It makes bailing out easier.)  NACA is opening an new lab for "giant jets." At the Lewis Propulsion Laboratory in Cleveland. It is particularly interested in tail flutter at high Mach speeds.
 

George L. Christian reports for Production Engineering on "Probe and Drogue Refuelling," the British aerial refuelling method making rapid progress over here. It is a very long and complete writeup of a method that is easier on flying and which can be easily mounted and dismounted.

Philip Klass reports for Avionics that "Remote VHFs to Speed NY Traffic" Three remote VHF broadcasters give full access to ARTC ground controllers for up to 175 miles from New York City, getting coverage of all ground instruction to all aircraft in the zone. This gives "precise and immediate" control of all planes, whereas before the controller had to be patched through each company's dispatch, a process that could take ten to fifteen minutes. Now all they need is "radar vision" to match their "VHF voice." For one thing, this would allow control to greatly reduce aircraft intervals. 

Filter Centre reports that the Arne committee looking at airborne radar has been stymied by a report from Professor John Marshall of McGill, touting the advantages of 5--6cm radar just as it was about to approve off-the-shelf 3cm installations. FC also does the "review of technical literature," but I am not summarising seven technical bulletins, including one on "vibrator-choppers." 

Production has "New Approach to Big Press Design," which is about Throatless Press of Cleveland's brilliant idea for a heavy forging press with no "throat," which originated in C. A. Van Dusen's 1944 idea for putting heavy forging presses in caves, where you didn't have to build massive foundations using lots of steel reinforcing rods  because they were already carved out of the rock. "Apparently this did not appear practical," but Throatless salvaged  other aspects of the design. Throatless hasn't had any orders yet, but wants the industry to know what's available. On the other hand, Bendix's ceramic-base brake linings actually exist, and give better performance than existing brake shoes. Moline Tool Company's shaft hole tube machine spotfaces holes in the cheeks of aircraft engine crankshafts, while Advance Rubber has a rubber to metal bonding process that is better than other ones.

 

New Aviation Products (What in Heaven were we just reading, etc.) has a friction clutchj for target drone gyros from Summers Gyroscope designed to replace conventional electromagnetic clutches that automatically adjusts to even out wear and compensate for temperature changes. R. W. Cramer's Time Totaliser is another mechanical-drive contraption, this one measuring time by advancing a pointer. Gay Lee Company has long life carbide-tipped saws. B. K. Sweeney has several types of torquemeters for calibrating wrenches. Henry Engineering has a rubber terminal cover, while Engis Engineering has a drill gauge. Niagara Machine and Tool Works has a versatile steel press brake for "bending, curling, jogging, corrugating, notching and pinching." Lear's Romec division is proud of the lubricant pump it has designed for Solar's new auxiliary gas turbine. 

What's New has received The Initial En Route Climb of Aircraft, The Visual Range in Daylight, Darkness and Twilight, GEC Journey Around the World, Bulletin 4120A from Parker Appliance, describing aircraft flareless tube fittings, a guide to ramp safety that you must write to the National Safety Council to get, Martin Caidin's Rockets Beyond the Earth, and Allen Z. Zweng's Pracitcal Manual of the E-6B Computer.

Aviation Safety has "Crash Tests," a look at NACA's dramatic crash tests with some spare C-82s.

CAB will let NWA operate Stratocruisers on airmail-subsidy routes, which seems to some like a bit of a reversal since they are so big and expensive.

Robert Wood warns us to "Watch Those British" in Editorial, because they are all in on coach with their new Viscount and perhaps later the Comet. America is behind! Which is why the "Thought for the New Year" is General Twining saying that if Americans ever lose their love of innovation and scientific progress, they will be DOOMED. 

  

  

Business Roundup reports that 1953 will be a banner year for business, but downturns in capital investment, defence spending, and consumer borrowing are not likely to be good for the economy, but there is reason to think that the "transition to 195X," the first year of a normal, peacetime economy in the 1950s, will be gentle. 

Fortune's Wheel is happy that the GOP is back in the White House, and hopes that the Cold War will be won without fighting, as the Soviet Empire decays from within. (Elsewhere, it is very happy with all the industrialists Eisenhower has brought into government, as previously the only businessmen that the Democrats seemed to like were bankers and financiers. On the other hand, that means that there is pressure on them to deliver, as the last time they didn't, and were sent to the wilderness for twenty years. It is also sure that George Humphrey will "restore the prestige and influence" of the Treasury.) 

As if that's not enough politics for the business magazine, we follow with "The State of the Union: A Twelve-Point Check List for the New Management of the U.S. Government" They are: 1) Looking out for Republican corruption; 2) Listening to Dean Acheson (that is, a sane foreign policy); 3) Congress needs to make law and take the lead on vague priorities; 4) Professionalism of the civil service; 5) Doing something about loyalty; 6) Getting subsidies out in the open; 7) Reorganising government; 8) Decentralising; 9) "Educating" everybody about economics. At this point we hit a page break, are told to turn to 174, do not find Points 10 through 12 there, and conclude that they are about as important as Fortune thinks they are. Typically for Fortune, Editorial Notes is more interested in the article along these lines in The Economist than it is in its own, anyway. Although it is just the lead for a series of Notes on the New Hampshire Union Leader's musings about McCarthy being an ideal American Leader, Walter Reuther's acceptance speech, which upset Fortune, and leads it to huff about just how small the radical share of the vote was in 1952. 

"A New Strategy for NATO" 

So, just to be clear, the new Fortune that was just a business magazine got rid of its back matter and all those great investigative articles, but when it comes time to tell Europe to lie back and put its faith in the atom bomb, that's a good use of the magazine's precious pages. (To be fair, we are also defending against Soviet intercontinental atomic attack, but that plan was put in place under Truman, so the Eisenhower Administration can't take credit.) Way down at the bottom of the article I detect some evidence that it might actually have a point. Currently, we are building lots of B-47s and sometimes, somewheres, talking about buying the British V-bombers. But all of this is predicated on having bases convenient to the borders of the East Bloc. Might it not be more prudent to focus on B-52s and tankers, so has to have an intercontinental atom bomb force which does not depend on bases in Europe? In other words, do we buy B-47s, or B-5s? 

"Cinerama: The Broad Picture" Another explanation of the new "three-dimensioal" movie technology, with a focus on the finances of the company that is putting it together. It sounds exciting, although not as exciting as the next substantive story (following two profiles), "Are Executives Paid Enough?" Exciting to executives, anyway! I guess, exciting to you? Arch Patton of McKinsey offers a yardstick to answer the question. (It turns out that they aren't.)

"The New Metals Age" After a wonderful splash image of work at a magnesium foundry, this article is an extract from James' Rubber Handbook. Will rhodium or zirconium be important industrial materials of the future? Could be! Here, have some more pictures, this time from a nickel super-alloy foundry. After a page skip to the deep rear of the book, we have an equally brief look at possible metals of the future like, say, praseodymium and rhenium. And to be fair, it is pretty bewildering. Who besides a few radio engineers had heard of germanium before it beame the "semiconductor, or electronic-transistor metal?" Practically any of these new metals might find their place in alloy steels, for example, and there is the push for new light metals which has given titanium its new prominence. Lithium is being used in everything from lubricants to the hydrogen bomb, and might be a structural metal in the future. Silicon is also going into grease. Pure molybdenum might be the turbine blade material of the future.