Shaughnessy,
Vancouver,
Canada
Dear Father:
Your Loving Daughter,
Ronnie
Letters
The story about David Garroway and the picture of the Third Avenue "el" reflected in a window get letters, while J. H. Farrell of Los Angeles has opinions about the "Beast of Bladenburg," R. H. McIntosh of the Alabama State Fair writes to point out that the names of the National Maids of Cotton aren't given in the article, and the Reverend Bates of Kentucky preaches a sermon leading into three more letters praising Billy Graham. George Platt of Montana gets into an argument with the editor about the first balloon flight in the United States. (Or future U.S., as Platt defends a claim from 1757.) For Your Information takes a bow for predicting that Frank Leahy Frank Leahy was going to retire. (He's the coach of Notre Dame football. To explain to the uninterested, this is a Catholic university in the United States with a famous football programme, because football programmes are famous down here --I mean, down here where I am when I'm not swanning around London trying to sell Airspeeds to Brazilians-- And you know what, I actually can't explain it.
National Affairs
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Sources say that Beria's trial was so strangely handled because he defied precedent by refusing to confess. The story of John Hvasta is more complex than press accounts let on because the American Embassy in Prague got new locks or something. Franklin Roosevelt, Jr. is absolutely going to run for Governor of New York. Leyte, we can now be told, was in dock for conversion to a specialised anti-submarine carrier when it had its explosion, and is coming out heavier than the other Essex-class, with a complement of 1300, half its previous size, and a deck of 50 antisubmarine aircraft. The Pentagon has a new squabble, over centralising public relations. The West German Railwaymen's Union is using its position to smuggle propaganda into East Germany, and everyone should know this! An Eisenhower supporter from the convention is going on the Fifth Circuit. Rep. Kit Clardy of the HUAC is going to look for Reds in the medical profession next, and then try to find the guy who hired a Czech communist for a while in 1944. The AEC is believed to have soft-pedalled research into the long-term consequences of atomic explosions on the victims, with evidence that Hiroshima and Nagasaki have seen an increase in the number of baby "mental defectives." The Administration's home modernisation loans" might be extended to kitchen appliances to shore up the industry. Senator Ferguson is going to override the Pentagon and get an Air Force engine contract for the Navy's Romulus, Michigan plant to save the jobs of 5000 workers in the Detroit area. The Russians have abandoned plans to build airfields on some islands in the Laptev Sea because they appear to be melting!
The Periscope Washington Trends reports that the defence "New Look" will get through Congress without a scratch because it cuts spending and clears the way for tax cuts, and hopefully the economy will recover in spring and he'll get a second term and be the President who delivers those cuts. (Which covers the third story.)
"A Historic Struggle Ends: How to Bury the Dead?" The Bricker Amendment is dead. Newsweek explains how it happened. (Mainly, it was a great thing to impose on a Democratic President, not so much on a Republican.) And also what's going to come out of it. (Probably not much, although now Congress is going to have do some real work.)
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| Check out Dykstra's obit notice (linked) for an interesting contrast with "the Puerto Rican problem." |
"Ticking It Off" J. Edgar Hoover says that the new crime wave is costing the average family $425/year, and that it is harder to track Communists now that they've gone underground. You don't say! Also (this seems to be an "Also" headline, because we're "ticking" the items off), HUAC has cleared the vast majority of American clergy of being Reds, Congress is giving Senator McCarthy's Permanent Investigations Committee $214,000/year, the Army is sending another battalion of atomic artillery to Europe, and aiming to make it 6 in total, the Senate, Interior committee, having approved Hawaii for statehood, is now moving on to Alaska.
Ernest K. Lindell's Washington Tides reports that the Administration's plan to appoint a committee to recommend ways of strengthening the Foreign Service is a positive move, because it turns out that firing the entire Foreign Service is bad for the Foreign Service. "But it serves them right for being so snooty and effeminate," you say. Well, maybe, but that's how diplomats are, and now you haven't any, and there's no-one to do the work! Even very conservative people, whom you can trust, are saying so! John Foster Dulles says so!
International
"Japan: A 'Greater Asia' Deal with the Reds?" It could happen! For example, there's a Soviet embassy in Tokyo. Suspicious! And some wise old Japanese person said a wise thing once. Even more suspicious! And they want to trade with China! And Vice-President Nixon said he found Japan crawling with subversives! Plus, the Japanese have wasted their opportunity for economic development during the Korean War, and are now doomed to poverty. And a Soviet diplomat is missing And a Soviet diplomat is missing, no doubt because he is hiding in the American embassy where he is naming the vast network that is about to turn Japan into a bastion of anti-American sentiment in Asia.
"Is This the Showdown?" Twelve thousand Communist troops and 2000 coolies are headed into Laos to besiege Luang Prabang. Legionnaires and the Goums are falling back along the "old Opium Road," scorching the earth and destroying rice stockpiles ahead of the advance. A coolie can carry 44lbs of rice 20 miles a day at the expense of 2.2 pounds of rice, so destroying the stocks of rice on hand is very helpful for blunting the offensive. (I sense conversions from metric!) French reinforcements are being airlifted in from Hanoi and the isolated strongpoint of Dienbienphu to hold the capital of Laos. The fall of the city will only make the defeatist French even more defeatist, which would be bad. The newspapers in Paris are covering up all the French victories and three cabinet ministers, the defence minister, and three top generals are on their way to Indo China to see what's the matter. John Foster Dulles has even allowed that he is willing to talk to the Chinese about cooling things down in Indo China and Korea, and the Air Force is sending 200 ground crew and a squadron of B-26 bombers. Meanwhile the Berlin Conference continues, there's a cold snap in Europe, too, and someone called the Abbe Pierre is the saintliest man in Paris right now, while in India Ramu the Wolf Boy may or may not be an actual wolf boy. In Egypt, Kermit Roosevelt has definitely told Deputy Premier Nasser that there will be no American aid for Egypt until the Egyptians sign an agreement with the British over Suez, the No. 2 Mau Mau leader, Waruhiu Itote, has been sentenced to death, and the Folland Gnat is the small fighter you've been hearing about since forever, only now from Newsweek. It does have a radar, but is Westinghouse's new "baby" radar, which weighs only 115lb and occupies only 1 cubic foot, instead of six.
"At Last, a 49th State of the Union?"
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| By RuthAS |
In Latin America, we're told, Guatemala is toeing the Moscow line in a brazen attempt to provoke America into doing something rash, leading to charges of "yanqui imperialism. Also, have we mentioned that Guatemala is going Communist? Because we have two full columns to fill, and that's all we have to say!
The Periscope Business Trends reports that the depression that isn't going to happen has turned into a recession that isn't really happening. But if it does happen, the Federal Reserve will turn on the taps! Labour is moving closer to the Administration, but the President wants everyone to know that he is absolutely not wooing the labour movement! Summer vacation bookings are so far down domestically, up abroad.
"The Economy: What's the Word? Humphrey Talks Taxes vs. 'Dip'" As the inscrutable headline suggests, some (Senator Douglas) say that America is in a recession. Others (Treasury Secretary Humphrey) say that it is more of a 'dip.' Democrats are now arguing that the planned tax cuts, which are intended to stimulate business investment, should be redirected at stimulating consumption, the concrete difference being that Republicans want to increase depreciation rates and lower the top corporate rate (which Newsweek calls 'a double tax on dividends") while Democrats want to raise the basic exemption.
Stocks are up, auto sales are high, but because of inventories, production and work is down, and we get a Fortune-style "story" about how salesmen have to sell harder. The price of LPs is going down, and the magazine detects a trend of Americans grinding their own coffee to cut costs.
Notes: Week in Business reports that Bethlehem Steel has just launched the biggest oil tanker ever built in the Western Hemisphere, at 45,000t, that the Federal Maritime Board is going to convert mothballed Liberty ship to gas turbine, steam-turbine, geared-Diesel and electric-Diesel to see if they can get them up to 18kt. Do they even talk to naval architects at the Board? Packard is moving its operations to a brand new factory in Utica that was originally put up to make jet engines. Products: What's New reports a portable 24ft ice-skating rink, which sounds like a backyard swimming pool, just add cold, two new processes to retread tires with deeper grips from Goodyear and Firestone, and the best fly fishing floater ever by B. F. Gladding. A box interview with Senator Carlson of Kansas explains that higher postal rates would be bad for business because it would cost them money and all the businesses would fail and all the American children would be starving to death in the streets with the tumbleweeds blowing through them and only the lonely sound of a door slapping in the wind. And that's just with a 1 cent increase from 3 to 4 cents, first class!
Henry Hazlitt's Business Tides has "Ike's Semi New Deal," in which Henry finally notices that Eisenhower is engaging in counter-recessionary spending. Not that he's gone as far as noticing that there's an actual recession going on, unless that's what he means when he talks about "the end of artificial prosperity."
I am beginning to suspect that Henry Hazlitt is not a nice man.
Science, Education
Durward Allen's Our Wildlife Legacy gets a headlining review, followed by notice of Albert Ghioso and colleagues' discovery of Element 99 in the debris of a cyclotron bombardment.
"Strokes: Help for the Victims" 500,000 Americans have strokes every year, with 170,000 dying of their effects, three times the combined deaths of diabetes and tuberculosis. Dr. Irving S. Wright of the American Heart Association recommends more attention to the "little strokes" that precede the big ones, with symptoms such as momentary weakness in the legs or arms and numbness in one side of the face. These "accidents," Wright thinks, might be spasms in the blood vessels interrupting blood flow to the brain and potentially bringing on major strokes. Also, patients who have previously had strokes can be put on anticoagulents, which seem to help.
"Warming Tale of Alaska" Alaska's tuberculosis rate among natives is twenty times the American average, and the 66 orthopedic beds available in the state are 90% taken up with youthful tuberculosis-of-the-bone victims, with another 500 awaiting admission for the prolonged antibiotic treatment necessary, and perhaps a thousand more still undiagnosed in their remote communities. Newsweek tells us about an Alaskan charity organisation that is trying to make life easier for the children.
"Fussin' and Fightin'" The Houston school board is having the usual fight about allegedly Communist teachers practicing progressive education, leading to not renew the contract Deputy Superintendent George Ebey, who had been attacked by John P. Rogge, last heard from running the "Draft MacArthur" movement. This led the local Teachers Association to request an investigation by the NEA, which the Houston school board tried to run out of town, and leading to a protest rally by 500 Houston-area teachers when it was hearing from a reporter who had investigated the alleged main instigators, the Minute Women of America, and the NEA going home after asking if someone could please find out of the Houston Teachers Association request reflected the views of its 3400 members better than the protestors and the school board.
Press, Radio-Television, Newsmakers
"Dissatisfied Visitor" AP and the International News report that they were visited by HUAC chairman Harold Velde, who expressed his dissatisfaction with their coverage of the Committee, something that they are only making public because Velde has recently told a news conference that "he had no complaint about the fairness of press coverage." What was up with the visit, then? the wire services ask. Also, there was a fire at the New York Daily News, which is obviously news (Ronnie said sarcastically), and Marilyn Monroe gave a press conference in Tokyo, which is obviously news. (Ronnie said completely seriously.) Charlie Harger of the Abilene Reflector-Chronicle is the President's favourite news editor. Here's all about Charlie!
Your Show of Shows is probably going to be cancelled, and Saturday night television will be back to being the loneliest night of the week. The FCC promises that someone, some time, will come up with a "cheap trick" to make colour television affordable --apparently, the colour wheel. Again.
Nancy Guild and Tony Bennett have had babies, not with each other. Joan Dulles Molden, daughter of Allen, is engaged, to a former Austrian politician. Hello, life? Please, I write my own jokes and I like it to be a challenge. Jose Figueres, the President of Costa Rica, is also married. Jack Benny is 60. William Adams, Maxwell Bodenheim, and Ruth Bodenheim are dead.
New Films
Saadia (MGM) is a "metaphysical horse opera" and a vehicle for Rita Gam, and is about Rita being torn between a North African witch woman and a French doctor during a plague outbreak. Rob Roy is an RKO production for Walt Disney featuring Richard Todd as the titular Scottish hero, but mostly a British film and quite a popular one over there. Paramount's Red Garters is a "brisk and beautiful spoofing of the whole subject of Westerns." It also has Rosemary Clooney! Turn the Key Softly is 100% British, and is a drama about former women convicts which is "too pat."
Books
Richard Aldington's still-unpublished expose of Lawrence of Arabia is making a bigger splash than any book that is actually out in print. So Newsweek gives him four columns, leaving only room for three novels and two memoirs (of life with basking sharks and late-war Belin, respectively) in the Other Books section. If Newsweek won't give them more coverage, neither will I!
Raymond Moley is sad about the Bricker Amendment failing. Just because we have a Republican President now doesn't mean we won't have a Democratic one trying to do foreign policy in the future!
Katherine Johnsen's Washington Roundup reports that Styles Bridges' visit to Fiat in Italy is in connection with the decision on which European all-weather fighter to buy with MSDAP money, with the decision going to either the F-86K as produced in Italy, or the Javelin. Congress is a bit dubious about buying any, ostensibly on the grounds that European factories are vulnerable to air attack. The upcoming Senate Commerce Committee hearings on aviation look like they're shaping up to be a great debate on the future of civil aviation under Senator McCarran's gavel. Congressional Democrats have some questions for Harold Talbot and Admiral Radford concerning the "new look," which does seem to cut aircraft procurement, and whether Radford is still against "the atomic blitz" as a deterrent. There will be no increase in the airmail rate, Representative Carl Hinshaw thinks that the Lockheed C-130 is the future of air cargo and wants Federal loan guarantees for airlines that buy it, although Lockheed says we shouldn't get excited for another seven years.
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| The YF-102 achieved only 0.98 Mach in the January trials |
The CAA is planning to further extend DME coverage with 327 stations, although the CAA is still arguing with the military about the preferred specific system with the Air Navigation Development Board, which prefers the military's system. Coverage of the Navy's "pogo" vertical takeoff fighters is also to be found in Newsweek, below,although both magazines are working from an AP picture. The Navy has been trying to keep the rollout secret, with one publicity colour photo being taken to illustrate an article about it to be published by a Navy admiral in a national magazine, but ASP foiled this exclusivity by photographing it from the highway. Lockheed's VTO, which uses the Allison T54, is still under wraps. The USAF, meanwhile, is working on its own vertical takeoff fighter, which will use hig-bypass turbojets to blow a jet downwards. The USAF wants a plane that can operate from unimproved strips, while the Navy wants one that can operate from ships. Someone has pointed out that it is all a bit nuts, because there is no way to control these planes when they're tipping up and landing vertically, that an autopilot to do it automatically has proved impractical (no kidding!!!), and that there's no way to handle them on the ground. So I have a feeling that this is the last we hear of the pogo planes outside of the freak show.
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Zenith Plastics of Gardena, California, reports for Production that the plastic cone that protects the Lockheed P2V's magnetic anomaly detector is the latest proof that plastics are perfect for this kind of job. The process of moulding and curing large pieces of glass cloth-Bakelite structures is explained at length. Professor Fred Mayrose of the University of Detroit reports for Production that he has a nre hydraulic facility ideal for research problems involving calibrating new high pressure equipment, and that industry should inquire. Temco reports for Production that it has a new hand drill with a ball-and-socket block for angle drilling.
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| This is how we got to the Moon, kids! |
There's a page and a half of precis of papers given at the latest IAS session, but they're all helicopter design or aerodynamics theory and design and not very interesting.
George L. Christian reports for Equipment that "RCAF Enthusiastic About New Comets" The Canadian Air Force has two Comets, and they're pretty keen! The RCAF has no intention of grounding them, no matter what BOAC, Air France, or UAT does. They're not actually doing much flying right now, since one is undergoing modifications and the other is being maintained, but they are fully booked flying radar defence testing missions, no time for VIP flights at all. In Britain, Viscount orders have reached 88. American Airlines has introduced a new anti-skid system that warns the pilot when a skid begins, rather than automatically correcting it, which American has doubts about. What's New likes a book by a German fighter pilot and three catalogs, two bulletins and a brochure about machine tools, silent stock tubes for screw machines, and chemicals for preparing the surfaces of pieces of ferrous and non-ferrous metal. New Aviation Products has a passenger seat for the 40-passenger DC-3 conversion, a high-altitude fuel pump that avoids vapour lock from Lear, a galvanometer for aircraft instruments from Marion Electrical Instrument, and a full line of aircraft temperature measuring components from Winslow. Also on the Market has shatterproof glasses and "electronic controllers" from Olsen Testing Machine.
Letters has Norman Hill of Redifon writing to explain that the company will be in charge of buildling any Comet simulators that are installed in the US per their patents, thank you very much. Salesman Barry Hawkins really likes the magazine. PR man W. P. Stratton of Transco has decided to say "Avionics" all the time from now on. Dean Anderson of the CAA is upping the quantity of their subscription to 7 copies. A six column(!) letter from Lieutenant Commander F. M. Lloyd of the Navy explains how successful their "canned engine" storage method is. PR men from Stratos and Ryan really liked the articles about Stratos and Ryan. A second Letters page in lieu of other editorial backmatter is mostly correspondents on about how much they like the magazine, or specific articles, but there is a two column letter from Clarence Chamberlin about how he has always liked flying boats ever since the old days before the war, here are some stories, in conclusion the flying boat is coming back!
It has been found that the Western Air Lines DC-3 crash in Los Angeles in June of 1953 was caused by reversed controls. The Post Office may abandon mail helicopter flights, an BOAC is making 50 changes in its Comets,
Letters
Selig Wasner is upset at the lingo that the disc jockeys jive on about on the air. (I can't believe I found transliterations of all that slang; probably goes to show that my slang is a bit old-fashioned!) Edward F. Lethen of the USIA writes to tell us how the President's State of the Union speech was translated into all the major Chinese dialects and blasted into the country by high powered radio so that ordinary Chinese would know what President Eisenhower had to say about things. Many readers write in to point out that the still illustrating the review of Riot in Cell Block H captures an extra waving at the camera in the middle of a riot. It turns out that not all newspapers publish church announcements for free all the time, the editor says, no matter what reader Paul Brindell of Novata, California thinks.Harry Houseman of Boyd, Texas, writes in to say, roughly, that he could be as eccentric as Yogi Berra if someone paid him 42,000 a year to do it. Many readers in Los Angeles appreciated the story about the LAPD. Several readers have opinions about the reinstatement of swords in Navy ceremonial dress. For Your Information celebrates the Boy Scouts of America for some reason, and explains that last week's story about Japan and Greater Red Asia was caused by the snow and cold snap in Tokyo deep freezing Harry Kern's brain. Okay, it didn't say that, just implied it in hostage-at-gun-point-sending-hand-signals-to-the-police style. Or maye I just can't admit to myself that the story was serious. (Next week: "Is the Vatican Going Red?")
The Periscope reports that intelligence agents report all those Red jets that used to be threatening Korea have been moved to the border of Indo China. I bet there's lots of 10,000ft concrete runways in Yunnan Province! The State Department and Pentagon are in cordial disagreement about what America should do in Indo China. The military wants a rapid buildup of French and American forces fro final victory over Communism, while State is inclined to agree with the French that it is time to talk. It is reported that Major General Thomas Trapnell is being set up as the scapegoat for the fall of Indo China, because he's been reporting back from Hanoi that we were being too optimistic about the war, making it his fault. Syngman Rhee has been told that if he tries to invade North Korea, "We will shoot you!" President Shishekly of Syria is sleeping in a different house every night and has a plane on standby to whisk him out of Damascus when his government falls. I actually feel for the poor guy. Not Rhee, though. It would be terrible if America shot Rhee, especially when I'm sure I'm not the only volunteer to do it for Columbia, Gem of the Ocean. News that tax bill fixer Henry Grunewald might testify before a gand jury in Washington has Congress abuzz. Those not looking into spare seats on General Shishekly's plane, that is.
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| By Ragnhild & Neil Crawford - flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83980977 |
Senator Styles Bridges is going to go over to Italy to see how Fiat is spending its F-86 money, and then maybe stretch his trip to Indo China. The plan to televise the President's press conferences isn't going forward because too many of the White House press corps are too sloppy for television. The President isn't upset any more about the Department of Agriculture's booklet on dishwashing because it's not a Presidential election year so he doesn't have to rile up the hayseeds. Defence Secretary Wilson says that the Army doesn't have to cut its strength from 20 to 17 divisions to cover budget cuts, it just hasn't budgeted hard enough. (Unannounced cuts will reduce the US Army to one division in Korea by mid-1955, with a Marine and joint Commonwealth division helping back up the 20 division ROK< and two American divisions remaining in Japan until the Japanese army is deemed adequate.) American officials disagree with British about whether it is Moscow or Peking that runs the Viet Minh. Helicopters will be big in war in the future. You heard it here first! The Soviet Trade Mission in Japan is cover for a nest of Soviet spies. The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis is having trouble getting the money together for its plan to distribute a half-million experimental polio vaccines before the next polio season. The VA says it needs 700 psychiatrists to treat the 56,000 mental patients in the VA system, never mind the 12,000 on waiting lists. Senator Saltonstall has demanded a 12 June deadline for the return of US ground crew from Ino-China. Critics who have read B.'s McCarthy and His Enemies are divided between those who already had B.'s number after God and Man at Yale and the ones who actually like the garbage Regnery purveys. The Navy has put its third nuclear submarine on hold while it studies ways to get it from 6000t down to 2000t with a second reactor (in case the first konks out) and balloons and cake and a monkey and a real clown and a pony!
Zsa Zsa Gabor is going to be in a Martin and Lewis movie, The Big Top. Elroy ("Crazylegs") Hirsch is going to be the next big-screen Tarzan. Danny Kaye is going to make $30,000 a week while performing in South Africa. President Eisenhower is going to be on TV on the Mr. Peepers show to support the Red Cross. Eric Sevareid's weekly news show, The American Week, starts next month. Marryin Marilyn Monroe has boosted Joe DiMaggio's television appearance fee from $350 to $5000. Where Are They Now finds Kenny Baker, the "timid tenor and butt of many jokes" on Jack Benny's radio show from 1935--39 out in Beverley Hills recording religious music for Christian Science, which, Newsweek emphasises, is one of the no-fun sects.
The Periscope Washington Trends reports the President's programme is falling behind schedule. The column reminds Republicans in congress that they would be nothing (NOTHING!) without the President, so they better get on the President's train!
National Affairs
Everyone is running scared ahead of a tough election in '54. Newsweek's interpretation of the "2200" story, that is, the 2200 people who have left the State Department, is that it is being interpreted on partisan lines. Republicans say that it proves that there were 2200 Communists in the State Department, while Democrats say that it proves that the security dragnet was "one of the great hoaxes of American history." What is needed now is a breakdown of the 2200. While the Administration dragged its feet, "Democrats, correspondents --amateur detectives all" had found that of the 2200 who left the State Department, at least a third were still employed by the Federal government, and of those fired, there had been no effort to establish whether they were "communists, perverts, or Democrats." That left it for the Administration to investigate and establish that a total of 130 had been fired, and 4 found to be disloyal. Which I think we already knew from coverage in The Economist, but it is interesting to see how Newsweek covers it. Polls show that the election might be determined by the economy, that the President's popularity is on the rebound, that we're still waiting for Henry Gruenwald's testimony, that the AEC is being snowed under by a uranium claim land rush, that Senator Lyndon Johnson is taking no chances in what is likely to be a tough Democratic primary, that Senator Capehart and Representative Wolcott are co-sponsoring a bill to dramatically increase public housing spending to address the recession. The drought in the Midwest due to lack of snow is getting pretty tough. Polling shows that the country is very divided about the Taft-Hartley Bill and any possible revisions.
Ernest K. Lindley uses Washington Tides to ask "What Is Sound Politics?" Specifically, the President thinks that McCarthyism isn't sound politics. It is leading to indecent politics, and is probably played out in '54 and will only "sway small minorities." If the President is wrong, and McCarthyism elects Republican candidates, it will be bad news for the President.
A Special Report profiles test pilot and all-around back-end-of-a-horse Cuck Yeager, the "Fastest Man --And the Men Not Far Behind." Which is to say that the other pilots in the X-plane programme get their pictures and one-paragraph profiles.
International has a big, long feature on all the reasons why those excitable Latins are going to go Communist before you know it.
"No GIs, But Planes Help" The Viet Minh offensive against Luang Prabang has stalled, and the war is turning political. Senator Knowland had to give a "categorical assurance" that no American ground troops will be sent to fight in Indo-China." The President said that it would be a tragedy if America were to become involved in the fighting, and Congress summoned Walter Bedell Smith and Admiral Radford for a secret session of reassurance. The French say that that squadron of B-26s has "noticeably slowed" the Red offensive. To really cinch the situation, we're sending Lieutenant General John W. ("Iron Mike") O'Daniel to train indigenous troops even more. So I guess that tells us who is replacing Trapnell. In Malaya, General Templer sure is fighting the Reds! Everything to do with the Egyptian monarchy is still grotesque. The Berlin Conference is still going on. East Germany is awful because it is Communist. The Russian Tu-200 is a Soviet intercontinental turboprop of enormous size and range, while the Ilyushin Il-38 is another turboprop bomber of much more reasonable size.
Ticking It Off reports that the Italian police have launched a drive against the Church of Christ, an American evangelical group; Anglo-Iranian technicians are back in Abadan, where they estimate that it will cost $75 million and take two years to get the refinery going again; The British Standing Committee on Cancer has concluded that smoking and lung cancer "bear a relationship." The tobacco industry disagrees! The Japanese cabinet has restored the prewar centralised police system, even though critics fear that breaking up the National Rural Force will lead to the prompt rise of Communism, which is everywhere.
That's it, I'm going to Newsweek's family doctor to tell it that the magazine is having a paranoid breakdown.
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| I'm sure this'll blow over |
Business
The Periscope Business Trends reports that the downturn that is not happening is bad enough to be a recession but will be over soon.
Top story is an attempt to take over the New York Central (and a follow up covers a takeover fight at the New Haven!). This is much less interesting than a box investigation of the ways that we calculated the unemployed in light of the "thumping" recent report that there were 2 million fewer people on payroll in mid-January compared with mid-December.
"Reasonably Cheerful" Congress is investigating the economy, or maybe the President's report on the economy, anyway it has called in John Kenneth Galbraith, because he's always good company, and he's told them that he doesn't know if there is a serious depression on the way, and that all he knows currently is that "there are a lot of people who don't know what they don't know." Other witnesses were more cheerfully optimistic. The board's fight to oust Howard Hughes from RKO is not going well. The LSE is up on strong dividend news and rumours that the Bank of England will follow the Bank of France and the US Federal Reserve and cut the discount rate. Piedmont Aviation is trying to lure commuters(!?) with low rates. Sure, fly a plane to work! (It's for weekly commutes, not daily.)
Notes: Week in Business reports that the Statler Hotel chain is expanding, Merrill Lynch is extending its stock installment buying plan, GE has made the biggest light bulb ever to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the light bulb, railway profits are up year-over-year in spite of a steady decline in revenues in the last three months of the year, and the American Stock Exchange ended the year in red.
Products: What's New has Top's new pre-salted and oiled popcorn in aluminum, skillet-like packages that can be popped on the stove; Warner's fast acting electric clutch will allow a single operator to halt heavy machinery like an entire grain elevator instantly; Pioneer Rubber's suede finish takes the clamminess out of rubber gloves; Lionel's new colour 3D camera is simple to use; Chicago Rawhide Manufacturing's rubber-impregnated leather is impermeable to lubricants; and Resistoflex's plastic hose resists corrosion and extreme temperatures, allowing it to carry fuel in jet engines.
This week in Business Tides, Henry Hazlitt confronts the business recession his preferred policies brought on, and which would have turned into a depression without prompt Federal Reserve rate easing. Or, no, he's going to tell us that the coffee cartel doesn't actually exist, no need for antitrust action here! On the other hand, price supports for agricultural goods are kind of like trusts in that they make butter more expensive than it needs to be. Why isn't anyone doing anything about that!?
Science
"The Growing Rabies Scare" The outbreak in Chicago, where 1550 people have been bitten by dogs this year, is a serious health issue. State health authorities have ordained that up to 450,000 licensed dogs be vaccinated at an average cost of $3 per dog, and a hundred strays are arriving at the city pound per day. The dog bite rate is still rising, and thirteen people died of rabies in the United States last year. On a lighter note, the Journal of the American Medical Association has published a booklet on "preparing a child for the hospital" to help parents and doctors avoid terrifying young patients into phobias and neuroses, as happens all the time due to a failure to prepare for the ravages of separation, fear, and pain.
"To Lower Blood Pressure" Ciba Pharmaceutical is marketing the extract of an Indian root as a treatment for high blood pressure. It works through some kind of sedative effect, and has been reported as being effective in quieting mental patients, as well. Another new hypertension treatment is hexamethonium, which is suspicious, as it is from England, while yet others are the rocket fuel derivative, hydralazine, radioactive iodine (no thanks!) and protoveratrine. In conclusion, Serpasil is another one, and at least as good as the others. What a strange story!
"Winning the Game" It has been discovered that not all student athletes are serious about being students! The Educational Policies Committee held a press conference to recommend taking action, but the football team broke in, grabbed the longhairs, and gave them wet willies until they admitted they were all just a bunch of wet blanket snobs.
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| Leonard Kaufman with clients, possibly Shelley Winters and Chloris Leachman |
Press, Radio-Television, Newsmakers
Newsweek profiles the Hollywood press this week. That's the 411 reporters accredited to the big studios, plus the big gossips. Fascinating, if you ask me! The Newspaper Guild has run into trouble after involving itself in a layoff at the Labour Press Association, and Walter Trohan of the Washington bureau of the Chicago Tribune for saying that Clare Booth Luce would be resigning as ambassador to Italy soon.
Liberace is a great entertainer and a man that any girl would be proud to take home to meet Mother! Amos and Andy continues to be just something that a lot of Americans think is funny. Viewers of Carl Sandburg's Very Serious biography of Abraham Lincoln on ABC in New York were very upset when the "Lucky Seven" promotion popped up in the lower corner of the screen just as the President was being Martyred to Democracy or giving a Very Moving Speech, or Something Else which has to be Ponderously Capitalised.
107 year-old Union veteran Albert Woodson is in the column for having a birthday, while Gilda Gray, Bernarr McFadden, Charles Lindbergh, the Earl of Athlone, Oona Chaplin and Gloria Swanson are in the column (or Transitions, which has some strangely trivial entries like Lindbergh being made a brigadier general of the Air Force Reserve) because they are famous, and Violet Bradshaw of Ohio is in it because for the last six years she has been passing as Vernon Bradshaw, going as far as to marry a woman to keep her children. Joanne Sweeney is engaged, Thomas William Pierrepoint, Anita McCormick Blaine, Colonel Frank Mayer and Frederick Lewis Allen have died.
New Films
Books
Lawrence Earls' Crocodile Fever is not a very, very naughty movie (Oh, you know I'm not a complete innocent!). It is about some fellow who used to hunt crocodiles before recently disappearing somewhere near Lake Nyanza. It has lots of photos of crocodiles. Someone should really help his fiancee stage an expedition to find him. The last two volumes of the letters of Theodore Roosevelt show that he was a very vigorous person who did lots of things. He liked everyone, and everyone liked him, except Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whom I'm now warming up to! The success of Davis Grubb's Night of the Hunter shows how important it is for publishers to sign new novelists as soon as possible, preferably before they have graduated from grade school and been snapped up by someone else.
Aviation Week, 22 February 1954
News Digest reports that the Ryan side-by-side trainer has lost out to the Beecn Mentor and Tenco Plebe in the Navy competition. Piasecki expects its YH-16 to be used by airlines all over Europe if they could just increase its capacity from 40 to 55 passengers, Sabena's chairman says. Martin 2-0-2s are profitable for Southwest Airways, and Nakajima Aircraft is being reassembled after being split up into five units during the Occupation.
Katherine Johnsen reports for Washington Observer that there will be no deputy chief of the CAA after all, that the ACC is trying to decide who should write its reports for it, that the Hoover Commission is looking at some aviation questions, that the McCarran Committee could revisit the "flag carrier" debate, that the CAA is working out how to handle the air route to Alaska so that it can actually be profitable and competitive, and the CAA is sticking with DME no matter how much criticism it gets.
Robert Hotz reports for Aviation Week that "ARDC Shuffles Weapons System Pattern" A full page story about the current reorganisation of Air Research and Development Command, which is intended to free it from the greasy grip of Wright-Patterson and move it to Baltimore and Andrews Field.
"Congress Gets Red Plane Facts" Washington is dizzy over that Aviation Week article and the picture, which proves that the Reds are ready to launch atomic apocalypse and the Air Force needs more planes, and the "New Look"is dead! The British are testing the prone pilot position in a Meteor testbed. Canada is building its own low-cost radar defence network to supplement the joint one in the far north, hile the CAA predicts that American airlines will be flying jet turbines by 1958 and lays out te planning and preparation steps needed. The Office of Defence Mobilisation is pressing ahead with titanium production expansion while the Air Force has grounded the H-21 after a crash in Quebec. PAA has won the ARDC contract to build its missile test centre at Patrick AFB, while the chief of the ICAO has warned that the western world must build up its pilot reserve, since the Soviet Union is doing the same.The Air Transport Association is upset at the CAA's decision to complete the DME network, while Sir Miles Thomas of BOAC has asked that the industry slow down jet transport development because no-one is ready to evaluate new configurations of "Atlantic" transport jets based on the V-bomber designs.
IAS paper summaries cover many aeroelasticity and structural papers before arriving at the papers for the electronics section, which was on current issues in air traffic control and featured several general papers, D. K. Martin laying out the Air Navigation Development Board's agenda, and an "objective" look at the "Airspace Use Problem" by S. P. Saint of the ATA that calls for a semi-automatic control system.
Chance Vought has "Titanium for Cutlass Jet Shrouds" for Production. The afterburner shrouds on the F7U-3 Cutlass are made of RC-70 grade titanium! It turned out to be difficult, but possible to make them. Garret Corp and AiResearch report that they have come up witha way of increasing the rate of aluminum extrusion production, while Rolle Manufacturing has made a really big magnesium casting. REALLY big! What's New has a handsomely illustrated brochure about North Central Airlines and a booklet about facilities and personnel planning in aviation production from the AAEC. It also has three bulletins, a technical report, a film, another booklet and a catalog, in case you want to buy paint sprayers, dynamometers, a chafering machine or electric power tools, or just want to know about zinc coatings.
Lockheed Air Service has "LAS Builds Constellation Training Aids" for Production. It is a model flight deck for training crews, which could be converted for practically any other kind of transport aircraft. The main advantage over all the other ones is that it is simple, cheap, and easy to move. Also, Continental has a hydraulic luggage handler. New Aviation Products seems to have reached the limit of the number of advertorials even this magazine can support, because all it has is a thread-cutting tap that can cut for self-locking and a new grinder from Dumore of Racine. Aviation Safety has the full report on the Western Airlines Flight 636 crash at San Francisco in April, which was due to pilot error.
Captain Robson's Cockpit Viewpoint lays out the case against auto-feathering airscrews after the latest Convair 240 crash in Buffaloafter the latest Convair 240 crash in Buffalo, fortunately with no fatalities. Captain Robson recalls how the feathering on the old DC-3 long consisted of four valves in the companionway that required the co-pilot to leave the cockpit, face rear, pick the appropriate valve, rotate it until the oil began to flow, hold it until he could see that the screw was fully feathered, and then close the valve. If that could give a good safety record, so could a push-button manual feathering option. The airlines have tended to prefer automatic feathering, which is faster, but it is only good if it works, which it doesn't. One recent flight had 150 "false feathering" when the automatic equipment started going on its own!
Robert H. Wood's Editorial is warmed by the thought of Charles Lindbergh being reinstated in the Air Reserve, answering all those character assassins who keep calling him a Nazi just because he's a Nazi. Speaking of which, what is the Eisenhower's defence dispersal programme, Lindbergh asked recently. Good question. It turns out that its policy is to make bland assurances. American Airlines is in trouble for asking all of its stewardesses over the age of 32 to resign. It turns out that the ladies are upset, and now Editorial has a letter pointing out that experienced stewardesses are better than teenaged airheads! Smart, that guy.
(Not the Seven Day-)Journal reports on the new governing Atomic Energy Authority set up in Britain as announced in Parliament, and checks out lectures on "Electro-Heat and Prosperity," "Future of British Coal," and "Street Lighting and Safety." The last one was actually a press conference, and was quite productive, unlike the lectures which were thumb suckers. (The new methods of heating things in industry are good! Britain's future in coal is a long way away, so who can say?)At the actually useful press conference, the British Electrical Development Association laid out statistics to prove that street lighting is very good for safety. The fifth annual report of the OECD shows that 1953 was not a good year for the European economy. The Engineer is fascinated by reports fo the difficulties overcome by builders erecting a ten-story building in Singapore.
For the 26th, two launches make the Journal, of the tanker Harmony and the liner Saxonia. Lloyd's Register is out for the year, showing that British shipbuilding was up slightly last year, counted for just over 25% of world production, was dominated by tankers and by motor ships. Some Americans are over here looking at how Europeans do standardisation, where they've fallen behind. The Road Research branch of the DSIR had its turn before the press this week. Dr. W. H. Granville thinks that, looked at in the abstract, our road system is a bit crazy, but in terms of reducing deaths, we might do more if we thought of the pedestrians who get killed as crazy.
The 26th leads off with J. M. Plowman, "Effectiveness of Vibration of Concrete," which is a study of how shaking slabs of concrete effects it. Then we have J. Mann and B. B. Clements, "Gyroscopic Effects of Rotors on the Whirling of Shafts," which is a mathematical treatment, as is D. Williams, "Structural Approach to Aeroelastic Problems," a bit later. "Southern Region Change of Frequency Scheme" is about British Railway's ongoing shift from 25hz to 50hz power. It's quite long, because there is a lot of work being done. I had no idea!
"Continental Gas Turbines in 1953"Brown Boveri delivered 25 units for power generation; Oerlikon is in the same business and has just equipped the "Bone II" power plant in Algiers. Sulzer Brothers is doing marine turbines.
"Class '25' 4-8-4 Locomotives for South Africa" North British Locomotives recently got a contract for 10 of a total of 90 handsome new steam locomotives for South Africa, here they are! They're quite interesting, as they have steam condensers for operating in the desert of the Great Karoo, and were designed by Henschel for South African Railways.
An interesting advertorial, because I had heard that nothing was being done about anything, for a combination power plant/air conditioner for an underground civil defence centre near Paddington Station is followed by one about a commercial vehicle synchromesh hypoid-type transmission and an article about a garbage plant in Glasgow, and one about American shipbuilders being worried that even more American shipping lines are buying ships overseas because they are cheaper and better. Or cheaper, anyway. A longer and more professional advertorial visits Blackburn to see the various Turbomeca turbines it is producing under license, and improving in detail, for example by using Nimonic 90 in the blades. "Improved Ceramic Insulating Material," on the other hand, is a classic "article written by the manufacturer." It is Hylumina, from KLG Plugs, at which point you can deduce that it is for spark plugs. Someone is demonstrating power tools, the Sixth Tripartite Declassification Conference at Chalk River, Ontario, has another list of things which can be declassified, for example the neutron capture cross sections of carbon and graphite and the spontaneous fission rate of Plutonium 240.
For the 26th, we look at the 1954 Defence Budget. It is up a very small amount, which has The Engineer grousing about the lack of new ships (carriers and cruisers), the difficulties of recruiting, and of retaining skilled tradesmen. Then it is on about an interesting paper on train resistance, which turns out to be something that is studied and measured a great deal without solving the world's problems.
A long letter on Maitland and Ogorkiewicz's "Diesel Engines in Agriculture," is deemed worth publishing. The anonymous author explains that diesels would have long since taken over the farm if it were not so hard to keep particles out of the fuel. There is another letter on railway scheduling problems as they relate to locomotive performance, in this case slipping, and The Engineer deals briefly with the annual report of the Chamber of Shipping, which notes that foreign fleets are growing faster than Britain's and that German and Japanese competition is increasing.
Blackburn sends in a very long advertorial about its brand new American stretch-forming machinery towards the back of the 26th issue, and there is another talk on "Developments and Experiments" in the British coal industry. A short bit on the development of the Port of Aden is wedged in before we move on toan account of Bokaro Thermal Power Station in Bihar.
And then before I close the book on the 19th, I turn the page and find four full pages of short advertorials! I am sorry, but I just cannot. In African Engineering News, Northern Rhodesian mines are refining cadmium from their ore for sale, South African Railways has put three new classes of locomotives into service in the last year and 415 goods wagons, 246 built in the Union. South Africa is increasing its uranium production, there are hopes of oil in Natal, cork is being grown, there is industrial progress in Southern Rhodesia, and Kenya, and South Africa is working on greater efficiency in sulphuric acid recovery in uranium production. On the continent, hydroelectric works, a very big building in Warsaw, the new Lille Motorway and bridges in France and the Belgian Congo count as Continental Engineering News. In shorter notes, most tings are up this week, which is good except for wages. No Launches and Trial Trips this week.
On the 26th, we get American Engineering News, which looks in at the Arroyo Seco Prestressed Concrete Bridge --that stuff has come a long way in a short time! There's a giant forging press to consider, with a perhaps slightly overdue study of what happens when you put 15,000lb of pressure on typical American ingots, and the results of the Astin Case, which are exactly as embarrassing to Sinclair Weeks and his attempt to behead the Bureau of Standards to please a mail order confidence man as you would have thought. AEC's plan to contract a nuclear power plant to Westinghouse continues to develop.
Industrial and Labour Notes for the 26th continues to note that everything is going up, including dividends, which is good, and ICI has put out a pamphlet answering the call to nationalise the chemical industry in the Labour platform. No launches or trial trips this week, either.
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