Evening Star Newspaper, November 29, 1936, Page 33

' ADVANCE OF AVIATION IS COMMERCIAL IMPRESSIVE Speed With Safety and Profit Is Being Realized—Passenger Miles Show Huge Gain Note: Flying as romantic adven= ture has filled library shelves with uncounted volumes since a couple of bicycle mechanics soared off the sands at Kitty Hawk in 1903. Fly- ing as a business, if less romantic, embodies the tempo of a century geared to demands for speed trans- cending the most fantastic dreams of the Wright brothers. There follows a review of air transportation as it aflects the Na- tion's commercial life. BY DEVON FRANCIS. T WAS Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who wrote almost a century ago: For I dipped into the future, Far as human eye could see, Baw the vision of the world, And all the wonder that would be; Baw the heavens filled with commerce, Argosies of magic sails, Pilots of the purple twilight, Dropping down with costly bales. ‘The muse which descended on Ten= nyson took no account of capital in- vestments and dividend payments, but it visualized the pictorial aspects of | commerce aviation, as of the year 1936, with surprising fidelity. Tennyson's dream of a world transformed by man's inventiveness 15 realized in hundreds of great-winged transport airplanes traversing thou- sands of miles of charted airways over six continents and other thousands of miles across oceans. 1t is realized in the money invested in flying and ground equipment— some $30,000,000 in the United States alone. It is realized in the punctu- ality with which transports arrive and depart at hundreds of airports throughout the United States. Apply Tennyson'’s meter to the Zep- pelin shuttle service between Frank- fort-on-Main and Lakehurst, and to the projected oceanic service using Baltimore and Charleston as western termini and you have transatlantic commercial flight in rhyme, written in the year 1842, Figures Show Vast Advance. Air * transportation of passengers, mail and express is out of the play- thing class. It was fewer than 10 Fears ago that the capital investment of American commercial transport companies was comprised of a few dozen airplanes, used largely for mail cartage, and meager ground equip- ment. Look at today's figures: As of July 1, 1936, more than 400 airplanes were operated by American Air Lines in both continental and overseas service. Investment in flying equipment was approximately $1 500,000, in other than fiying equip- ment, $16,500,000. The industry had 8,000 employes, of whom 692 were pilots and 423 were co-pilots. Miles flown by the American air transport industry totaled 63,540,233 in 1935, and, in the first six months of this year, 33,523,075, 57,509 miles of American-operated air transport routes, of which 28,385 were continental and 29,124 foreign. Before the World War the airplane was a powered kite. After the war men who cared little for their necks hedge-hopped around the country in machines of war vintage, dusting the tops of trees with their undercarriages to get a gasp out of the spectators. ‘The “flying circus” for a time was an American institution. But the Gov- ernment had found a peace-time use for the airplane; it was carrying the mails. Passenger Travel Gains. By 1926 private carriers had taken over the mails, but essentially the air- plane was only a motor harnessed for the cartage of letters and packages, a machine in which the occasional pas- senger endured discomfort for the sake of speed. True, the late Will Rogers regularly used the airplane, but even he, single-handed, could not dispel the public's distrust of what the pilots call travel “upstairs.” The picture of air travel in 1926 is etched in the account books ot the transport companies: A total of 5782 passengers carried. Airmail poundage was 810.855. Express shipments to- taled 3,555 pounds. ‘The air lines themselves may have been responsible in part for public apathy. Not until 1928 did they be- gin making serious bids for passenger revenue. Then travel figures began mounting. They mounted straight through the depression. By 1929 the air lines could boast of 173,405 pas- gengers for the year. The following year 417,505 went aloft. Using the passenger-mile as an in- dex (the term denotes one passenger carried one mile) the jump in travel by air since 1930 is reflected in these figures: 103,747,249 passenger miles flown in 1930 and 360,559,431 in 1935. Sledding Hard at First. The new companies often discovered the sledding was hard. Much of the terrain over which they flew provided Inadequate landing facilities for emer- gencies, and not infrequently some of them, hunting for a missing part of their capital investment, found it a tangle of wreck. An airplane is an expensive appratus to replace; a 1936 21-passenger transport, for instance, costs $100,000. The more conservative companies earried on. They provided in some Instances their own intermediate land- ing fields and followed other safety policies so rigid that even after a dis- patcher had approved a given flight the pilot himself could refuse to take & ship aloft. = Most of the successful companies to this day allow the pilot to name his own weather. Airline operation is expensive, even discounting the possibility of acci- dents. One of the oldest of the American operating companies re- ported a loss of $1,393 for the calendar year 1935 and another well-estab- lished company, flying frequent sched- ules coast to coast, had a net defici’ of 17 cents a share for the first quarter of 1936 on a total of 623,135 outstanding shares of stock. Even with the help of the Depart- ment of Commerce, which establishes and maintains elaborate aids to avi- gation (navigation in the air), the gndustry often is hard put to make revenues match expenses. Part of this is due to the cost of necessary experimental and pioneering work. Lowered Costs Present Goal. ‘The goal of operating engineers is lower cost per passenger mile, and for domestic travel they think that is just around the corner—in the form of flying Pullmans accommo- dating two score of customers and equipped with engines turning up 4,000-horsepower. Pan-American Air- ways, this country’s lone transoceanic transport company, has discovered that the bigger it builds its transports the lower is the relative operating ‘There were | in 10 Years. cost and, of course, passenger-mile cost. A corollary goal is more speed, as an inducement to the traveling public, and that, too, is realizable in the near future. Currently, transport ships fly coast to coast in from 16 to 17 hours; that will be cut to 12 hours in another two years. Passenger-mile revenue for any given company, computed on the basis of the average 5.7 cents charge for domestic travel, must be scaled down for the present, due to the size of the free-of-charge load. For the first six months of 1936, for instance, the passenger-mile figures indicate a total revenue for the 26 lines operating within the borders of the United States of $10,231,691. At least & tenth of that must be written off as free transportation. Of 111,072 passengers carried by domestic airlines in July, 1936, no less than 10,700 paid no fare. Mail revenue for airlines having contracts with the Post Office De- partment aggregated $9,329,799 for the first six months of 1936. Revenue Hard to Net. Air express revenue amounted to perhaps $4,000,000 in the calendar | year 1935, estimating the return on the sliding-scale tariff which starts at 96 cents a pound for coast-to-coast shipment. Those figures appear impressive for an infant industry, but weigh against them replacement of equipment—and today’s sleek, low-winged monoplane cruising at 190 miles an hour is ab- solute tomorrow—operations expense other than salaries, plus salaries, net income for the present shrinks, Salaries are a big item. That of the full-time pilot engaged in domes- tic operation, for instance, is about $550 a month. Some conception of the air transport companies’ pay rolls can be gleaned from these figures on | personnel: 1,115 pilots and co-pilots, | 2,714 mechanics and riggers, 535 hangar and field workers, 264 host- esses, 41 stewards and 3292 office workers, ‘What of the scope of air line opera- tion? As of July 1, last, 422 airplanes were operated by all American lines | in both continental and overseas serv- |ice. TPk=e,included the small, 9-or- 10-passenger ships, equipped to carry mail and express in the forward com- partments of their rocket-like fusel- ages, as well as tne great 40-passen- ger clipper ships operated by P. A. A. 699 Lighted Ports. Lighted and radio-equipped airways | in the United States aggregate 22,000 | miles. Of the 2,404 airports and land- |ing fields—699 with night lighting #quipment—751 are municipal, 495 are commercial and 43 are State-op- erated; the remainder largely are De- partment of Commerce, military and privately-owned fields. The Federal Airways system is a | product of modern engineering science. It embraces rotating beacon lights at 15-mile intervals throughout that 22.- | 000 miles; intermediate landing fields between airports at intervals of 50 miles; radio stations for weather broadcasts and emergency messages to aircraft in flight; radio range beacons for directional guidance; radio marker | beacons for assistance to pilots in lo- cating strategic points, and a weather | reporting service involving the use of | telegraph circuits and radio. | Twenty-three weather observation | | stations provide the air lines each | morning with data on air pressure, | temperature and humidity between the ground and 17,000 feet above sea | | level. Throughout the day and night | consolidated weather reports are post- | ed at intervals at airports and broad- | cast from Bureau of Air Commerc: | radio stations to aircraft in flight. | Keep Up Fight for Safety. The air transport industry still | fights the accident bugaboo, but with | ‘e\'ory means known to science it is | | making air travel safer. In the first | six months of 1936 regular transports | flew 798,168 miles per accident, 6,704,- 615 miles per fatal accident nd 7,574,- | 134 passenger miles per passenger fa- | | tality. | For comparison, the number of pas- | senger miles flown per passenger fa- tality in 1930, the first year for which | figures are available, was 4,322,802. | Back of this panoramic picture of | the American air transport industry is the manufacturer who makes flight possible. The planes now in the air were turned out by 21 concerns, about half of which are actively engaged at present in filling the industry’s de- mands. Four manufacturers provide most of the motors used in standard transport planes. the lower the Treasures at Jubilee Exhibition in Africa In a house built on old Dutch lines at the Jubilee Exhibition in Johannes- burg, South Africa, many priceless treasures have been housed. The Dutch furniture is insured for $30,000. Three of the clocks shown are more than three centuries old, and a beautiful wardrobe and silver- ware made by the troops of the Dutch East India Co. atttract much atten- tion. The Victoria Falls Building invites the visitor to walk through a model of the “Rain Forest” with trees made of paper. There are scenes of the falls painted on a screen, below which water cascades over a model of the falls and crashes down a gorge. Irish Want Homes For Every Family That every Irish family should have & home in which it would want to spend an evening is the theme of & campaign being conducted in the Irish Free State for more pleasant and more sanitary places of abode. Dublin is claimed to have the larg- est cinema population in the world, according to size, because those living in the slums would rather spend an evening in a motion picture theater than in the hovels called homes. The movement is being extended to the rural districts with the belief that better living quarters will keep youth on the farm. Ban on Opium Exports Costing India Millions SIMLA, India (#).—Government statisticians announced here that the ban on opium exports, directed against dope smoking, is costing In- dia about. £6,000,000 ($30,000,000) through reduced revenues. Except for a small amount designed for medical and scientific purposes, no opium has been exported since Janu- ary 1, when the ban became effective.. |tional program. Aany others agreed | the non-aggression formuls * o T HE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTO VEMBER 29 1936—PART TWO. Presidential Tenure Upheld Big Majority Oppose Change to One Six-Year T erm—Declare Inferior Men Must Be Removed. BY DR. DANIEL STARCH. (Director of a Leading Research Organization.) F A constitutional amendment were to be proposed limiting the Presi- dent of the United States to a single six-year term, it would re- ceive the support of little more than a quarter of the people. This is the conclusion from a poll- ing America survey of sentiment on the question, “Do you favor a single six-year term for the President in- stead of the present tenu: Opinions were divided as follows: 26.7 per cent . 66.4 per cent No opinion 6.9 per cent 100.0 per cent The question of presidential tenure has been of more than ordinary cur- rent interest. It was emphasized by the attitude taken by a large propor- tion of those who voted a second term for Mr. Roosevelt, who said that he needed another term to carry out the | program which he had started in his first four years but had not had time to complete. The Roosevelt landslide provoked dicussion af whether or not the Presi: dent would seek a third term. The Constitution places no limit upon the number of terms a President may | serve, but Washington's refusal of & third term set a precedent which has | always been followed. Was in Democratic Platform. A proposal to limit the office to a single term was included in the Demo- cratic platform adopted at the Balti- more convention in 1912. This con- vention, which nominated Woodrow Wilson for Presiednt, contained the plank: “We favor a single presidential term and to that end urge the adop- tion of an amendment to the Consti- tution making the President of the United States ineligible for re-election, and we pledge the candidate of this convention to this principle.” It is said that President Wilson, after his election but prior to his in- auguration, urged that no action be taken on a resolution which was then peding in the House Judiciary Com- mittee and which was intended to give effect to the plank in the Democratic national platform. The proposal for a single six-year term for the President is being in- cluded in a group of electoral reforms for which sponsorship is being urged by Senator Norris of Nebraska. These also President and Vice President and division of each State's electoral vote in accordance with the popular suffrage. Of those who favored a single six- year term, 418 per cent said they | thought the President would be able to do abetter job if he did not have to think of re-election. The effect of the campaign for re-election was ex- pressed by a roofing salesman: “If a President was serving for only one term, he could enforce the policies he thought best without being always compelled to do the bidding of various groups of voters with selfish interests.” A student put it: “With campaigning in the fourth year, the President’s term.is really three years long, which isn't long enough to carry out national programs.” Value of Longer Term. Among many persons there was the feeling that a President of the United States takes from the duties attend- ant his office not only time for cam- paigning for re-election. but a great deal of time throughout his term to build up his party machine; they feel that an unduly large proportion of the persons with whom he talks come to see him not on public business, but to ask private favors. “A longer term would enable the President to spend an adequate amount of time to work out plans for the Nation, rather than worrying about his political machine and re-election,” maintained a book salesman in Indianapolis. “A six-year term gives the Presi- dent security in office—he would not have to play politics all dusing his term,” declared a physician. A de- signer of castings had the same re- action: “As it is now, the President spends his first term trying to get himself elected to a second term, in- stead of looking after the best inter- ests of all tise people.” The group which thought that four years is too short a term to accom- plish & program was almost as large as the preceding group; it comprised 35.6 per cent of those who favored the six-year term. They all felt that & national program, especially if it is a program which is initiated by a new administration and is not merely a continuation of the policies of the same party, is a complicated business which requires more than four years to develop. - “The administration in power should have the opportunity to work out its ideas adequately before the people are asked to judge them,” said a Boston secretary. A lawyer thought: “It takes that long for the President to get his teeth in the situation.” One house- wife declared that four years was not long enough to accomplish any na- include direct election of the | that during six vears of uninterrupted effort an administration should be able to begin and complete a program, but that this could hardly be done during a four-year term, the last | year of which was largely taken up by efforts to be re-elected. ‘There was a sharp drop in the num- | ber of persons who comprised the next | group; they said that the elimination | of the campaign for a second four-year term would mean less mud-slinging, less political uncertainty and less dis- traction to the people generally. This | group constituted 14.5 per cent of those favoring the six-year term. While it was realized that any na- | tional election would cause a certain | amount of uncertainty, these people | said that there would be less of this | with elections every six years. “These elections keep the country disrupted all | the time,” complained one housewife. Another suggested, “Two new men up each six years would obviate all the mud-slinging against the President’s last administration.” | There was 13.7 per cent of this group Roosevelt’s “Good BY GASTON NERVAL. EVER has the opening of an international conference in the Western Hemisphere been N marked by such great expec- i tations as will attend the meeting, | next Tuesday at Buenos Aires, of the | delegates to the Pan-American Con- ference for the Maintenance of Peace. President Roosevelt in person will | | open the momentous parley, after a 14,000-mile trip made expressly for | the purpose, and this accounts in | interest |part for the world-wide | focused on the Buenos Aires gathering | and, also, for the unprecedented en- | thusiasm displayed by the people of Latin America. However, the real reason for both this enthusiasm and that interest lies {in the unusual degree of harmony | to which pan-American relations have been brought recently, as a result of President Roosevelt’s “good neighbor™” policy and the changed attitude of the State Department in several mat- | ters affecting the sovereignty and | rights of Latin American countries. Parley Will Be Different. So many pan-American conferences have been held before and have ac- complished so little that the more skeptical might be tempted to with- hold comment until they have seen the fruits, and have been convinced of the fact that this one is something different. For the student of inter- American relations who has followed the record of the past four years, however, all indications are that the Buenos Aires parley will be really different from previous pan-Ameri- can congresses. The psychological moment for the meeting, as we pointed out when it was first suggested, could not have been more appropriately chosen. On the one hand, the precarious condition of world peace, with actual warfare in progress on two fronts and consid= erably more serious threats looming on the horizon, would add great sig- nificance to anything the American Continent may do to strengthen the ideal of organized peace and the ma- chinery to enforce it. On the other hand, due to the radical changes in the State Department's recent policies toward Latin America, and *even though the people themselves may be just as far apart today and just as ignorant of each other as ever, the official relations of the Governmen® of the United States with the gov- ernments of the Latin-American re- publics are going now through a pe- riod of exceptional harmony and good will. Under these circumstances—and no one can tell how long they will last— several important issues suggest themselves as topics for a conference designed to preserve and perfect the Ppeace machinery of the Western Hemi- sphere. Outstanding among them should be the ratification and uncon=- ditional acceptance of arbitration and conciliation treaties already signed but seldom complied with; the estab- lishment of a pan-American court of justice to settle all political and legal disputes arising between the gov- ernments of the American republics or between an American government and the citizens of another American country; the contractual enactment of the doctrine of non-recognition of territorial gains by force; the adop- tion by all the American states of advanced L PAN-AMERICAN PEACE PARLEY TO BE DIFFERENT 9 Neighbor’ Expected to Have Great Influence Policy on Outcome of Conference. | by President Roosevelt, forbidding the | sending of armed forces beyond na- | tional boundaries: the enforcement of the Kellogg pact and other now teethless instruments for the out- lawry of war: the establishment of a pecuniary tribunal for the settle- ment of all financial and commercial differences, following the principles of the Calvo and Drago doctrines: the discussion and enactment of the Mex- ican peace code, the most complete and realistic proposal yet drafted along these lines. and the removal of causes of frequent friction in the past and possible sources of differences in the immediate future. Other Factors Enter. Of course, these things alone could not suffice to insure the preservation of American peace with any degree of permanency. They must be taken with two big qualifications. To be really successful, they should be ac- companied by (1) a corresponding change in the economic relationships of the United States and the Latin American countries, a change from the metropolis and colonies position, still prevalent to a large extent, to one of actual and healthy economic interdependence, and (2) a greater degree of unity of purpose and poli- cies among the Latin American na- tions themselves. These two all-im- portant aims make necessary other preliminary requirements, which we have discussed elsewhere, but they have to do more with the ultimate goal of pan-Americanism and the future of the New World than with the more limited objective of an im- | provement in the legal and diplomatic | peace machinery of the continent. The impending Pan-American Peace Conference, without delving into these less immediate and much more com- plex aspects of the situation, may still make an interesting contribution to the cause of international peace and, perhaps, help to remove some of the obstacles blocking the way to the ultimate, true pan - Americanism. Whether or not it does so will de- pend, largely, upon the extent to which the people and public opinion of Latin America have been sold on the sincerity and possibilities of the conference. Must Be Won Over. It must be quite evident today that, no matter how graciously and eagerly the Southern governments may lend their official support to any and all new attempts at inter-American co- operation, no effective and lasting progress will be made until Latin American public opinion has been won over. This is even more impor- tant than enlisting popular support in this country, where the fault is indifference and ignorance, while there it 1s suspicion and resentment aroused by past experiences. In the United States the task is one of edu- cation. In Latin America it is one of vindication. Fortunately—and, it must be ad- mitted, for the first time in the an- nals of inter-American relations— the men entrusted today with the Latin American policies of the United States seem to be aware of that fact and are unusually well equipped for the main task of winning the confi- dence of Latin America. This is the best omen for the Buenos Aires con- ference and for the future of pan- Americanism. (Copyright, 1936 LN : T S - L) 208 SN Yo Lo Sy = - ATy, A T, who approved a single term because it would reduce campaign expenses., Im= pressed by the amounts said to have been spent on the election just passed, many people said this money was largely wasted, and the less frequently it was necessary to have expensive campaigns the better for the national income. Smaller groups said that the eight years permissible now was too long a term. Said a Dallas lawyer, “I voted for Roosevelt, but I'd feel better if he was going to be in office only two more years.” Of the great majority who favored the present tenure for the presidency | about a third looked at the progress which America has made in the past and concluded that the present tenure had proved satisfactory. “It has always worked well,” or “it has worked out all right so far,” asserted a great many persons. Others gave more specific reasons for their satisfaction. A Hoosier declared, | “If the President isn't any good, we can get rid of him sooner under the | present system. On the other hand. a good President can be put in office for four more years.” The operator of a boys' camp maintained, “Four years is long enough for an inefficient man, but eight years is not long enough for a good one, like the one we have now.” Precedent weighed heavily with per- sons who said, “Let well enough alone." | or “I believe we should be ruled bv precedent.” But the great bulk of the persons in this class favored the pres- ent tenure because it makes it easier | to effect a change if a change is found desirable, whereas it guarantees a good President an adequate tenure. More than 25 per cent of the group which favored the present tenure said that six years is too long a term if the President proves to be unsatis- | factory. A Los Angeles lawyer said, | “Under the six-year system it is just imo bad if the man turns out to be | a poor President.” A Southern house- wife put it, “Six years is too long if | the wrong man gets in and not long enough if a good man like Roosevelt gets in.” A machinist declared, “Often a President does not live up to his expectations. Under the present system we can get him out of office at the end of four and not six years.” “If we get & crook or a bonehead |in office we don't want to be forced | to have to keep him six years. We've just proved that a good man can be re-elected,” answered a Texan. This | point of view was repeated in many | many ways, such as “Four years is long enough for a poor President,” or “If we should get a President who | is not doing the right thing it would | be better to get rid of him at the end of four years than at the end | of six.” | The third largest group among those who favored the present tenure | was comprised of those who said that | four years is long enough to test the ability of a President, so that he may be re-elected if he has proved satis- factory. The manager of a dress shop summed up this attitude, “Four years gives the people a fair chance to learn what the President can do. If he's good they’ll re-elect him, if not they'll defeat him.” A bookkeeper said, “Four years gives a man suf- ficient chance to show if he's good without giving him time to do too much damage if he’s not.” A whole- saler of women’s hats contended, “Six years if too long a time to have a dangerous man in the presidential chair. period of four years and then get leave him in for another term if he's dependable.” Call It More Democratic. Of these persons who favored the present tenure, 6.5 per cent said they did so because it is more democratic. They said that it gives the people more frequent opportunities to regis- ter their approval or disapproval of a Chief Executive, and that it there- fore keeps the administration more sensitive to public opinion. There was some fear of dictator- a strong President, with dictatorial tendencies, could become too firmly entrenched for the Nation's good in six years. A nurse maintained, “A President would get to feel that a crown should go with the position.” ‘While there were some who main- tained that a six-year term was pref- erable because they felt four years was too brief a period, there were others, and they constituted 5.4 per cent of those opposed 'to the longer tenure, who maintained that a term of six years was too short a period to institute and complete a program. They emphasized that if the electorate approved of an administration’s pro- gram at the end of four years, they could return this administration to complete its work. See Helpful Checks. Closely allied to this argument was the notion expressed by a small per- centage that elections every four years had a good effect on administrations in that they provided helpful checks, and that if the President was returned to office, he would feel encouraged to A It is better to have a trial | rid of him if he bungles things—or | ship expressed. Some thought that | NITROGEN SUPPLY OF U. S. HELD ADEQUATE FOR WAR Germany Taught Nations Chemical Les- son in World War—All Powers Make Plans in Self-Sufficiency Race. Note: The nations race to rearm on tke industrial front, as Ger- many and Italy, among the “have- not” powers, push their “self-suf- ficiency” programs, spurred on by the Fascist-Communist cleavage over the civil war in Spain. What the nations are doing to develop synthetic raw materials needed in war is discussed here in the first of a series of articles by a well- known writer who was formerly a civilian chemist in the United States Army Chemical Warfare Service and who had access to confidential documents in his re- search. BY WILLIAM GILMAN, ERMANY taught the world a gen 20 years ago and today every nation has learned it mite. It concerns dynamite—and nearly all other explosives, too. chemical lesson about nitro- well. It's a lesson fraught with dyna- If war came today Germany could produce, synthetically, the chemical | nitrogen for all the explosives she needs. So could Prance, England, the United States, Japan and Russia. Even Italy, poor in natural resources, cou)d get along. ‘The 1936 munitions picture shows that the powers have made plans in their race for self-sufficiency—a neces- sity in modern warfare—to have plenty of usable nitrogen. The Ger- man lesson is responsible. Pre-war Germany had no natural nitrate deposits. Neither did any other country to an appreciable extent but Chile. The latter had been crammed by nature with lavish de- posits of saltpeter, the parent sub- ! pounds can be made. These are abso- | lutely vital. They help erect bridges, | ferltilize plains, cure the sick and arti- ficially cool great cities. But they are |also the basis of black gunpowder, | | smokeless powder, TNT, picric acid |and dynamite. German “Fixation” Process. ‘The allies thought they had Ger- many licked when the sea battle of Falkland Islands cut her off from access to Chile’s nitrate deposits. But Germany had not been gambling on her fleet. In 1914 her chemical in- dustry had been working four years | with the nitrogen “fixation” process developed by Dr. Fritz Haber, who has since won a Nobel prize for his discovery. His process harnessed the useless nitrogen of the air by forcing it to unite under high pressure with hydrogen. The result was ammonia, | from which nitrates and explosives are | | easily made. | As a result, Chile’s pre-war monop- oly is shattered. Today Germany pro- | duces 30 per cent of the world output of chemical nitrogen. | Germany’s success led other nations speedily to develop processes similar | to tnat of Haber. The result is told in recent United States Tariff Com- | mission figures, which reveal that | Germany led the world in 1934 by producing 462,500 tons of chemical nitrogen. The United States was sec- | ond with 256.000 tons and Japan third with 208,000 tons. France was fourth, Great Britain fifth, Chile sixth. World capacity for producing chem- ical nitrogen was 5,000,000 tons in 1934, or more than twice the amount | needed. About 2,000,000 tons was | used for fertilizers. Thus the balance between capacity more than 3,000,000 tons at present— is the quantity that can begin rolling | out in time of war for martial pur- poses ! Capacity Can Be Increased. Moreover, this capacity can be in- | creased quickly. The principal meth- ods for producing synthetic nitrates— Haber, cyanamid and by-product—re- quire cheap coal and electric power and little else. One German plant, at Merseburg, operated by ghe I G. Farben-Industrie Trust, can put out 750.000 tons annually. This plant, | incidentally, is sand-bagged and well prepared for air raids. | Just as Germany's production is centralized at two points, Merseburg and Oppau, England’s output is con- | centrated at Billingham, second larg- | | est nitrogen plant in the world. But | milif | superior strategy. She has some 25 | plants—all of them scattered and all of them small. It would be difficult for air raiders to put the French nitro- gen industry out of commission. The United States is the one big Nation out of the price-fixing inter- national nitrogen cartel; likewise it is stance from which all nitrogen com- | and production— | ry experts credit France with | the power with least Federal control over its producers. To Germeny, Jae pan, Russia, Prance and Italy, nitroe gen means ammunition in war and fertilizer export that brings in for- eign money in peacetime. In this country, the nitrogen ine dustry is a child of such big chemical producers as the Du Ponts. It is also a profitable stepchild of the steel in- dustry. American nitrogen comes principally from the coke-steel cen- ters and two great piants, that of the Allied Chemical & Dye Corp. at Hope- well, Va,, and that of the Du Ponts at Belle, W. Va. Both are situated where coal is cheap, a necessity to “synthetic” nitrogen. ‘This synthetic industry is compara- tively young, dating back to 1921 and now contributing about two-thirds of the Nation's output. The other third comes from by-product ovens of the coke-steel industry. This so-called “by-product” nitrogen is the deter- mining factor in the price of nitrogen fertilizer and explosives. When steel production is booming, as it is cur- rently, there is much roduct nitro- gen and the price is driven down. The United States is no exception in the race toward self-sufficiency. even though the munitions industry is still strictly a private affair. During 1918, Uncle Sam imported 2,000,000 tons of Chile saltpeter, or about 1.000 times as much nitrogen as was produced |that year by American by-product processes. ‘Today, this country could obtain all the explosives it needed by either taking over the private indus- tries or paying their prices. Peacetime Operations. These industries, meanwhile, do welt enough even in peacetime, For in= stance, the plant run by Allied Chem- ical is an adjunct to the production of soda. Synthetic ammonia is, in reality, a well-paying by-product wi! them. And the Du Pont plant makes a wide variety of products for its wide- flung market from its ammonia at | Belle. More than that, by a mere turn of switches, the ammonia plant can be turned into a producer of alco- hol, and presto! The Du Ponts air in the business of selling non-freezc solutions for automobile radiators. These plants were not in existence during the World War and the Amer- ican Government tried its own hanc at nitrogen synthe: The end of the war found Uncle Sam ready to fend for himself. He had just finished building the so-called No. 1 plant at | Sheffield, Ala., and the No. 3 plant at Muscle Shoals. | The former was a small affair that proved a failure, even in trial runs. But the second, turning out chemical nitrogen by the cyanamid process, is considered entirely prac- tical, if somewhat outmoded. Its an- | nual capacity is estimated at 40,000 tons. This was the plant at Wilson Dam, over which many wars were fought in Congress during the 1920s, with Henry Ford and others demanding that it be turned over to private en- terprise 1 e production of fer- lizer. But the Government held on, insisting on retaining an interest in nitrogen. Plant at Muscle Shoals. Three years ago, the War Depart- | ment lent its Muscle Shoals plant to | the Tennessee Valley Authority. unit is now busily using part of the plant for experimental production of another fertilizer, superphosphaie. But it's only a loan. It's understood that the plant must be kept in “stand- | by” condition and returned to the War | Department in time of war. However, this one factory could not serve the Army’s needs in time of war. | A report by Dr. Harry A. Curtis, now | running the plant for T. V. A., esti- mated that, with America at war, there would be a gradual mobilization |of men until the Army would total 3,500,000 soldiers at the end of two | years' warfare. At this stage, Curtis estimated the Nation's armed forces would require 12,000 tons of chemical nitrogen a month. This would constitute 144,000 tons annuaily. Here is the proof of America’s self-sufficiency in notrogen today. The excess of capacity over production is well over 250,000 tons annually. Consequently, whether the United States bought this nitrogen from its commercial producers or took over production, there would be no scarcity of nitrogen and no necessity of patrol- ling the seas to Chile. (Copyright, 1936, by the North American Newspaper Alliance Inc.) NANKING, China, (#)—Saddled with treaties forcing her to share with foreign powers her inland navigation rights, China is adopting a policy of direct subsidy for ship construction. The step is the first move in a cam- paign aimed intentionally at ridding her rivers and coastal waters of vessels flying British. Japanese, Dutch and American flags. All of China’s foreign trade and much of her coastwise and river com- merce is carried in foreign ships. China’s international treaties open her inland waters to foreign vessels, but they do not restrict in any way navi- gation by Chinese ships. Foreign shipping companies have prospered, while native concerns have fared comparatively poorly. Better ships, more experienced officers and more efficient shore organizations adopted more tentatively in his first term. Other sma]l groups asserted that an election every four years meant a more frequent alteration of parties in power, nation; that to change the present system would mean amending the Constitution, and they were opposed to that; and that more frequent elec- tions tended to reduce graft in the Federal administration and to stim- ulate business. ‘The 6.9 per cent who were undecided or had no opinion said in some cases that it made no difference whether the term was six or four, and in others that they were inclined to favor a four-year term with no re-election. On several polling America studies where a “yes” or “no” question has been asked, the undecided group has am o »d to about 7 per cent, sug- ge fing tha. »hout that proportion of the ,opulation cither is so uninformed on questions of _urrent interest that it cannot xpress an opinion or else is congc .itally unable to make up its mind. (Copyrisht, 1836,) £l proceed with the same policies he had | and that this was beneficial to the | China Aiming at Trade Protection In Subsidy for Ship Construction | have built for the foreign shipping | companies reputations which even | “patronize home industries” and other nationalistic movements have failed to break down. During the last few years, however, Chinese shipping concerns controlled by the government have attempted to win a larger portion of cnaastwise and river trade by buying vessels from abroad. raising standards of seaman- ship and developing new lines. ‘These efforts have convinced China that she can operate a merchant ma- rine, but they also have convinced her that she cannot hope to operate it on a permanently paying basis until good ships can be built in China. Although Chinese overseas repeat- edly have advised that China develop a national shipping company for for- eign trade, the government has no |1mmtdmie plans in that direction. 'Radio to Be Medium Of Chinese Education SHANGHAIL—AIl middle schools in China, both public and private, must install radio receiving sets for the re- ception of educational broadcasts by order of the ministry of education. An elaborate radio education pro- gram has been formulated by the ministry in connection with the gove ernment-sponsored mass education movement. The ultimate goal is a country-wide radio network, not only reaching schools, but mass educational institutions in different provinces and municipalities. ‘The ministry of education's radio program was started a year ago, when it was decreed that all middle schools and mass educational institutes should install receiving sets. Thus far 1,665 receiving seis are in opera- tion in schools and institutes. Be- sides the order to middle schools, all mass educaticnal institutes have been asked to Install receiving sets by June of next year, .