THE CHEMICAL INDUSTRY IN WORLD WAR II Thanks to protective tariffs and intensive research, development, and investment programs during the lean '30s, the chemical indus try was in a position to expand rapidly when America became the arsenal of democracy. Because of the importance of chemicals to the war effort the government invested more than $4 billion in plants and equipment for manufacturing chemicals and allied products between 1941 and 1945. A large number of these plants were put in standby condition in 1945 but have since been returned to production and are now owned or leased by chemical companies. Vast quantities of traditional and new explosives were delivered by chemical companies operating their own and government plants, but even this record volume accounted for less than 25% of total chemical production. The Chemical Corps alone during the war purchased a billion pounds of 300 different chemicals, exclusive of those in the heavy tonnage or explosives field. A billion dollar synthetic rubber industry hit volume production just 18 months after starting from scratch, as chemical companies turned out butadiene and styrene from test-tube to tank-car volume in record time. Here again, chemical industry research and development, started years before, served the nation in time of need. Equally dramatic expansion occurred in plastics manufacture as synthetic materials took the place of short-supply metals and other materials. World War II planes required 200 plastic applications, battleships 1,000. Production of tailor-made fuels skyrocketed more than 100-fold. Increase in production of sulfa drugs and other medicinals made outstanding contributions in reducing infection from wounds. Working with government and universities, the chemical industry expended $25 million on penicillin research and development. The venture paid off and shattered all records for speed of production. By war's end 20 companies were producing enough so that it quickly became available for civilian needs. Chemical companies helped in the program of processing a half million pints of blood a month for plasma and other components. In terms of cost, number of scientists involved, and the multitude of chemical and physical problems that had to be solved, the Manhattan project and the $2 billion A-bomb development must rank as the outstanding industrial achievement. Chemical companies played an important part. Between 1942 and 1945, as high as 25% of the scientific personnel of the chemical industries were working directly on contract assignment from the Office of Scientific Research and Development. MILITARY MEDICINE All of the products of chemical research are of course available to the military on highest priority. Many special developments are helping solve health problems of the armed forces. A few examples: In World War II, Vitamin C knocked out scurvy and Vincent's disease (trench mouth), a disabler in every other war. Sulfaguanidine controlled dysentry which caused more deaths than enemy bullets in all previous wars. New antibiotics have done much to prevent gas gangrene and wound infections, have made the early closure of wounds and abdominal surgery more successful and speeded recovery of nonbattle casualties. A new iodine compound, called tetraglycine hydroperiodide, used in individual water sterilization tablets for combat troops in Korea, is much more effective than the halazone tablets of World War II in destroying the cysts of amebic dysentery in water. Streptococcus epidemics now can be stopped by the general use of oral penicillin or sulfadiazine, and controlled studies have recently proved that a 50 to 60% reduction in the incidence of rheumatic fever among troops can be achieved with oral penicillin. The use of plasma volume expanders-dextran, gelatin and polyvinylpyrrolidone-have proved effective in the treatment of shock due to hemorrhage, burns, trauma and surgery. They can be used in many conditions where blood loss is negligible. Dextran is clinically effective and safe, does not interfere with blood-typing procedures or cross-matching, is stable and ready for immediate use. Mass production now makes plasma volume expanders available for military and civilian use at less than one-third the price of human plasma. Development of new typhus vaccine which protected American troops in World War II is invaluable in Korea now. lon-exchange resins can decontaminate radioactive water both from waste and A-bomb products. THE CHEMICAL SOLDIER-1953 The armed forces today are better clothed and fed, and have improved equipment and superior medical care because of the chemical industry's products. A few examples of improvements in equipment: A new lighter, tougher helmet made of an aluminum shell and a shock-resistant plastic liner is replacing the Army's old steel helmet with its thin plastic liner. A new type of armored jacket of laminated nylon covered with a waterproof outer shell stops low-velocity shell fragments. Troops in Korea are also getting other nylon armor garments. An improved field communication wire combines the substantial talking range and other characteristics of standard field wire with the reduced size and easy carrying of assault wire used by fast-moving troops. It is insulated with polyethylene, has a nylon plastic covering. A revolutionary single-layer, molded-plastic winter combat garment, employing the so-called "vapor-barrier" principle and minimizing the need for drying wet clothing in the field, is being extensively tested for possible use under dry-cold arctic conditions. Previous tests have indicated that the buoyant two-piece garment makes a man unsinkable, even when wearing a 26-pound pack. A disc-shaped container made of synthetic rubber is now being used for aerial free-fall delivery of gasoline, water or other liquids to troops. No parachute is needed to check its fall. A new greaseless pack for rifles, machine guns and other small arms, has replaced the heavy grease coatings used in the past. Plastic piping is being used in Navy minesweepers now under construction. It saves copper and nickel, until now used extensively in shipboard piping. New chemical formulas used in napalm bombs have produced one of the most effective weapons of the Korean War. APPENDIX 16 SOUTHWESTERN GRAPHITE CO., Subject: Strategic graphite. Mr. GEORGE B. HOLDERER, Engineer, Mineral, Materials, and Fuel Economic Subcommittee, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C. DEAR MR. HOLDERER: As a going-concern domestic producer of flake graphite, we feel it advisable to offer our comments relative to the testimony of Mr. Donald R. Irving, beginning on page 260, part 1, of the hearings. COST OF FOREIGN STRATEGIC GRAPHITE Mr. Irving, on page 261, develops a figure of "$300 per ton or perhaps a little higher" as an approximate figure for strategic graphite of foreign origin, at dockside, port of entry, freight and all charges paid. It is our opinion that, by the time the importer's commission or margin of profit, plus blending pulverizing, and/or screening costs, plus repackaging cost are added to the $300 figure, the costs of strategic graphite, meeting stockpile specifications and f. o. b. importer's plant, would amount to considerably more than $300 per ton. COST OF DOMESTIC STRATEGIC GRAPHITE While we are not in a position to state, without question, the cost of strategic graphite from other domestic deposits, our records will show that the maximum price received by us, for lubricant and packing grade flake graphite, meeting munitions board stockpiling specification P-22-B, was $305 per ton f. o. b. Burnet, Tex., exclusive of the special open-head steel drum not commonly employed in the trade. For $305 per ton, the national stockpile received from us finished products meeting a large majority of industrial requirements and specifications without further processing. To reach the stringent specifications under P-22-B, it was necessary for us to offer material containing no more than 3.8 percent ash, a product most difficult to produce efficiently in quantity anywhere, regardless of source. A price of $600 to $1,200 per ton would not be necessary in our case, then, to stimulate production of strategic graphite. Our proven reserves of milling quality flake graphite ore are sufficient to last more than 10 years at full production with indicated reserves extending far beyond this point. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT WITH PRIVATE CAPITAL At our facilities, research has been carried on at great expense for many years to a point where we feel that mechanical concentration has presently reached the limits of practical improvement. We will continue to actively pursue all new beneficiation methods or ideas as they appear. But it is our opinion that our methods have progressed far beyond the field in production of high-purity graphites suitable for lubricant and packing applications. These methods may not necessarily do as well in Alabama or Pennsylvania. We know by virtue of hard experience, and by using a plant under full-scale production for many years as a semipilot mill, that the various flake graphite products of high purity (95-97 percent) required by industry cannot be made available without a long period of intense full production experimentation. True, acid grade fluorspar (97 percent) is produced by conventional methods (flotation, etc.) but the mill heads usually run 30 percent or better. Graphite mill heads exceeding 5 percent are not in the Nation's reserves. Finished graphite concentrates must meet far more exacting requirements than, say for example, the typical metallic concentrates for the smelter. THE POSITION OF SOUTHWESTERN GRAPHITE CO. AS A DOMESTIC SUPPLIER OF STRATEGIC GRAPHITE It should be noted that, with the recent permanent closing of the Black Donald Mine in Calabogie, Ontario, Canada, reportedly due to exhaustion of reserves, our operation here in Burnet County, Tex., remains as the only source of strategic graphite in the Western Hemisphere. Graphite of all types and grades has been flooding into the country from Bavaria, Madagascar, and Ceylon, especially within the past 15 months. Within the past 9 months, consumption of the profitable higher grades has fallen off to a marked extent. In our lower purity grades, prices are now 30 percent under those of 1942. Graphite on the average has not found the rising scale of value since 1942 that almost all other commodities and wages have enjoyed. We have been fighting our way in a very indifferent buyer's market since our start in 1942. If conditions entirely beyond our control force us to the wall, the United States, and its industry, will lose the last remaining source of strategic graphite within wartime reach. May I take this opportunity to thank you and Mr. Sinclair for the very kind reception given me last week and for your interest in the subject of strategic domestic graphite production. Very truly yours, ROBERT P. MILLER, Jr., APPENDIX 17 EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT, OFFICE OF DEFENSE MOBILIZATION, Hon. GEORGE W. MALONE, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, United States Senate, Washington 25, D. C. DEAR SENATOR MALONE: Mr. Victor E. Cooley, the Deputy Director, has told me of the hearing before your subcommittee on May 28, 1954, relative to the Texas City tin-smelter situation. I regret it was impossible for me to be present at this meeting and I want to thank you for your courtesy to Mr. Cooley. At the meeting you requested that we provide a listing of the offices and agencies which have been merged into the present Office of Defense Mobilization. The Office of Defense Mobilization was established in the Executive Office of the President by Reorganization Plan 3 of 1953. Transferred to the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization were: (a) All functions of the Chairman of the National Security Resources Board as authorized by the National Security Act of 1947, as amended, including his functions as a member of the National Security Council; (b) All functions under the Strategic and Critical Stock Piling Act, as amended (60 Stat. 596; 50 U. S. C. 98 et seq), vested in the Secretaries of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Interior, or in any of them or in any combination of them, including the functions which were vested in the Army and Navy Munitions Board by the item numbered (2) in section 6 (a) of the act (60 Stat. 598), but excluding functions vested in the Secretary of the Interior by section 7 of the act; (c) The functions vested in the Munitions Board by section 4 (h) of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act, as amended (62 Stat. 1071; 15 U. S. C. 714 (b) (h)), and by section 204 (e) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (63 Stat. 389; 40 U. S. C. 485 (e)); and (d) All functions vested by any statute in the Director of Defense Mobilization provided for in Executive Order 10193 of December 16, 1950. Executive Order 10461 of June 17, 1953, provides that the Office of Defense Mobilization and the Director of the Office of Defense Mobilization, provided for in Reorganization Plan 3, are in all respects the successors, respectively, of the Office of Defense Mobilization and the Director of Defense Mobilization provided for in Executive Order 10193, issued under the Defense Production Act of 1950, as amended (64 Stat. 798, 65 Stat. 131; 50 U. S. C. App. 2061-2166). Each reference in any prior Executive order to the Director of Defense Mobilization and/or to the Office of Defense Mobilization was amended to refer to the Director and/or the Office of Defense Mobilization provided for in Reorganization Plan 3 of 1953. Pursuant to Executive Order 10433 of February 4, 1953, the Director is, ex officia, Administrator of the Economic Stabilization Agency which was established for the purpose of controlling inflation and maintaining the stabilization |