SCRAP RUBBER DRIVE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20836, 15 July 1942, Page 3

SCRAP RUBBER DRIVE

U.S. SYNTHETIC PROCESS DISPUTE OVER METHODS (10 a.m.) WASHINGTON, July 14. The Secretary of Commerce, Mr. Jesse Jones, said that four large rubber scrap companies have been engaged to buy scrap rubber for the Government-owned Rubber Reserve Company. Mr. Jones emphasised .that the companies are rendering their services without profit, being reimbursed only for the actual costs and expenses. Mr. Elliott Simpson, counsel for the House of Representatives Committee, - which is investigating the scrap rubber drive, alleged yesterday that the four companies are reaping enormous profits from their activities. Rubber experts told the Senate Agriculture Committee that the production of synthetic rubber from alcohol was faster, cheaper and more efficient than the petroleum process now favoured by .the Government. Experts testified that the alcohol process also uses fewer critical materials than petroleum, although the War Production Board officials are opposed to the alcohol method on the ground that it would .take critical materials away from the munitions programme. Later, Senator Gillette condemned the Government’s petroleum method of making rubber, declaring that Government officials realised the advantages of the alcohol method but were guilty of inexcusable carelessness in failing to act on .their knowledge.