ECONOMIC SHIFTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21180, 29 October 1938, Page 21

ECONOMIC SHIFTS

MOVE BY NAZIS Speaking on his observations on a recent visit to Germany, Mr. F. T. Letchworth, a famous American engineer, said: “We saw wool made from the roots of beech trees—after turpentine and resin had been extracted as useful by-products. As a textile it has its shortcomings, but it costs only half as much as animal wool in Germany. Most of the automobile tyres now used in Germany are made from acetylene gas. The motor fuel is gasoline hydrogenated from brown coal and peat and mixed with 20 per cent, potato alcohol. Aluminium, magnesium, and many lightweight alloys are substituted for steel and iron wherever possible. Bakelite and a host of synthetic plastics are used in place of wood. Ammonia and other nitrogenous derivatives are made from liquid air and coal gas. At the I. G. Farben plant in Ludwigshafen, we saw synthetic sapphires, emeralds, rubles, garnets and aquamarines. “One sees in Germany evidence of splendid physical accomplishments in the reclamation of 15,000,000 acres of tide lands, the elimination of slums, a great new highway system, public buildings, splendid schools, laboratories and the like, but on the other hand, one sees 80,000,00 splendid people attempting an impossible economy which is rapidly raising the cost of living, lowering the standards of living, and generating social 4 , pressures which sooner or later will explode unless they be relieved or diverted by war."