Lawnmower Boy

Borders and regions are just about as antithetical to feudalism as it is possible to imagine. To be sure, regional lords existed, but they were the guys who tended to escape the constraints and uses of the system. Wardens of the North (or the real world Percies and Nevilles on which Martin's Starks are based) and suchlike are more-or-less acknowledgements that your system isn't working. Real feudal lords practice Kaisernahe-- proximity to the ruler. They are families like the Nassau-Orange, who bought lands in proximity of the ruler's residence city, transitioning in less than fifty years from an upper Rhenish family identified with a lower Rhonish principality into "Dutch" nobility on the strength of their newly-acquired estate of Beda and its Hollander appanages.

This is kind of a weird one. The real geometry of this universe that we know and love so well is a "vector space." By this I mean that any position in space can be defined by its direction and distance from another point. And, furthermore, anything we do to "transform" the ray will still locate the ray within our space. Rotate it, reverse it, reflect it, "right hand rule" it, that sort of thing. But, all the mathematical rules that apply to the real geometry of our actual universe, both in the Euclidean sense that we once thought applied, and to the non-Euclidean one that it actually is, can also be applied to lots of other thingies. (Note: not actually correct terminology.) The example here, of "complex space," is one such vector space. To think outside of the box, so is the state of a rod under temperature variation. The temperature is the magnitude quantity, while its phase state is the directional. Or vice versa. It's been a long time since I saw this example, if you will forgive me. The key point here is that those mathematical rules about transformations hold. Complex space is so useful to us because the transforms are defined as answers to some neat differential equations. So doing geometry in complex space with some well-understood rules yields some very interesting solutions to key equations in electrodynamics and stuff like that. As far as I know --and, as will be obvious by now, I am not a physicist-- there are no useful thingies with properties that allow us to transform vectors in a complex space into a third dimension.

Now I remember Raiders from the Rings and their tangle guns, "A young adult novel in which the human race is divided into the Spacers and those who still remain on earth. There is a constant low-level war between the two groups, with the Spacers raiding earth for supplies and for women. " [Emphasis mine.] In conclusion, this is why we can't have nice things.

Postblogging Technology, January, 1944, II: Best Wishes and Good Fortune in 1944! * My Dearest Reggie: The dates have aligned, and I hope we shall have a most auspicious year. "Mrs. J. C." returned from her specialist's appointment in San Francisco at the beginning of the week in a gay mood, and now there are to be two cribs in the new nursery at the carriage house. Even the endless sound of hammering and nailing in the back as boxes of oranges are sealed and as quickly sent off to Chinese groceries in time for the Lunar New Year celebrations did not affect her feelings. The arrival of your wife in advance of our Robbie Burns Supper was not, as I feared, a greater test. She and Judith bore the Inspector-Generaltrix's visit with the most magnificent aplomb. All is in order, and "Mrs. J. C." was the most gracious host. We were honoured by "Cousin H. C." and by Cousin Bess, lured out of the sanctuary of her home by the prospect of family, and a chance to spoil her beloved (half-)nephew and niece. We were also honoured, I am pleased to report, by our film star-Signals Corp relative's wife, who attended at the sharp insistence of "Mrs. J.C." Less happily, he brought along a friend, a member of Admiral Halsey's official family, quite handsome, notwithstanding his unfortunate red hair, in naval whites. I say "unfortunate" because "Mrs. J.C" believes him to be a stalking horse for his friend's adventuring ways. This strikes me as taking her personal dislike for the young man rather into the realm of the paranoid, but one must make allowances for woman in her condition. And, that said, I have to admit that for all his avuncularity, our patriotic actor relation rather rubs me the wrong way, as you Colonials say. For example, we had as our guest once again the Provost of Santa Clara University, a clever man, as you have often noted, even amongst the Jesuits, andof long years in these parts and deep understanding of the value of the Poor Clares to our family. He watched without comment as I gave the traditional gifts to the young folk. But when "Miss "V.C" opened up her copy of the red-leather bound volume of the Immortal Poet of Ayrshire's verse, and found within a crisp, new, $100 bill, she was somewhat taken aback. The Provost, as is his wont in other circumstances (have you ever seen him do this at a lunch for the parents of prospective students?) pulled out his old, ivory dog whistle, and told the story of how his grandfather used to be a "redeemer," pursuing fugitive slaves on the shores of the Ohio, and how there was often a crush of redeemers after some well-remunerated refugee, and how, on those occasions, when his dogs found the scent, he would pull out that old whistle, retrieved from a Mound-Builder tomb. "For it is a curious property of this whistle that it can only be heard by mongrel dogs, and none other. Grandfather was careful to keep a mongrel kennel, whereas the other redeemers used the finest bloodhounds for this remunerative work. Thus, Grandfather could call in his dogs without alerting the other redeemers, and many a bounty he took that otherwise would have gone to another." Then, of course, the Provost held that long pause of his, before adding, as he always does, "Grandfather was an evil, evil man. But he did establish the family fortune that way. A curious thing, though: he never took a fugitive but was dark as deepest Africa, though we all know that slaves come in many colours betwixt coal and milk coffee. Perhaps the mongrels of other species can hear Grandfather's dog whistle, too." When I saw our young relation's eyes rise, I saw that, once again, someone had heard the dog whistle. My problem is that there was a hint of malice in the smile he gave then. I do not always approve of the message that the Provost gives when he goes on to talk to parents about how congenial their children will find Santa Clara while fiddling with his whistle. There are many children, however thinly their final coat of white overlies a primer of coal, or sage, or even vermilion, who would do well at Harvard or Yale, and whose parents do not need to be frightened into sending them to Santa Clara, instead. But that hint of malice suggests that quite another message entirely was being heard, and noted. Time, 17 January 1944 International “The Test,” “the Case,” “Anatomy of a Feud.” Etc. The reason that the Russians were so cutting to Mr. Wilkie about the status of the Baltic statelets is that they intend to build up a “cordon sanitaire” in eastern Europe to maintain their security while they demobilise and rebuild their economy. Perhaps the Poles will be upset about this, because, naturally, of Vladimir the Great, or perhaps Jagiello, Or, at a stretch, President Wilson and Lord Curzon. Meanwhile, Rumania and Finland stand idle in the field, conspicuously massaging their calves and intimating their readiness to be pulled from the line-up. “Russia: No. 6.” On Christmas Day, the Iron City of Magnitogorsk, which sits where the Ural river cuts through the iron mountain of Magnitnaya, celebrated the first pour from its sixth blast furnace, the second built since the beginning of the war. The Russians claim that they “followed the methods of Henry Kaiser” in building it, so expect it to start cracking open the moment it hits a stiff sea…. Hard to imagine how much more profitable the Fontana plant would be if it sat between a navigable river and a mountain of 62% iron ore. No. 7 furnace, which will come into operation this year, may be the world’s largest. The question is, how much steel will Russia need after the war? Hopefully the Communist Utopia will not be tempted to keep excess capacity in operation just to avoid writing down the investment, but you never know. “Great Britain: The Stately Coals of England” The Earl of [sic] Fitzwilliam is upset that the 450 acres of his estate at Wentworth Woodhouse, Yorkshire, has been spoliated by steam shovels taking 25,000 tons/week of outcrop coal. Time seems to think that His Grace is getting what he deserves for having such a nice house. The cause of making fun of the grievances of the grande noblesse would have been better served, I think, by noting that the family also owns the 15,000 acres surrounding that 450. As for the story itself, the effort and waste implied by all of that stony outcrop coal is disheartening. It will certainly do the boilers no good. “Italy: Gentleman of Verona” Also not sympathetic about Count Ciano, the paper is. Or perhaps the "not" goes at the end? Writing for Time is harder than it looks. War “Votes for Soldiers” The Christmas break was not kind to the legislators who voted against the “super-powerful Federal War Ballot.” Now assorted state legislatures are moving. Arkansas is even renewing a 1923 law abolishing the poll tax for soldiers. “Facts” In a big Army-Navy “facts-of-life” rally held last week in Los Angeles, some 650 “West Coast big-wigs” were told that in two years of fighting, U.S. troops have captured 280,000 European prisoners but only 377 Japanese. Thus, the Japanese fleet will eventually come out to fight a decisive battle, as this proves that they have fanatical courage. “Island hopping” will continue. The number of American aircraft carriers, now over 40, will be approximately doubled. Also doubled, cruisers, although building priority shifts to landing craft and submarines. I pointed out that "doubled" is not very specific, but your eldest points out that cruiser plants work hard, and that the Navy can scarcely relenton cruiser building until it has enough ships that do not risk burning through their own steam plant. Admiral Halsey contributes that the only good Japanese is a dead Japanese. As much as I understand where the admiral is coming from, this does not, I believe, constitute a “fact” as that word is normally understood. It also rather undermines the simple logic of the first “fact” supplied. “Lend-Lease: Swords into Ploughshares” I find it interesting that while Lend-Lease accounted for 38 out of every 100 tanks the U.S. produced, it only took up $9 of $100 of machine tools, 4 out of a 100 barrels of petroleum products, and 10% of food products, with much of the drain on “less critical” foods such as pork, eggs and dried fruit. The currant growers have done rather well out of Lend-Lease, while the world rejoices in America’s surplus of dried eggs and bacon. “Rocket or Racket” More talk of German vengeance weapons. A Swiss expert (so presumably this is an unattributed rewrite of the Flight article) thinks that rocket-guns are bunkum, although in fact the Germans are building launching installations along the “so-called Invasion Coast of France,” and we are bombing them. The paper suggests that the Germans intend to use these giant “bazookas” against the invasion fleet, rather than in any “futuristic terror bombing of London.” Assorted “Battlefronts” articles:Leese is in as new GOC, 8th Army; Ernie Pyle writes affectingly about the death of an army captain from Texas, Tito’s partisans are partisans, the latest landings in New Britain were unopposed, Chinese troops will fight well underGeneral Stilwell’s leadership. General Stilwell is lucky that Grandfather is no longer able to follow the news, or a dacoit would soon be showing him just how well Chinese fight under their own leadership. “Flying Teakettle” The paper is less impressed by jet planes than Flight, for some reason, though it does note, as Flight does not, rumours that the Italians and Germans are working on their own. Mr. Smith, of Flight, now has an American publisher for the latest edition of his book, so someone is making bank on this “jet turbine” thing. “Fashion Note” The Army is tryingout its new field jacket in Alaska. In cold temperatures, perfect comfort will be achieved by wearing as much clothing underneath it as will fit. “Hobby’s Army” The Women’s Army Corps in England has just been inspected by their Colonel-Commandant, “trim” Colonel Oveta Gulp Hobby. Of a woman of a certain age, “trim” says it all, does it not? And this is all about appearance. “She saw erect, well-dressed girls drawn up for parade." Well, appearance to a point. After "Mrs. J. C.'s reaction to the "Doughnut Dollies," my eyebrows rise. "In the clammy English dawn, she saw WACs in maroon bathrobes (with boy friends’ unit insignia sewn on their sleeves)… Twenty million women working in American factories are being told about 63,000 “G.I. Janes” over in England, with their boyfriends' patches sewn on their bathrobes' sleeves. ** Politics “Voice from Main Street” The paper tells us that Main Street wants Mr. Wilkie to be the GOP 1944 nomination. No intimation of who the people standing on it want, but early indications are Governor Dewey. “$134,000,000 Memo” The paper’s take on the Truman Committee’s outrage of the week, the failed attempt to supply Alaska with oil from the Canadian deposit at Norman Wells in the sub-Arctic north. Apparently a pipeline laid over open ground across the tundra, beside a wilderness road of hundreds of miles that winds its way through the worn-down mountain ranges of the eternal snows is not an economical proposition! Since this is not enough absurdity for a single article, the paper quotes a strategic review asserting that a refinery 150 miles from the coast of the Gulf of Alaska would be a “too-easy” target for enemy aircraft. “Death of a Lady” The paper notices the death of Mrs. “Lou Henry Hoover” in her apartment in New York. She is survived by one son, and her husband, the former President. President Hoover, you will certainly not forget, Reggie, lives on the campus of his alma mater, founded a few miles to the north of us (as Americans reckon distance) and a considerable distance from New York. The paper notices “Lou’s” cosmopolitan tastes, the scientific interests that so complemented her husband’s, her athletic inclinations, and her involvement with the Girl Scouts. The paper only fails to notice her hair style in painting a compelling picture of her private life without actually saying anything. Business --“The Toll” Strained by the record-breaking load of 7 billion passenger-miles monthly, the American rail-road system is falling apart. Accidents are up 32% since last year, breakdowns due to equipment failure 39%, due to improper maintenance 47%. 2,349 were killed in rail accidents in 1943. Education --“Mrs. Evans solves a Problem.” A four-room high school outside of Chicago with only 13 high school students also has only one teacher, a 1929 Bachelor of Music, Mrs. Evans, who also finds time to be principal, school superintendent, and district elementary school visitor. This is deemed to be an acceptable way of running a school because the parents of the children are strict Calvinists. One hopes for the childrens' sake that the postwar depression is not severe or long lasting, or they may suffer from the lack of education. Which, of course, is only a little more extreme than the general deficit of these times. Radio; “Good Aftermoreevening” A radio show broadcast from London by shortwave is picked up by the NBC in New York and rebroadcast around the United States. Is it the future of broadcasting, the paper asks. No it is not, I suggest. It is short wave, as even the paper notes. Australians complain that American armed forces radio is better than British, causing Australians to lose precious British-ness in favour of American-ness. Frank Morgan is leaving the Maxwell House Hour. Flight, 20 January 1944 Leaders The paper thinks that news is thin enough to lead off with some Flight Lieutenant’s talk about the future of air warfare on the BBC. Germany might be running out of fighters, and Spitfires are remarkable. War in the Air The paper obliquely notes that the Allies possess a way to “see through clouds.” Sofia in Bulgaria has been bombed. Japanese planes have gotten better, but their pilots are deteriorating in skill. There will be no offensive in Burma before the monsoon. The attack on Brunswick was combined with a diversionary attack on Berlin, which accounts for the light casualties. Here and There Transport Lancasters have set a new Atlantic record of 11 hours 15 minutes, taking it away from the Consolidated B-24. Our Geoffrey Smith is a radio star now! The Rolls-Royce Aero-Instruction School’s annual enrollment just reached 5000. 10,000 trainees have passed through the school. “The Hawker Typhoon” is surprisingly aerodynamic considering how ugly it its. I include a clipping showing the transition from a spaced-frame structure to a monocoque just to the rear of the main spar. Whatever else can be said about it, this is bravura engineering. “Airfield Saturation” The country is reaching its limits as far as new airfields go. This is made worse by the fact that the average size of an airfield has increased from 200 to 600 acres, and by the reduction in the glide path from a 1 in 15 descent to a 1 in 50 due to increasing wing loadings. “Avro York Transport” The Paper has not announced this plane lately, so here you are. Time, 24 January 1944 International Something about Poland, Russia, London, America? “Asp from Spain:” You will have noticed the absence of The Economist in this roundup, Reggie. Fortunately, the paper covers the British beat well enough that I do not have to turn to the English press for coverage of this latest Fascist atrocity. Oranges being shipped from Spain to provide a precious 2 pounds a week for British children through March have been infiltrated by orange bombs! Tiny bits of peel, carefully hollowed out by Spanish Nazi sympathisers and filled with ingenious time-bombs are now being ferreted out of the holds of ships by trained RAF bomb-disposal experts. War “The Fuerher’s Guests” A German gentleman was interviewed In Stockholm on the subject of his large house in Berlin, which he abandoned, presumably in favour of Stockholm, to bombed-out families (the titular guests) because they were disrupting his routine. I do not imagine that the German Volk will miss him very much. “Not Dead Yet” It is said by the Daily Telegraph that 8000 acres of Berlin have been devastated by bombing. This is an exaggeration. Only 8000 of Berlin’s 20,000 acres are built up at all, and, of these, 1360 acres have been significantly attacked by 9000 tons of bombs dropped in six raids. Although since this assessment, another 5000 tons have been delivered. Updated photo-reconnaissance results are awaited. The total tonnage needed to be delivered is estimated at 40,000, so we are “about” half way to converting Belin into “Acres of Death.” This story goes nicely with an earlier one about an old Russian peasant woman braining a captured Nazi saboteur as he lay, pinioned and helpless. “Fathers, Go to War” To meet the Selective Service quota of 699,000 men by July, the service will have to take a “considerable proportion” of fathers, only 90,000 of whom have been drafted so far. Perhaps this will finally effect a reduction in the ever-increasing number of perambulators cluttering up the sidewalks! “Retrenchment” The USAAF is closing 69 airfields and cutting back training. New Star in the Sky” The Paper is bemused by the North American A-36 P-51 Apache Invader Mustang. I gather that its friends call it “Sinjan.” The paper notes its “laminar flow wing,” and its Packard-made two-speed, two-stage supercharger, but then spoils the effect of its brief excursion into actual technical facts by adding that this gives it “speed both upstairs and down.” “Global War, Global Network.” I may or may not have been fair in mocking the paper’s coverage of aviation technology a moment ago, but I was inspired by the next story, which describes the creation of the Army Airways Communication System, apparently a global network of dedicated radio stations supporting Army Air Force Operations. The key here is a globe-wide network for reporting weather. One could very definitely stand for a description of how this is accomplished, but, apparently “radio did it” must suffice. “Receptive Lion” “top-ranking U.S. political commentator” Ray Clapper went to Australia to interview General MacArthur, reports that he is “receptive” to a Presidential run in 1944. I hope his generalship is more closely moored to reality. “Shock of Arms” The paper notes that 8th AF lost 60 bombers and 5 fighters in its raids on northwestern Germany this week, while Bomber Command lost 38 attacking Brunswick. This isexclusive of damaged ships, and it is small consolation that “despatches toneutral Sweden” claim that the city has “ceased to exist,” with citizens fleeing the burning city for the Harz Mountains. In other news, the paper likes General Bradley, as he is a “quiet operator.” Take that, General Patton! “Death in Training” Before the war, the fatal accident rate for Army student pilots was 13 per thousand. It has now risen to 20. The paper thinks that this is just fine. Why does it mention it, then? Science “Secret Weapons” We have jets, while the Germans have their “rocket-gun coast.” Now there is talk of Nazi rocket planes uncovered in Germany, and, of course, there is all that talk about “atom-busting . . .[which]. .. ha been subject . . . of intense research by both United Nations and Axis scientists.” I distinguish “atom-busting” from the other entries in the above list because, unlike the paper, I haven’t heard talk about it in a very long time. The rest of the article has a remarkable listing of boy’s stuff ranging from Greek fire toMerrimac and Monitor to longbows and so on. Secret weapons are real! “Blue Cross” The Blue Cross is making a tidy little profit these days, after very nearly going under during the 1930s. This news is attached to an odd human interest story about a released Japanese internee who was reimbursed by Blue Cross for his Shanghai medical bills. Politics “The Soldier’s President” It is suggested by some that the delayed implementation of National Service in the United States is tied to the President’s hope of winning a fourth term, as the labour shortage is over. Apparently. Some have brains with the suppleness of a belly dancer. “$100,000,000,000 Guess” The new budget is a hundred-billion dollar guess, as no-one knows whether the war will last out the financial year. The President is asking for twice the national income of 1933, and the public debt will soar to $258 billion, ten times the highest level of the 1920s following the First World War. Once again, the President asked for more taxes, but income, rather than a national sales tax. Obviously I should prefer an income tax over a sales tax, and I notice that our tenants are of the opposite opinion. I wonder why the Luce papers are so congenial to my opinions, and not those Mrs. Murphy, Mrs. Wengler and Mr. McCrimmon? I joke, Reggie, I joke! “Button, Button” The paper notes that Wendell Wilkie is a laughing stock at the Front. I imagine that this will matter in his run to the nomination almost as much as the fact that Dewey is going to win. “Work Preferred” In 1943, 900,000 U.S. workers who had become eligible to retire under Social Security opted to keep on working, as the money was just too good. “The Lobby Gets to Work” The American Legion is in Washington getting things ready for returning World War II veterans. I specifically notice talk of an increase in the mustering out bonus from $300 to $500, with even more possible, and of “loans for home building” amongst other things. This is for the Earl, of course. How plausible are $5000 homes when the returning serviceman will be able to muster the 10% down payment from his basic bonus alone? “The Army’s Doctrine” The Army’s censorship authorities released new guidelines. The paper is dyspeptic, and especially notes the silly way that it kept jets “secret,” when “its basic principles were expounded and diagrammed Sept 11. 1941 in the British aviation magazine Flight.” Civilian Supply, Aviation, Renegotiation “For Babies Only” The massive article that leads off the section and which by itself justifies three separate headings is about –brace yourself, Reggie—a release of steel to make perambulators, the WPB taking account of a “bumper crop “ of 2.7 million babies this year. I wonder if someone has studied the impact of this bumper crop on long term steel consumption? Will they not need tricycles, and then bicycles, and, finally, a flivver before settling into domestic life in a house filled with steel refrigerators, automatic washing machines, and even air conditioners? “Aluminum: From Feast to Famine” On a more serious note (again), there is now an excess of aluminum production in America, as just about everyone except “Cousin H.C.” could have predicted. American plants that use coal-fired electricity are already being closed. Railroads, Banking, Retail Trade “Recovery” In the Depression, US railroads were the sickest of sick industries. Now, they are not, thanks to having retired $6 billion, ahlf their total debt, while lsalting away $1.6 billion for capital investment in equipment and roadbeds. Notably, they have done two-and-a-half times more business in 1943 than in 1928 with 250,000 fewer employees thanks to improved equipment and better technique. Canada at War: “Jimmy Rides Again” Canadian Agriculture Minister James Gardner has apparently resolved the Anglo-Canadian bacon crisis by paying farmers more for hogs. No mention of the “coarse grain” shortage, though. Arts Louella Parsons has brought out her memoirs, Jimmy Durante is funny, Jules Romain is prolific, the opera house in Naples is open again, Jackpot gets a bad review. Flight, 27 January 1944 Leaders The Marquess of Londonderry finally extracted some details about the Government’s postwar civil aviation plans in the Lords this week. There was further talk about the Bristol Brabazon, and the revelation of a somewhat smaller and near-at-hand “Tudor,” a name with a striking similarity to “Lancaster” and “York.” The paper, of course, thinks that there should be a flying boat, too. “Technical Training:” Talk of a British College of Aeronautics is all the rage, while others call for an expansion of basic engineering and other technical education on a “walk before you can fly” basis. War in the Air Aerial photographs show that more than a third of the great woolcombing factory at Leipzig was destroyed in the 3 December raid. “The deaths and sick casualties from cold in a campaign in Russia during the winter must in any case be high.” The paper is pleased by the landings at Anzio, long awaited by armchair strategists. “Armstrong Whitworth Albemarle” Is a plane of which you have probably heard on account of your being an RCAF officer in the thick of it. No-one else has, for the good reason that it is a sad and lonely failure that will be put to some undemanding use in the Invasion. “Long Range Mustang: Credit for the Latest U.S. Fighter Goes to British Air Ministry,’ You will note, Reggie, that Time took a different tack. I think this will be quite a successful aircraft, if there is such a fight over its paternity! Certainly no-one is rushing forward to claim credit for the Albemarle. Save for the subcontracting furniture makers who pioneered the use of “improved,” or “compregnated” wood products. Air Transport Discussion of the Government’s commercial aviation policy continues in the Lords. The “Brabazon” will be a very large plane, and will be flown by BOAC, in its capacity as a “national flag-bearer.” Here and There Fan mail and proposals continue to pour into the Flight offices, directed to our own Geoffrey Smith, who now candidly described by some as “British aeronautical engineering’s answer to Bing Crosby.” Also, this Group Captain Whittle fellow of whom you may have heard will be giving a talk to the Royal Aeronautical Society, or some such. “Colour and Design in Civil Aviation” Something called the British Colour Council stands prepared to offer advice on tasteful colour schemes for airliners. If passengers can be persuaded not to fly in a déclassé aeroplane finished in last season’s hues, aeroplane output may not have to shrink at all! Time, 31 January, 1944 International “Spain: Wages of Appeasement” Hard on the heels of the “legerdemain” of the Blue Division and the orange-bomb fiasco (which turned out to be bombs in the crates, not actual orange-bombs), Franco signs a credit agreement with the Germans, probably to sell them tungsten. The paper is not amused. “Death at Konstanz” The paper reviews a recent Swiss newspaper article reporting that the German city across the lake has reported 3,785 obituary notices for officers and men killed on the Russian Front since 22 June 1941. Forty-three percent were married, and 76 suicides are reported as well, “mostly wives and mothers of the dead soldiers.” Which seems like a morbid and unnecessary statistic for newspaper consumption. Not to mention uncalled-for, even in wartime. “The Bear’s Way” The paper speculates that Pravda’s accusation this week that the British were in negotiations for a separate peace with Germany might have been intended to pre-emptively justify Russian talks with the Germans, or at least warn that two could play that game. “Not Yet” The paper allows that the invasion of France might have to wait for the summer. “Third Landing” The invasion at Anzio was a glorious success! And that is why Rome has already fallen! Wait a minute, Reggie…. “By Sea and Air” A great submarine-air battle has been fought by a convoy “250 miles off Portugal.” No Allied ships were sunk, and the British released details about the “Leigh-LightPlanes.” “More of the Same” The Germans announce that “liquid-air rocket bombs,” a “rocket-booster mechanism” for interceptor fighters, and a “new kind of underwater arm” are all imminent. “The Way to Tokyo” Another amphibious invasion of a Central Pacific island is imminent. “Cradle Retaken” Leningrad’s siege is lifted, Novgorod, "cradle of Russia," falls, Russians launch new offensive into northern Finland. “Superfortress” The paper notices that Flight has noticed the B-29 “Superfortress.” Of note are that it is a colossally large plane, and that its "side turrets" operated by remote control. Your son looks over my shoulder and shakes his head sadly. He is quite confident that General Electric has not solved the lag problem any more than anyone else has. “Double Champ” The commander of a PT boat that has sunk several Japanese barges explains that he had no choice but to shoot twelve Japanese in the water. “Reverses and Reserves” The paper hopes that the German efforts to build up a counter-invasion reserve, noted by Hitler in his New Year’s address, are failing, pointing to the absence of German troops on the Anzio beaches. “Enter the Royal Navy” The existence of an Eastern Fleet is intimated. American submarines continue to sink Japanese merchant ships at a great clip. “Respectable Floozie” The Martin B-26 Marauder, much criticised by the Truman Committee as a “Widow-Maker,” or woman of ill-repute, has had its reputation restored by the traditional expedient. "It separates the men from the boys," says Glenn L. Martin spokesman. The mothers of America must be so relieved. Politics “Labor” The paper reviews the railway strike, accuses the Administration of honouring the letter of the Little Steel guidelenes for wage increases while “doing violence to its spirit.” There are still three thousand coal mines under Federal administration, but at least the strikes in the Akron rubber plants have been broken. On the other hand, an injunction against “maintenance of membership” in their plants sought by the chairman of U. S. Gypsum, Sewell Avery, also head of Montgomery Ward, is being evaded by the WLB. “The Hopkins Letter” The scandal of the forged letter from Wendell Wilkie to Harry Hopkins continues “Man of the West” Wilkie/Warren 1944!.. I mention this because Governor Warren is on this week’s cover. Of course, Jimmy Durante was on last week’s, so there you go. Science “Much Ado About Nothing” Vacuum is being used in new ways in science nowadays! Mainly by Richard B. Morse of Massachusetts. Mr. Morse must be a major shareholder, is all that I can say. Business Jahco continues its lonely battle against the excess-profits tax; Anaconda Wire& Cable’s long trial for deliberately shipping failed product to Russia comes to an end. American private exports are at the highest level since 1929. There is much talk of scandal over the Petroleum Reserve Corporation. Again. Education “The Race Question” A 46 page booklet by Columbia anthropologists Ruth Benedict and Gene Weltfish, entitled The Races of Mankind, has been prepared for distribution to servicemen by the USO. But it contains “troublous facts and troubling doctrines” to the effect that there is no essential difference between races, which are all mixed up, anyway. The USO has therefore discontinued its distribution and has been criticised for it by the AFL, CIO, and “many Negro newspapers.” The remaining "Negro newspapers" think that racial inequality is fine with them! “Yale Versus Harvard” The two old schools are agreed that government financial aid (in view for veterans, I gather) must not threaten their freedom to do just as they please. To wit, Yale will accommodate returned veterans at a special Institute of Collegiate Study, disdains vocation training, and will retain summer vacations, while Harvard will run all year around and will introduce vocational training, while its president dismisses the idea of teaching the humanities to “any considerable portion” of the 10,000,000 returning veterans, as they will “be in a hurry” to get on with their lives. Fanny Hurst has a new book out, and Robert Duffus has published a memoir of his year at Stanford with Thorstein Veblen. Veblen does not sound like a Stanford man to me, Reggie. But I only know one Stanford man well, and not for the better. And now for the monthlies. Or, in this case, bi-weeklies, as Aero-Digest now has enough material –and this notwithstanding losing Armed Forces accreditation—to publish every two weeks! (I was also not billed for the increase on my subscription, and shall gratefully pay special attention to the advertising content.) Aero-Digest, 1 January 1944 “Pacific Strategy and the Bombing of Tokyp” The paper notes that since a serious bombing campaign against Tokyo will require on the order of 50 airfields, American “super-bombers” cannot be based in China. Range rules out their use from Hawaii or the Philippines, and weather from Alaska. That leaves Formosa, as it always does. “Recreation for War Workers” Instructs factory managers in how to organise dances and parties. Hopefully no-one needs armoured bras! H. O. Boyvey (Vultee), “Fatigue –The Forgotten Member of the Design Family.” Boyvey tells us that traditional engineering builds in a fatigue margin of strength. This is impossible in aircraft, where weight management rules. We are left to calculate safe usages from experimental data, and we do not have enough data about new materials. Fly in new planes (built to old designs?) only for the first decade or so after the war. Hopefully tastefully-decorated ones, though. More seriously, you will recall the alarming increase in fatal accident rates in Air Corps training. Mr. Boyvey points out that student pilots land hard, and testing of the strength of undercarriage forgings is not very good, especially when it is considered how “nicks, scratches and other blemishes” can affect their integrity. Vultee is building various equipment to test them. J. A. Chamberlin (Noorduiyn-Montreal), “Parts Straightening Without Heat Treatment,” a judicious use of force can salvage banged up parts after a crash. What about safety, you ask? Here’s some very convincing math (with charts) to show that it is! As a consolation, if German aircraft production totals are going up as quickly as they claim, fatigue testing sounds like something that they might be neglecting, and the German air force may well crash to Earth far more quickly than we expect. Max Munk (Catholic University of America), “Computation of the Takeoff Run,” which I notice because of the presence of an integral sign. This is not our generation of engineers. But, of course, he is an academic, and so must make a pretense that this “calculus” thing has uses. Design Sketch: The P-51 “Mustang.” Other papers talk. Aero Digest delivers. Although I gather that the fuselage-mounted guns indicate an earlier model than the one currently flying bomber-escort missions. Edward Lodwig (Mobile Refrigeration, Ltd.) “Altitude Simulation,” If there really is a “cold war” in the postwar, with companies racing to bring new and improved refrigerators to American homes, the credit to wartime innovation will be even wider than I realised a moment ago. Mr. Lodewig describes the rigs his company built to test aeroplane components for high-altitude performance. Apparently, many of the same problems being faced by jet-turbine and aero-engine manufacturers were faced by builders of refrigerator compressors. Bringing several themes together, here is a young lady testing "aircraft fabrics" in -40 degree conditions. Washington In-Formation This biweekly entry is mainly dedicated to the Baruch appointment, and its implications for the postwar liquidation of government-owned plant. I go into this further in my financial note below. However, I will note here that Senator Truman seems to be taking a soft line on the vexed question of valuations, and intimates that he should like to see war plant purchased at the “true value,” and not at prices reflecting inflated wartime construction costs. What I am not at clear about is the implications for us. “Cousin H.C’s” steel plant may be sold to him for much less than we currently expect. Are we no longer expected to save his investment, in anticipation of postwar profits in a steel-hungry world, or are we expected to clamber on board the wagon with him, in anticipation of said profits? Again, my message to the Earl is that these profits are being heedlessly exaggerated, but the paper has little to say about the steel industry’s future. I shall talk about the ironmaker’s trade papers in the next section, but please do be at pains to remind the Earl that my joke about the lifetime steel needs of 1944's bumper crop of squalling infants was just that! Digest of the News The West Coast produced 2581 planes in November, vice 2496 in October. Labour turnover, with 20,000 workers leaving their jobs each month on the West Coast, is the main factor holding back production. Various numbers are shown to prove that this has cost the equivalent of 2035 B-17s in the last 11 months, a probably spuriously precise number building on an estimated cost of $200 to recruit, hire and train a new employee. “Cut turnover by 50% and most of the aircraft industry’s manpower problem will be solved,” says the representative of the employers. It is all the workers' fault. In other news, “Tex” Rankin, founder and principal of the Rankin Aeronautical Academy, is shown pinning on his son’s wings. I suggest that you not send your son to the academy of a man not bright enough to realise that one sends one's son to one's friend's academy. “Stout Sees World Concept if Plane Development Left to Engineers” I would summarise this brief summary of ‘William B. (“Bill”) Stout’s’ talk to the Aviation Writers’ Association except that I still have no idea of how aircraft engineers will “give mankind a world concept in place of a national or local mentality.” What I am sure of is that jobs are going begging in the United States to the point where people who cannot read and write are doing the reading and writing. “’Mars’ Breaks All Records” The Consolidated Mars is a very big aeroplane. The paper’s attitude reminds me of something a very vulgar Egg woman said to me once in her cups about her taste in men. Aero Digest, 15 January 1944 “Civil Aviation In War” American airlines have planes! And they fly them to places where there is a war! “The ‘Helldiver’ Meets South Pacific Battle Tests” The Curtiss Helldiver (Aero Digest’sstyle for aeroplane nicknames is all over the map) SB2C-1 has had 889 design changes since it was lambasted by the Truman Committee, and now is somewhat satisfactory. Hon. Jennings B. Randolph, “Aviation Fuels for the Future” If you spend enough money on Virginia coal, you can turn it into high-test gasoline, just in time to produce an over-priced product for a market that is moving on to broad-cut jet fuels! Fortunately, the author is in the House of Representatives, where he can do no harm. As the paper notices, along with current jet’s high fuel consumption, a few pages later. Washington In-Formation More in contract wind-up, and talk of funding airports. Also, an even bigger “super-bomber” than the B-29 is on theway, intended for Pacific ranges. Guest Editorial J. C. Miller, “Electrical Industry’s Role in Refinement of Aircraft” General Electric’s Aviation Division Manager wants to remind us that it was his firm which was selected to develop the first American jet engine. Why? Because GE has been getting more and more involved in aircraft, ever since its amplidyne technology was chosen for the electrical power turrets on various American bombers. Chosen as lead contractor for various secret “super-bombers” of which details will be intimated here, GE went on to produce an electro-hydraulic automatic pilot, complete with electric pick-offs on the gyros. (Your eldest explains to me that this concerns the problem that measuring a gyro’s rate and direction of spin interferes with it and thus causes it to precess., Then he tells me about a mind-boggling thought experiment concerning a physicist’s cat, which I will relate to you in person, since it really takes a gin-and-tonic to go down properly.) GE also built the turbosupercharger of the P-47, although it has purely mechanical controls. They also built the high-altitude ignition system for that ‘plane. More to come at another date. Following on are articles about light weight electrical systems for aircraft and a new, high-capacity heater for high-altitude flying. Robert Taylor, Industrial Radiologist, “Alteration of X-ray Beams to Meet Inspection Requirements” Apparently, inspecting X-rays are not just x-ray machines. They also have filters to ensure that the beam is of consistent wavelength. Mr. (Doctor?) Taylor explains progress in this field. Charles A. Mobley, “Essentials of Airplane Duct Design” It turns out that the air flowingthrough aircraft must be treated aerodynamically, as well as that flowing around them. Proper engineering makes radiators work better. I am increasingly amazed that the aircraft of a decade ago flew at all! Digest of the News The Army Air Force now has a strength of 2,385,000 officers and men. 85,946 planes were made in 1943, 8802 in December of 1943. Los Angeles has received $6 billion in aviation orders, first in the nation, ahead of Newark and Detroit. *Copyright Caroline Young 2014? Anyway, prints available here. **Does anyone have any idea where "Wilson Johnnie" comes from?

That is a great insight , Spence. My master, Mechanon, makes $32,000/hour working on the computer at home. Click on this [deleted] to learn more!

Like an apology would do after she caught what you're carrying.

A raving lunatic waiting for a mailed cheque bit my sister once.

Since code is not just going to install itself in potential robot parts, the "rise of the machines" scenario might have many more ramifications, too, from that old favourite, the "Danger Room gone mad" scenario to people's phones breaking. "I think the first clue was when my phone started chain-texting, 'Organics hate him! Mechanon discovers one great trick for universal genocide. Get cheap Viagra at [deleted link].'"

I see Paris, I see France, I see Enforcer84's underpants.

Oh, yeah. Just go right on blaming the victim.

The X'endron Network is awesome enough to use Syzgy. Also, Syzgy is big with the flying drone thing. Tracking down "rogue" flying drones in the midst of hobbyist/police/hotel security swarms could give your characters a real workout for technological and forensic skills. Plus, imagine the slapstick potential of a bunch of superheroes jumping into the middle of a swarm of drones in a resort hotel, looking for the one that is actually hooked up with Syzgy's network.

And if we can cut their pay and benefits in the process, it's just good business!

Postblogging Technology, January 1943, I: Will There Be Marmalade in 194Q? My Dearest Reggie: Material is piling up, and I have to write you anyway, to brace you for some business in special cargoes that I must ask you to arrange. Special delicacy, I hardly need observe, is required in the matter of border "rebirths" in war years, especially with an enthusiastic amateur FBI informant under foot every time he can get up from Burbank. So, then, here is the first of my January newsletters! * Nor can I say that I have not had an eventful few weeks! In taking up my brush last week, "Mrs. J. C." dropped a little reference to the city of broad shoulders. Well, I have been to the one that never sleeps, in fast company. It was very nearly too much for me, who am set so permanently in my ways. Fortunately, and I have had a few days to retire early and sleep late and let my hair down. (That is this month's obligatory "permanent wave" joke out of the way. Never let it be said that I do not keep up with the trends.) This Sunday, I slept until the smell of marmalade boiling began to percolate upwards. Judith has been teaching the art to our young housekeeper, and I, I am carried away with memories of things long past. In the matter of our friend, mentioned by "Mrs. J. C.," you know much and will have guessed more from my mention of special cargoes. Needless to say, the very volume of the rumours demonstrate the need for discretion! You will know that he has an acquaintance, quite as erratic in person as he may seem from a distance, who boasts of breaking his own contract with the assistance of those to whom he oleaginously refers as "men of respect." You may rightly suppose that our friend's vanity would only be assuaged when he could make a like show, and that this is how I came to owe a favour to one ofGrandfather's little brothers. The actual business will be done by "Cousin H. C.'s" lawyers, of course. And engineers. I cannot expect "Mrs. J. C.'s" solid but essentially feminine mind to grasp something so technical, but I remain firm on this. We can solve our friend's most pressing problem in the courts, but we can only deliver the kind of life that he would like to lead through "research and development." He is a very, very rich man, so someone will do it. Why not us? I await a favourable report in the matter of your Christmas present via Bill and David soon, although the actual work has been delegated to a White Russian of the Mukden emigration, who is more intimately obligated to us. The Economist, 1 January 1944 Leaders “Now or Never” The paper celebrates the announcement of the Second Front Commanders. “The curtain is about to go up. . . All the carefully husbanded trumps in the Allied hand are about to be played, in the hope of winning trick, game and rubber.” “Pray God,” the paper says, the Second Front will be won. Two Leaders on India to the effect that the Viceroy’s ten year plan is impractical in the light of Indian sectarian differences. Britain’s commitment to Indian independence is unequivocal with only two equivocations. (Defence and protection of minority communities.) Notes of the Week “New Fields” The paper is very impressed with Air Chief Marshal Tedder. Who was very active with the Young Liberals at Cambridge. Much more so than in his studies, I have been told; but now he is a world-historical genius, so we shall let that pass. “Marshal Vatutin’s Victory” relieves the threat on Kiev with a smart check on Manstein. “Poland in Suspense” the paper notices Governor-General Frank’s call for a Polish-German anti-Bolkshevik alliance, presumably on the grounds that the Bolsheviks will starve, shoot, and dispossess Poles while conscripting them for war work. Wiki Latins and Jugoslavs are excitable. “The Nursing Profession” Nurses need to be better treated as well as better paid if there are to be more of them. “Miners’ Wages” It being supposed that, if paid more, coal miners will all just lay about doing nothing (the technical term for this is, apparently, “heterodox behaviour"), it is proposed that their wages not be increased, and that any extra money paid to them be in the form of vaguely-defined performance bonuses. The paper’s enthusiasm for not paying coal miners is striking, especially considering the lack of coal. Ah, well, who is to argue with economists? American Survey “Congress and the President” Congress is much criticised on the occasion of its adjournment. “Ending the Strikes” The President has ended the railway strikes, and Washington’s pundit class is lined up in the receiving room at the White House to apologise for characterising the President as being weak and isolated. I jest, Reggie. In fact, the paper is worried that the settlement was too lenient. “End of the New Deal” It is supposed that the President is moving in a new direction. The article goes on to weave a path through the thickets of the future that lead to a future in which the President is politically unassailable, thanks to a postwar depression that ruins his political prospects for a fourth (fifth?) term. Has Our New York Correspondent taken up politics? “Republican Futures” Dr. Wilford Brimley examines the psephological entrails and suggests that the party that is already celebrating its coming victory of 1944 may well then celebrate its last. Poor people have come to vote Democratic, and the Republican Party is showing no signs of regaining its old hold on the poor. The birthrate also runs against the Republicans. “Older stocks inhabiting the poorer soils of the back country are scarcely less prolific than the teeming masses of recent immigrants, who together form the basis of the Democratic ascendancy.” I foresee a quick reversal of fortunes once actual Republican candidates start using this kind of language to woo voters. “Global Suckers” Senator Brewster of Maine asserts that Britain is playing America for suckers. The World Overseas “Protection of Minorities” After the war, everyone will pogrom everybody. Unless Europeans learn to act like the British, with their exemplary record of toleration of minorities. “Island Outpost:” “Mrs. J. C.” has taken up this article in some dudgeon, as you will recall. The author, Major Orde Browne, proves to be the Colonial Office’s labour advisor. Pray he never knows how he has offended our brooding kinswoman! Business Notes “Disposal of Tramps” Prewar, the estimated tonnage of tramp freighters was 10 million. Postwar, it is to be 21 million, of which 12 million will be in the American, and 2 million in the Canadian Liberty fleets. 1.5 million will be under the Red Ensign, and 0.5 million under other European flags. The fate of the American Liberty fleet is thus supposed to be of great concern to Britons, though less than to the poor devils who have to sail them! Oh, to be sure, it is possible to exaggerate the shoddiness of Liberty construction, as I have just done, but the fact remains that many --perhaps one in twenty-- Liberty ships will have to be laid up. It is no great stretch that more will be. There are prospects for the right ships, built at Hongkong or Whampoa, if we play our cards correctly. Flight, 6 January 1944 Leaders The paper supposes that Air Chief Marshal Tedder will be a credit to the Air Force as Deputy Supreme Commander. A capsule biography appears later in this number. Apparently, he won a prize for a history essay at Cambridge. Well, that quite makes up for his grades! It is also pleased that Field-Marshal Montgomery proposes to win air superiority in advance of the landing. Sir Geoffrey De Havilland is honoured. (So is Oliver Simmonds, of Simmonds Aerocessories, but he is not mentioned, as he is not famous.) War in the Air The recent air-sea action in the Bayof Biscay is to the credit of Coastal Command. The latest raid against Berlin was a glorious victory. They are all glorious victories. Pay no attention to the 187 Allied bombers lost over Europe in the past two weeks. Here and There A gentleman with Handley Page assures America that Britain will be an “arsenal” for them once Germany surrenders and the Americans turn to finishing off Japan. Americans are guaranteed to appreciate such patronising sentiments far more than a corps ofBritish troops! Looking Back Various planes and engines appeared in 1943. Do you remember them? If you do not, here are several pages of reminders. If you do, well, here they are, anyway.. I am a little surprised that anyone would want us to remember the Blenheim Bisley. The paper does contrive to remind us that everyone was quite excited about “reaction propulsion” in 1943. Well, we were certainly told to be excited about it. Perhaps, the censors being willing, it will even eventually be explained why. The Avro York looks like it is pregnant, and theLockheed Constellation like a not-quite-filled-in teenager. Behind the Lines Germans are cowardly, ill-fed, living in pre-fabricated huts, and reliant on Ju-42 transports to support encircled forces in the north. The Hitler Youth is being called upon to volunteer for service, and the neutral press reports that our bombing is having a considerable effect. Lacking anything really novel to report, the paper has articles on “Supercharging, So That Even I Can Understand It,” novel methods of keeping aero-engines warm in cold weather; and “the case for flying boats.” The paper simply will not relent. Of more interest, Bendix and Eclipse jointly announce “Gyro Flux-Gate Compasses” which are quick-acting, undisturbed azimuth indicators by virtue of the use of a gyroscope to eliminate magnetic compass adjustment. It sounds like a watch-stander’s dream, if it works. The Economist, 9 January 1944 Leaders “Post-War Democracy:” Latins and Americans are excitable. “The Western Fringe” A few months ago, it was supposed by General Smuts that there might emerge an alliance of powers along the Atlantic fringe of Europe, opposed to a Russian-led continental bloc. The paper supposes that even if such a scheme were necessary or workable, America would have to be associated with it. “The Balance of Payments, II” Not to anticipate, or repeat, but the paper is going to use up a medium-sized forest this month explaining that Britain will have to export vast quantities of goods in the postwar years and conserve imports. “The Approaching Budget” The main interest of the December 31st Exchequer Return is that it shows a flattening of the curve of expenditure, which actually fell by 40 millions in the fourth quarter of 1943 compared with 1942. Expenditure in 1943 was 15.9 million per day, and will peak at 16.5 million, absent inflation. As a rough estimate, Government spending will peak at 6000 million per annum against an estimated national income of 8500 to 9000 “Buoyancy of revenue” is higher than estimated this year, as every year since the war began. The Exchequer is not embarrassed. There is nothing wrong with its “model.” (I have quite picked up this word from Fortune.) It is the fault of the public, for incontinently consuming too much and thus paying too much in taxes. Notes of the Week “From the Dnieper to the Dniester” The Germans now have no choice but to evacuate the Dnieper bend. “The Coal Cut,” of which you cannot but have heard, is excused as a means to build up reserves for the invasion of the Continent. It will be of 10% for industrial users. Domestic users will be restricted during January to 4 cwts in the south and 5 cwts in the North. The Ministry encourages industry to use coke, coal breeze and anthracite dust, until the young recruits in the training centres graduate. “The Biggest Depressed Area” England and Wales lag behind New Zealand and Holland in infant mortality, albeit doing better than Scotland. It is because of poverty and poor housing. American Survey “Misgiving on Thanksgiving” A whimsical wander back to November and forward to now concludes that, due to cost of living (the Department of Agriculture’s index of farm prices is at 116% of parity, while the Department of Labour’s cost-of-living index has gone up 23.4% over the year) and shortage of non-black market turkeys, there is a sensible risk of the domestic front dissolving into inflation, sinking the Administration’s foreign policy and war production alike. American Notes “Crime Against America” is what General Marshall called the threat of a railway strike and a steel stoppage. Mr. William Green, President of the AFL, thought this inflammatory. “Discrimination in War Industry” is becoming an issue. The President’s order to cease discrimination against Negroes has been flat disobeyed by certain southeastern railways. Southwestern Bell Telephone Company has appealed a ruling, arguing that the President’s order was merely a directive, not mandatory. The resulting storm in the “liberal and Negro press” led the President to say that it was indeed mandatory, and applied to sub-contractors as well. The railways are now claiming that the order will imperil the war effort, and have suggested that an order to employ Negro firemen might lead to their pressing “pretensions” to be engineers and conductors, as well. A Gallup Poll shows that public support for an amendment limiting presidents to two terms is over 50% popularity for the first time. A move to draft General MacArthur as GOP primary candidate is underway in Illinois. The World Overseas Latins are excitable. “Sweden’s War Finances.” Neutrality protection looks exactly like making war. High spending, high taxes, high revenues, high debt, inflation around the corner. “Eire and Denmark” Why are the fates of these superficially similar, agrarian states so different. Why are the Danes so much richer? Is it because Ireland’s climate is too good? That Denmark is politically stable? That Denmark has large and successful export industries? On the other hand, while Denmark is in national debt, Eire is not. Three cheers for financial probity! Eire could afford a programme of “agricultural and industrial intensification” without resort to any foreign borrowing. Business Notes “The coming of the New Year has brought no revival in business, so far…” Flight, 13 January 1944 Leader “The most jealously guarded secret in modern aviation history, and at the same time the best known, was suddenly revealed on January 6th.” It turns out, dear Reggie, that Group Captain Frank Whittle, and W. G. Carter, chief designer at Gloster, have been working on a jet-enginedaircraft! I, for one, am shocked. War in the Air The Germans have ceased opposing air raids over Northern France. It is supposed that they have withdrawn their fighters to the Reich. The Russians are not pulling their weight, vis-à-vis bombing the Romanian oil fields. The third imprint of the second edition of Mr. Smith of this paper’s book on jet propulsion is out of print. Nice work, if you can get it! Here and There The industrial research committee of the Federal Bureau of Investigation reports that while in 1930, 422 American firms spent £1.736 million on research and development, by 1938 this had risen to £5.4 million spent by 566 firms. Considering the difference in business climates, this does not strike me as the most useful of comparisons. Why, exactly, is the FBI spending its efforts on this? A précis of a Swedish report on Turkish radio implies that the RAF now has invisible planes, thanks to infra-red, which is the new name for “magic.” The twenty Glenn Martin Mars flying boats are to be extensively modified internally before entering service with the USN. At a cost of £500,000, the mind quails. Fourteenth Air Force, in China, receives all of its supplies via trans-Himalayan flights. The paper is impressed. The third annual conference on “X-Ray Analysis in Industry” is to be held later in the month. “2,200 h.p. Napier: Some Features of a British Engineering Triumph,” You know, if it were a niece of mine whose debute in society were scheduled for the same day as a royal princess, I would have sharp words for those responsible. Napier has a right to be upset. The engine is not new, of course, but the article is a very detailed look-in that no-one will notice or remember, because all eyes are on the new jet turbines. That, unlike the Napier Sabre, has yet to fly in battle in this war. “A Great British Achievement: Jet-Propelled Aircraft HaveBeen Flying Since 1941: British Pioneers Given Due Credit at Last.” It all seems somewhat anti-climactic to me. Though very patriotic! Behind the Lines German fuel exports to Denmark have been cut. A German war commentator depreciates novel secret weapons and tells the world that Germany will have the victory through “total war.” Even a German commentator admits that our bombing offensive is working! German pilots are to be protected from the upsetting smell of lily-of-the-valley and chrysanthemums, and exposed to the soothing effects of garden mint, instead. This, indeed, is the news. “Altitude Sounding” Altitude-sounding rockets might be used to investigate “cosmic rays.” A diagram of such a rocket is included. Though not of the ray-detectors that we will catapult into space at rocket velocities. The Economist, 15 January 1944 Leaders “Church and School” A compromise means that state schools will have some religious instruction. Catholics are opposed. “Trade and Employment” There is nothing incompatible between high imports and full employment, as long as high imports are balanced by high exports. Still, better for all the world to be in balance. For this to be possible, international trade needs to be regulated internationally. Notes of the Week Poles and Russians are excitable. “Farmers in Arms” Farmers are dissatisfied, and hope that prices will be fixed such that even the least efficient farmer has a surplus over (rising) wages. The Paper is not impressed. Does the Skipton byelection foretell the future? The Industrial Association defends itself against Beveridge’s criticisms. There is an incipient water shortage in Britain that occasions ruminations about the state of public works. A German-Swedish trade agreement is under discussion. Ciano’s execution is “nightmarish,” Amery says that the worst part of the famine in India is passed. The West Indies are less worried about being cut off from the mainland by U-boats. (I honestly had not stopped to think about how the submarine campaign must have alarmed islanders about their food supply.) Labour supports milk for children and expectant mothers. The American Communist Party has renounced revolution. American Survey “A Win-the-War Deal” The President’s message to Congress is a bold return to leadership –if carried through with. “Tu Quoque” Mr. Wilkie, who recently criticised British intervention in American affairs, has now been taken to task by Pravda. Wilkie seems wounded. It all comes down to the Polish vote, 5.5 million strong and concentrated in key states, which went 10 to 1 for Roosevelt in 1940. “The Favorite Son Crop:” Warren, Bricker, General MacArthur, Harold Stassen. Apparently this is the fruit of Mr. John D. M. Hamilton’s Anyone-But-Wilkie effort. You will recall that Hamilton was campaign manager to Alf Landon? Governor Dewey? Hello? Shorter Notes: President Roosevelt has appealed for every one except qualified war workers to stay away from the Pacific coast. “The physical capacity of all community facilities is exhausted.” The World Overseas “Saving Canada’s Bacon” Under this year’s agreement, Canada will supply Britain with 450 million pounds of bacon vice 675 million last year. It is suggested that this will cut the British ration from 4 to 3 oz per week, and there is “sharp comment,” for bacon will be taken off the ration card in Canada. The truth is that the coarse grain crop is not likely to repeat the 1943 bumper and hogs must go. “Swiss Agriculture” As elsewhere, the war has brought rationing, stringency, high prices, and odd propaganda and still odder initiatives. The drive to reduce the amount of arable land in permanent pasture from 83% to 54% made progress at first under the impetus of demand for cereals, potatoes, sugar-beet, vegetables, oil-seed and tobacco, but has now stalled. The 1942—3 revised plan calls for intensified production from already-ploughed land instead. The 1943—44 plan has had to admit that Swiss agriculture has reached its limit, held back by shortages of labour. Meat and edible fats production has fallen, and it may be doubted that actual nutritional value production has increased, although bulk certainly has. Germany at War “The Housing Disaster” is real. This seems to be a refutation of Dr. Ley’s recent statement that everything was fine. The Business World “British Cinema Prospects” Cinema stocks have done well, but are rated “speculative." Business Notes “The Gold Cure” Combating inflation with gold sales is working in the Middle East and India. “Miner’s Bonusses” appear to have been under-issued under the current scheme, which somehow contrived to exclude virtually all miners. Hurrah! Coal miners have not been overpaid! “Housing for Pit Recrutis” arguments about whether to put the young pit recruits in hostels or in houses is rather beside the point, which is that housing Housing is short. Whichever method works best in a particular region must be used. Production must not be held up by such matters! “The Clothing Ration” has not been reduced from its current 24 coupons/6 mos in two years. It is a grand achievement. Oh, by the way, it will be continued into peace. This does not seem to me the approved way of writing news stories. Is the news not supposed to go in the first sentence? So much, for the weeklies, save Time, but I fear an overdose of backward sentences, as I am covering Fortune this time around. Enough Luce has been cast over this scene! Fortune, January 1944 “Trials and Errors” This is to be Eliot Janeway's regular column, but no-one told him, and he is off discovering America. Instead, we have the thoughts of Ladd Haystead, normally the paper’s farm columnist. His subject today: political sentiments of Mid-Western farmers! Did you know that Westerners hate Easterners like Easterners hate Englishmen? It is very geopolitical. Other things that they hate include postwar planning, foreign aid, taxes, Social Security, inequitable freight rates and the Administration (which has already written off the farm vote). Since New York bought one third of all war bonds, it follows that all the war wealth has gone East. There’ll be no jobs after the war. All the returning servicemen will hang out in the village square, not able to spend their bonus, because there’ll be no bonus, because the money is all gone. Everyone will be forced out of business by taxes, and a depression is absolutely in the cards. Business will be busted, agriculture will be on a subsistence basis (it can’t go broke, because it’s out of debt). While all of this is going on, Russia, Germany and England will take over the industrial leadership of the world, as our traders will be out-traded at the negotiating table, because they are a bunch of dreamers who have never had to carry a payroll. “We’ll be lucky to keep Stalin from getting the state of Texas.” The synthetic rubber industry has been stabbed in the back. What is the answer? A new generation of politicians who can tell it like it is. Men like Eric Johnston, President of the US Chamber of Commerce, who is said to have the backing of labour. Or Wheeler McMillen. Say, here’s an idea: A Johnston-McMillen ticket! As the European war will be over by the time of the next election, FDR is doomed. After all, he has neglected the Japanese war and been very cutting to MacArthur. As an easterner, FDR doesn’t understand the Japanese, like Far Western men such as Eric Johnston. Meanwhile, the one thing the British understand is a hardboiled negotiating stance. Johnston will be tough with them, not like FDR or especially Wilkie. “That’s what you hear at this time west of the Appalachians.” Says Ladd Haystead. President Eric Johnston. You heard it here, first, Reggie. Business at War “Research is a Business” Specifically, National Research is a business, headed by Richard S. Morse. Morse founded a company dedicated to industrial research just at the time when a group of New England investors led by William Coolidge were looking for new outlets for venture capital. The brand new National Research Corporation gas done various things since, and might do more things later. I am a little perplexed at how this company rates a mention in Fortune, save for the very large amount of money provided it by "venture capitalists" and the novelty of a firm that consists mainly of a laboratory. That said, it is possible that someone knows something. I almost tempted to take this as a stock tip. Almost. “The Lame, the Halt, the Blind” The Lewyt Corporation of Brooklyn, NY, makes sheet metal and electronic devices on contract, using a labour force of disabled people. He also uses various means to promote worker health and reduce absenteeism. The Fortune Survey This month, an attempt to assess the voting preferences of independent voters. Conclusion: independent voters feel complex and divided ways about complex and intractable problems. The future is uncertain. Ask again, later. Ads: Pitney-Bowes says that striking is killing our boys; Jenkins Valves says that not replacing your valves on time is killing our boys. “The Job Before Us” The idea here is to estimate expected demand for various goods in “194Q,” the year after the end of demobilisation and reconversion. Apparently, 194Q is a "model" based on data from 1939 to 1943. The exercise is justified with the example of the Sears catalogue. Using this kind of date, American production at a national income of 192 billion was projected at only 64 billion in consumer goods and 56 billion in war expenditure. On this basis, Sears added books to its catalogues, reasoning that it would be desperate for merchandise to sell, and so it proved. The "194Q" model proposes a national income of 165 billion. From this basis, it can carve up expected expenditure. Notice first that 8 billion is allocated for new home building. To explain: GNP of 194Q is, of course, limited by manpower. We can’t have a higher national income than we can achieve by producing at peak employment. This will be lower lower than it is in 1943, but, obviously, higher than in the slack employment year of 1939! Given that productivity will continue to go up at 2.5%/year, it is projected, we actually get to the 8 billion for housing by backing into it. This is the number required to soak up all of the savings sloshing about due to the high national income. It is higher than the previous total of 4.6 billion in 1925, and constitutes the Producer’s Council’s estimate for peak building. So one of the problems of the 194Q model is that there may not be all of this housing activity to soak up savings. Still, I am gratified that the logic of Fortune's"modeller" converges with mine. There is not much point in cheap housing a la "Cousin H. C." when the issue will be to find investments for savings. The rest of necessary investments will be found in the form of 16 billion in private investment in railways, factories and the like. Now, projecting from 1939, there will be consumer spending of 37 billion on food and other agricultural goods. This suggests that farmers will be working hard and making good money. Thirteen billion on durable consumer goods assumes, as Professor Sumner Slichter puts it, that wartime savings are “cold,” and will not rush into new goods as soon as these come onto the market, so that production will be at historic levels. If not, if savings turn out to be “hot,” and consumers splurge on can-openers and cars, then production will have to be at unprecedented levels or there will be inflation. Now, where will the money go? That is, what will be the share of the national income? Making some assumptions (for example, that the already high profits of 1943 will not be even higher), we get an average annual income up $780 from 1939’s $1410. However, cost of living is up, too. By some alchemy, the author folds the change in cost of living into the calculation to show that the average man will have $350 more to spend or save (that is, "$350" as this would have stretched in 1939, not in 194Q). Farm, professionals and business incomes will be up much more than this. Still, for all the money about, prices must be high enough, and wages low enough, for price signals to work. We shall not all be able to have everything at once. The one worry in all of this is that we do not know how far unemployment can be reduced without causing inflation (again.) There might well be 4 million unemployed in the demobilisation year, less than 2 million in 194Q. So how do we get from 1943 to 194Q? Don’t say that we can’t. That’s just “exogenous pessimism.” Which is not to say that there might be problems. Americans might save too much, because the experience of the Depression made us a “badly scared generation,” or not invest enough, because demand is not there, as see above. But if we demobilise in an orderly fashion, if we tell ourselves that we are a $165 billion nation, we can get there. Fortune is much more optimistic than The Economist. “Shortage of Oil?” Peak oil! America is running out of oil, although this may change as exploration ramps up again with peace. There is also the rest of the world to consider. “Jack and Heintz: More about the “Jahco” way. These are the 12 hour day, 84 hour week guys. So the new business miracle plan is to go in with your employees to soak the army and navy on cost-plus contracts? It could work, I suppose. Aviation, January, 1944 Leslie Nielsen’s editorial for Aviation says, plan for contract termination now. James H. McGraw II's line editorial is missing in action. America at War Germany’s plan to convert from bomber to fighter conversion has failed. One city after another is getting the Hamburg treatment. “Beam of Sunshine Pierces Termination Clouds” Bernard Baruch has been put in charge. Aircraft Design Portfolio No. 4, “The A-20 Havoc.” 22 pages of a very old plane. Willy Ley, “Jet Propulsion: From Fancy to Fact” It’s a fact! Such are the perils of running a monthly. Chester S. Ricker, “Continuous Pouring of Magnesium Castings” is hard. But we do it at Chevrolet. Ellis F. Gardner, “Spotwelding Expedites Lockheed Constellations” Lockheed is now using the method on structural members, is the point. Many many details about where spot welding is used, and where torch welding; about the alloys used, and the increasing thickness allowed in extruded tubes, which provides enough of a flange for a spot welder to get a grip, and more also. One gets rather a sense that much of this is "good enough for government work." Edward M. Greer, “Pressure Control in Aircraft Hydraulic Systems, Part 1”The American hydraulics industry went from low, American pressures to high, British pressures over night, and the number of accessories designed in the last two years to exploit this and ameliorate the problems that it brought in train are staggering. “NACA: The Force Behind Our Aerial Supremacy” Ralph H. Rudd, “These Horizontal Jigs Boost Aircraft Panel Fabrication,” Loren F. Dorman, “Aircraft Production Analysis Key to Assembly Line Efficiency, Part II.” “Refrigerated Welding tips Save Time and Money,” When I saw this title, I thought, at first, "Ah hah, more use for industrial refrigeration. Maybe we need to put more family money in there." Then it turned out that this is actually a refrigerated (cooled) unit. Coolant circulates through the tip. Now, this is remarkable. I was in my worldly-wise thirties when the grizzled elders of this industry first made aircraft with saws and emery boards, and now they are wielding devices that would shame a science-pulp writer and his "blasters." (What can I say? Your younger son's reading materials surround me!) That said, I feel as though my enthusiasms are in danger of taking me for a ride, rather like our local business council, dropping money at Fortune's elevated rates to trumpet to the nation the triumph of landing a factory for record-keeping cards in San Jose! H. L. Federman, “How Tax Policies Affect Our Industry’s Future.” “Profitless prosperity”seems to be the point, and the generous dividends of last month some fever vision of a land beyond the sea of dreams. Carl E. Swanson, “Supercharged Ignition Cures ‘Rough Engine’” Northwestern Airlines has fixed the problem of rough DC-3 engines by adding a supercharging harness to prevent moisture buildup and stuff. It is curious that one never hears about problems such as these until they are solved. Unless one has had a few occasions to fly on a DC-3. Aviation wants you to know that the dark-skinned men working on P-40s here are "heavily-tanned." Why else would they look like that? In this light, I mention that "Mrs. J. C." worked all the cunning of the female of the species to secure Wong Lee's son ambition last month. I do not imagine that he will ever be more than a sublieutenant of the naval reserve ("Lieutenant, j. g." in Americanese), but I expect that in the long run, wartime command of a United States naval craft will count for far more than his substantive rank. R. Dixon Speas, et al. “Cruise Control for Flying Efficiency” is part vi of “Current problems” –I think. Anyway, here is yet another discussion of some form of automatic control in the cockpit. The American public seems quite taken with "Elmer the autopilot." “Sideslips” is upset that Ford and Kaiser have been allowed to boast about their production when other firms aren’t allowed to seek publicity about their in fact much better production records. Aviation News Bomb tonnage on Germany up 30%; Russia may join the air attack on Germany. The Martin Mars has finished its m ission to Brazil, which was to do one useful thing to justify their cost before the end of the war. Blaine Stubblefield just wants us to know that while bombing enemy railroads is useless,Brigadier General Johnson, who led the attack on Ploesti is a hero. A B-24 just made the Atlantic run in 11h 35min. The new Wright Cyclone is in service. November’s aircraft production was a record 8,789, including 1000 bombers. Some P-47s now have water injection in their engines. Oh. Did I somehow, unavoidably, downplay the fact that American air production fell 211 aircraft short of the 9000 plane revised target? Perhaps that is because the story was buried in Aviation, too. As an American propagandist, I would certainly not be ashamed at having built 1000 heavy bombers in a month. I am sure that the British figure is nowhere near that high. I would be worried about the loss rate. And I am. Sometimes, cynicism can be a defence, Reggie. While I do not despair, as I have at some points in this long war, I frankly do not see a way out of this war that does not end in some kind of compromise with Berlin and Tokyo. What of poor China, then? Instead of being coerced into moving more poor refugees into America, perhaps we should get back into the business in our own right? Ah, well, a toast to the Navy, Army, and Air Force. that they achieve a miracle on the coast of Europe this summer, and bring "194Q" to this whole, suffering nworld. *Scraped from Food.com

How could this possibly go wrong?

"Ah, Pluto. Please, sit down." The Big Boss moves to one side, closes the office door. The big boss has an office! Not like Pluto's stupid cubicle. The Big Boss sits down across the big desk from Pluto. "Pluto," the Big Boss says, in his deep, concerned voice that isn't at all like the voice he uses when he's being reamed out by Corporate on the weekly conference call, "These conversations are never easy." Oh God, Pluto thinks. I'm being laid off. How many jobs are there out there for an eighty year old planet? "Relax, Pluto. You're a good worker. We're not laying you off." Pluto wants to sag with relief. But it's too early for that. The other shoe is bound to drop, or the planet wouldn't be here. "Sales are down. We've got to make economies," the Big Boss says, with a practiced ease. "Now, I think you'll like the new dwarf planet job category we've come up with for you. Sure, there's a pay cut involved, but you move down from lowest rank in the current structure to highest rank in the new one. That guarantees your hours." Pluto just stares at the Big Boss. Cut in pay? Are you kidding me? Pluto couldn't afford Pluto's life right now! And then it sinks in that without planetary benefits, 'keeping your hours' would probably mean working more. The rest of the interview goes in a blur. Pluto just wants to get out of there, to have a drink, to throw up, to call his Mommy and cry. And when the newly minted dwarf planet is finally released, it is to swagger through the cubicle farm, an angry, defiant glare in its Hadelogical eyes, as if to say to the planets at their workstations, "You think you're safe? None of you are safe! You're counting the days until the Sun goes Red Giant, thinking that you're going to be set free into rogue planetary-retirement before the day comes when it's your turn. Well, you better hope that the organisation makes it that long, or you're all going down, just like me. Better hope your pension lasts."

Notice we already have autonomous deadly-force area denial weapons. They're called "mines." (Or mantraps, to go a little more traditional.) The law is ...not supportive of the use of mines and mantraps for trespassing. Here's the UN on the subject. Not also As has been pointed out, the use of deadly force against trespassers hinges on the personal threat, not the right to prevent trespassing, and thus deadly force is out of the question if the operator of the autonomous weapon is not endangered. Note also McComb vs. Connaghan, which established the rather obvious point that such devices are fire hazards, as firefighters will, understandably, not enter a property protected by active mantraps! Rampaging supervillains is another matter, of course.

Once upon a time, a grocery chain decided that it had had enough with all of that working out exchange rates and bothering about the US-Canadian border. "Canada is run by oligopolies," it decided. "Eventually, one of them will buy our Canadian division, because that is the way that Canadians do things, the silly people. In the mean time, we can save muchos dineros by not spending on frivolities such as upgraded IT that the new owners will just have to tear out and replace with their stuff anyway!" And, lo, so it came to pass. And the new owners said, "Well, between the time when we actually integrate our IT across our new division, we should look into this whole 'tap to pay' thing, because the EFT readers at store-level are on their last legs anyway, so it will get us extra custom without really costing us anything." One little boy said, "But what if there are problems with backwards compatibility with the twenty-year-old servers, like there are every time we have this brainstorm?" Fortunately, a sharp glance from the CEO proved sufficient to silence the little boy, who was well aware of what Lovecraftian horrors await behind codewords like "we wish him luck in his next assignment," orm unspeakable horror to end all unspeakable horrors, "resigned to spend more time with his family." Surprisingly enough, however, the little boy was right. There were backwards compatibility issues. Specifically, unless all tills around the store were manually signed off before 'store close,' and then left signed off for an hour afterwards, the entire store EFT payment system would crash at some point the next day, rendering the store "cash only" until the next business day. Because, you know, that is a totally acceptable consequence for falling short of a no-fault process. On a personal note, I am very grateful that I have not crashed the store since we discovered the fault. The one time I did it before that was fun, though.

Postblogging December 1943, II: Towards A Cold War Wing Commander R__. C__., RCAFVR, O.C.L__. House, Isle of Axholme, Lincolnshire, U. K. My Dear Sir: Father of my Beloved: I take up the brush in my feminine hand on no occasion of sad news, but rather because fortunate winds are blowing. That friend of whom you have been previously advised, had an acrimonious dispute with his employer over a New Year's engagement. It was the breaking point in their relationship, and he is now definitive that he wants out of his contract. He appealed to us, as we were warned he might, on the basis of blood and obligation incurred so many years ago. Because our friend is so much in the public eye, he can scarcely be seen visiting lawyers, or even have lawyers visit his hotel room. Your beloved cousin, my Uncle, has gone East to arrange meetings with H. C.'s lawyers and plot our next step, but it will take some time. Uncle remains intent on resuming his correspondence in February, naturally enough. Indeed, he is attempting to draw our friend into his beloved electrical engineering investment scheme, and may have more news on this in his next. Let me also assure you that James and I are also well. Your wife may have informed you that she summoned Judith back from Pasadena instant upon her arrival in Santa Clara, and she certainly did not leave California until I was under a watchful matron's eye. It seems like rather a fuss to me, but she and Judith are so stern, and so motherly, that I cannot bear to defy them. Nevertheless, Judith and I did accompany James on his trip to Tacoma, which, by the way, went very well indeed. I shall append an amusing story about it once I have finished doing secretary's service to Uncle. We do, however, have news that may yet cast a shadow over your heart if the war winds on too long. While James is here on the West Coast for the duration of his assignment only, we have resolved that I will not be crossing the Atlantic again this war, and we have begun to prepare a residence en famille. The old house, unfortunately, is far beyond the available resources of material and labour. Moreover, even if we could repair it, it would only distress Great-Uncle's last days. Fortunately, the old coach-house will do quite well enough for three (for now), at least once the stables have been converted into something more domestic. The only drawback is that the work is quite visible from the road. The locals are understandably curious about what the owners of 'Arcadia' intend, and less understandably opinionated about how matters should proceed. One of my contractors has amused himself by setting up a hand-lettered "Suggestion Box" at the gate. Oh, the rural round.... One final familial note. Let me see: I need a coining from Uncle's rather threadbare pseudonym system. Will it suffice to say that Miss "V.C." is the daughter of Mr. "N.C." of Chicago for you to know a young lady whom you last saw in pigtails? Well, pigtails no longer, and her father is wide awake to the implications of the high rejection rate of his product by the Army. From Miss Ewe's Holiday Chicago may continue to be windy and broad-shouldered, but this is one branch of butchering-to-the-world that is well past time to be retired into a shadowy investment trust. So now he reconsiders his social-climbing choice not to send his daughter to the Poor Clares, and I have the rather large charge of teaching her proper literary accomplishments. This is rather much to pack into a senior year, but the thought is that we might enroll her in Stanford, as I shall be Santa Clara for at least another year, war or no war. The agreement is that Miss V. C. will be allowed to believe that she is being prepared for missionary work unless and until she deduces the family secrets for herself. Now, as I have mentioned, filial duty requires that I continue to prosecute Uncle's campaign to persuade the Earl, through you, that it would be a mistake to sink money into poor Cousin H. C.'s steel plant and "prefabricated house" schemes. Aviation, December 1943 Briefing for October [That's what it says] The Summary is not needed here, but the “Down the Years in AVIATION’s log reports that back in 1938, the Department of Commerce was looking at a $700 plane. The idea of a cheap plane is news to me, and alarming. Should aeroplanes really be marketed like automobiles? An Alcoa ad asks, “How Good is that Spot Weld?” Destructive Metallographic testing is destructive, but Radiographic testing is not. Employ both methods, therefore, to establish quality …. And then occasional radiographic testing afterwards. RCA ad: “Electronics is the so-called “dream science of tomorrow.’”The point seems to be that RCA is already doing the 'dream science of tomorrow.' Has any living mouth ever uttered a phrase such as 'dream science of tomorrow' without irony? Line Editorial: “Free Enterprise: The Opportunity and Obligation to Compete” James H. Mr. McGraw, Jr. thinks that in the real, as opposed to ideal world, competition cannot be perfect. Various factors put severe limits on the price sensitivity that perfect competition would require. Only the most extreme price sensitivity could prevent booms and depressions, and therefore we cannot count on competition alone to cure depressions, but, still, we must stand for as much competition as we can have, including the annoyances of anti-trust legislation. At which point the son of the man who founded the company finally finds his point, which is that unions are getting too powerful. Aviation Editorial: “’44 Musts for ’54 Markets” What will the industry look like in 1954? It certainly won’t compete with steel or food, but it will be big, depending on how the private airplane works out. Uncle thinks that investing in aeroplanes in 1946 would be akin to investing in shipbuilding in 1919. Twenty years of peace will not be good for the aviation sector! America At War 15th AF now attacking Germany from the south. In a recent month, 20,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Germany by the Allies, and 1,387 German fighters were shot down. Fighter escort is increasing in strength, and the Army Air Force no longer has any intention (if it ever did) of fighting the B-17s and B-24s through without escort. . . . What will happen in this respect when the new Boeing B-29 goes into action—in whatever theatre it moves first—remains to be seen.” So subtle is the scholarly pen that uses a parenthetical to change the past! Here at home, the main thing is the industry’s 10% increase in production. “Nearly” everyone is betting on production hitting 9000 per month “before this year ends” and some will even go so far as the planned rate of 10,000. Donald Nelson says that the rapid rise from the old plateau of 7000 has been a great relief, and is due to increasing efficiency and standardisation of models. On the Pacific front, the carrier force is “nearly as large as the battleship force,” which you can infer, the paper says, from memory or from old newspapers. The number of fleet carriers “can” be doubled in 1944, and the number of auxiliaries tripled, while the new 45,000 ton carriers will appear in 194. E. E. Lothrop and John Foster, Jr. “Let’s be Practiical about Postwar Plane Markets.” The demand will be at best a third of current levels. As Uncle says. Agnew E. Larsen and Joseph S. Pecker, “What is the Helicopter’s True Commercial Future?” It will be a long time before people are commuting by helicopter, and, when they are, they will be built by automotive manufacturers, not aircraft. Myles V. Cave, “Sighted Wreck, Repaired Same,” a member of a “fourth echelon” repair team, Cave’s team wanders rural England repairing American planes where they crash land. Then they make time with the Doughnut Dollies. There are going to be a few angry scissors wielded on this photo Stateside!. “They’re Trained to Fix it Under Fire." And in the Forest of Arden . . . James Montagnes, “Crew Competition Speeds Maintenance.” It’s what the RCAF does. Included is a photo of a “circular log-book desk.” Girls sit at the centre and ‘data’ is handed in from outside. Edward G. Thorp, “Autopilot Gives Instant Control,” I have prepared a longer summary of this article for James, but here is a Kodak of the artwork. I know that when I first heard "Minneapolis-Honeywell autopilot," I envisaged something not too far different from the cheery robot of the advertisements, but it turns out to be quite an elaborate device spread all through the aircraft. “Latest Machine Tools” Gigantic machine tools! Because boys will be boys. "Side Slips," Aviation's humour column, has a story about those charming ladies who are taking so many of the airline jobs nowadays. Normally, they’re pretty reliable, but one day one of these lovelies misses an important meeting. Why? Her supervisor asks the next day. “Had a date,” was the calm reply. “And with men as scarce as they are, a gal who wants to get married finds any date a lot more important than a dull old meeting.” I am not sure that she does our sex any credit, but the young lady in this story is not alone in her sentiments. All the boys overseas are to be snapped up by Doughnut Dollies, of course. Or, worse, Englishwomen! Aviation News Allied strategic bombing gets ever heavier versus Germany, with 2000 planes sometimes seen in a day. The Me 410 is the German answer to the Mosquito. The AAF is getting ever more independent. “Air superiority is the first requirement” of overseas operations. Navy Carrier Force Bigger, More Coming. The paper can’t help quoting “some” whothink that the carrier will turn out to be a “one war weapon.” “West Coast Manpower Utilization Improves, But Materials Still Exceed Personnel” This is pursuant to ongoing discussion of the 9000 a/c interim target. One study shows that output is up 4,360 percent in West Coast plants, but labour is up only 933.%. On the other hand, North American Aviation has been refused permission to hire another 10,000 hands. The 37,000 available would be enough if they were just used more efficiently, says C. E. Wilson, chairman of the Aircraft Production Board of the WPB. Apparently, NAA was denounced by citizens of Dallas. I was so appalled at this that I threw the paper out the window and it was caught by a shipfitter in the middle of his shift down at the Oakland yards. Then he went back to refinishing the coach-house stable. “Branch Stores, Incentive Pay Applied to West Coast Manpower Problem.” A recent house-to-housecanvassing campaign culminated with an Army-sponsored rally brought 40,000 Washingtonians to a job fair at the University of Washington Stadium. It sounds as though a grand time was had by all, but Boeing was able to recruit only 2700 of 9000 required in the last six week period. The “branches” are of Pacific National Bank and a Seattle department store, set up inside of Boeing plants to ease the living burden on employees. This actually makes sense. Not all of the absenteeim at the yards is men slipping out to work on the black market. Some of it reflects the near impossibility of getting domestic things done. Canvassing is also being tried in LA, and “two thirds” of the 50,000 boys who did summer work are to be retained on special programmes scheduling school work around part-time shifts. “Boeing of Canada Retools," it will make Ansons as Mosquito trainers. To meet the volume of work, wing assemblies are being outsourced to Portland, Oregon and Nelson, B.C. facilities. I note the latter because I well remember that little town from our honeymoon. “New Montreal-Britain record:” is reported by TCA 11hr, 56min, by a Lancaster transport of that airline. Credit to 1000aircraftphotos.com Aviation Manufacturing “Record 8,362 Planes Made in October, New High in Heavy Bombers” “Transport Conversions Deemed Too Expensive.” B-17s and B-24s are not going to be converted into commercial transports, relieving would-be manufacturers of postwar airliners. Raymond Hoadley, “Aviation Finance,” My, Goodness. A lot of money is flowing into aviation firm’s coffers. Boeing has paid out $1 dividends twice this year! Bell did a ten percent (1 share for every ten held), and even hardly-worth mentioning Beech did a $1 dividend. “McGraw-Hill presents the 23 editors of Aviation, Air Transport, and Aviation News.” I find it amazing that Aviation has a single editor, but, in fact, the number is 23. Fortune, December 1943 The cover illustration features Gothic angels to the fifteenth century design of German social revolutionary Tilman Riemenschneider, while the globe is the latest icosahedron globe projection by economics Professor Emeritus Irving Fisher of Yale. Inventor of the “Index Visible,” which made him a fortune, and founder of the American Eugenics Society, he also does geography! He is a modern Renaissance man, with interests in taxation, physical culture, and prohibition. The Fortune Survey “By the end of 1943, Americans will have saved the tidy sum of $84 billion.” It will be in the form of bonds and bank savings, but also in the form of paid-off debts, family and other private debts included. So what kind of desires has this money built for future living? The paper decides to ask: But first, consumer confidence : Do you feel.. Oct 35 April 35 July 38 May 39 Feb 41 Feb 42 Jan 43 Dec 43 Better off 36.6 28.2 22.4 32 37.5 30.9 51,8 12.6 Same 30.3 34.7 32 37 45 46.9 35.1 36.8 Worse off 30.2 34.2 43.4 28.7 14.9 21.3 12.3 49.6 People are very negative this Christmas. So what are they going to buy? The paper asks, what are you going to buy first. Cars rank highest, at 21% overall, but fully 13% of Americans are going to buy themselves homes. “A step that, if carried out in a short period, would revolutionise our living.” The paper explains. If 13.3% of families did build, this would lead to the construction of 4.7 million units, but the highest annual housing construction number in the US was 937,000, in 1925. The home-construction industry currently hopes, as opposed to expects, to build 500,000 housing units (so including suites in apartment buildings and hotels) a year after the war. This would meet the rate of increase in families, which is half a million per year. I do not have to pull out my slide rule to calculate a staggering deficit of completed homes, unless the construction rate increases markedly. This is the vision that leads dear "Cousin H. C." to pursue his vision of the prefabricated home. Uncle just observes that unemployment has idled many men who could be building homes. Clearly this is a serious matter if people's opinions at all reflect concrete intentions. So the poll’s compiler points the high place of other home furnishings on the list as indicating a "domestic inclination." Even 6% of Coloureds expect to buy refrigerators, and 1.4% of the high income group propose to buy air conditioning. I suppose that air conditioning will rapidly become the new way to be the envy of the neighbourhood. It is also pointed out that extending the poll results to the whole country on the basis of “first choice” sales and using 1941 prices, total spending is “only” 28 billion out of the $83 billion "out there." House 21 billion Car 6 billion Refrigerator 468 million Airplane 232 million Boat 158 million Washing Machine 141 million Air Conditioning 53 million Fur coat 53 million Clothes 30 million Radio, Phonograph, And stereo 20 million Stove 117 millioin The concern is suggested by the prominence of fur coats on the list. This is a “first off the top of my head” list, and people might rethink so large an investment as a house in the cold light of morning. Fortune is also gloomy about people being gloomy. The poll indicates a large growth in the sense of hardship over the year. If people are anxious about victory, or their jobs, or the future more generally, surely they will save rather than spend? "Half-smile wistfully for Daddy, everyone! Cheese!" “The Farm Column” As late as 1939, Glenn E. Rogers, Third Vice President of Metropolitan Life, was called America’s largest farmer, with nearly 2 million acres of America’s best farmland worth $120 million under his care. But in the first nine months of 1942, Metropolitan’s farm sales have jumped to 6.6 million, to $15.6 million in the first nine months of 1943, leaving only $25 million foreclosed farms on the firm’s books. Less than a quarter of the 10,399 foreclosures of the Depression remain on the books. East of the Mississippi and on the West Coast, none do. It is the Missouri Valley that remains the laggard. Will this avalanche into a speculative boom? Possibly. It depends. “Business At War” The Building Trades are coordinating in Washington. Discouraged by the current “private depression,” they are excited about postwar prospects, figuring that $8 billion will be spent on residential construction in the first postwar year, $12 billion in the second, and $18 Billion in the third. Two-thirds of new housing will be in the $3000-$6000 class, The Association will cut costs on labour to encourage this buying group and through standardisation. The Association seems pessimistic about the amount of money available to fund house building, though of course much depends on the way that this finance is mobilised. “Trials and Errors” Is the President isolated by Harry Hopkins, who has pushed the Adminsitration to the right, or by Wallace, who pushes it to the left? Or by both? What is his guiding principle? The New Deal? Hopkins torpedoes that. As bad as times are, worse is to come, due to the “Balkanization that threatens the U.S” For there is a terrible "Negro crisis" brewing in this country. (Other kinds of Coloured folk will apparently continue to know their place.) The Negroes are angry with Roosevelt, and so are the labour unions, and since they are against each other, the President is haqpless! Meanwhile, out on the Pacific Coast, everyone is pro-Russian, whilst in the Mid-West, the President is losing the all-important Polish vote. He is losing the coal miners, and those who oppose the coal miners even faster! All in all, the President is weak and rudderless, and the country is doomed. Signed, Eliot Janeway. I have to admit that I giggled when"the West" was pronounced to be monolithicallly pro-Russian. “Britain’s Balance Sheet” Unlike the United States, which has made good its war production from unemployed labour and machinery, Britain has had to redirect existing capacity. Last year, the national income was 5.7 billion. Consimers spent 2.79, the government 3.47. The difference was made up by depreciation and by borrowing, with a deficit of 560 million. Now, it is unlikely that Britain will ever be able to produce as much as it did last year. Hours will have to fall from the current 52 hours/week currently, and at least some of those fighting or employed will not seek employment after the war. Technological advances will have increased output per head by 10 to 12%, and taking this into account, the postwar target should be a national income of 5.2 billion. How is this to be earned? Industry must transition to peacetime production. On the basis of prewar trends, that production will have to go to exports, which will have to be up to 33% greater than prewar due to liquidation of foreign holdings. This is too high: there must be artificial curtailment of domestic demand, so that imports do not rise too high. The Economist distributes the 5.2 billion as follows: 920 million to the Government, in very large share for national security but also social assistance; 3.464 to consumers, just equal to 1938, 816 million to liquidate wartime debt. This looks good for the British consumer, but the figure is overall, and the needs of reconstruction are massive. And imports. The self-sufficiency school wants to cut back, but a highly conservative long-pull estimate is 750 million in imports, far below 1938 –and far below the 950 million required for full employment. To cover so much in the way of imports, exports must rise 50 percent over 1936. The paper makes it sound as though this is an unlikely achievement. I hope for the sake of our future that it is too pessimistic. “That Refrigeration Boom” The prewar market was large, and the thought is that there is a backlog in demand. But the postwar market may be igger for other reasons. For while industry insiders are talking about getting back to the 4 million units sold in 1941 for $600 million retail, only 28 million of 40 million housing units in the country are wired for electricity and can so take refrigerators, while only 18 to 19 million are currently equipped with refrigerators. So other insiders think that saturation may reach 100%, that is, that all housing units will be electrified in a surprisingly short time, and a refrigerator will be as universal a fixture as an indoor convenience is rapidly becoming. And then there is the prospect of 2 refrigerators in every household! In short, if turnover continues to be every five years or so, the future market may be four times the size of the prewar. Manfacturers are concerned that they may miss out on sales, due to a resumption of the "refrigerator wars" between the through distributorships and the department stores, which have a powerful tool in the form of their mail-order catalogues. Meanwhile, Willard Morrison, the inventor behind the “DeepFreeze” line is getting into delivered frozen pre-prepared foods, which he thinks could be the Next Big Thing. There is considerable evidence that others agree with him, with Sears, Roebuck and others trying to get into the business., while restaurant chains might get into the act as well, distributing some of their signature specialties from central kitchens. All of this will require great care to maintain the cold-chain, and here is more good news for manufacturers, as currently much of this is done by ice. The future clearly belongs to "reefer" trucks and trailers with powered refrigerators And then there is air conditioning. It was a bust prewar, but some households bought, and it might well make a comeback postwar. Uncle notices rather vague talk of combined heating and cooling units, and the market opportunity for them in large hotels. He adds, "department stores" and "office buildings." James, meanwhile, points out that an entire number of his touchstone "Principles of Automatic Control" series from The Engineer was devoted to temperature control. In short, when a modern version of Macy's is thrown up, it will likely have a furnace and massive rooftop air condiitioners, and these will be connected by the sort of devices that Honeywell is putting into aeroplanes. It is a fairly precious form of electrical engineering, but goes to Uncle's stated preference for investing in the kind of gadget that goes into everything,. “A Fleeting Opportunity” Air Chief Marshal Harris of Bomber Command, and General Anderson of 8th Air Force agree that there is a fleeting opportunity to make the invasion a walkover by strategic bombardment. Harris talks in terms of enough bombers to put up a thousand plane force 10 nights per month, and 8th wants to achieve the same strength. There are only 40 industrial centres in Germany worthy of strategic bombing. Once they are all obliterated, the production war is effectively over. Hamburg has been done, and the Battle of the Ruhr has shut Essen down. The next, logical step is Berlin. It is calculated that 15,000 tons of bombs are needed to eliminate Hamburg. So far, 8000 tons have been dropped there; and 4000 against a like total for Berlin. We have a long way to go. Will our forces be enough? Will the higher command allow the air forces the freedom to wage this great strategic bombardment on their own terms? And now for a British-eye view of events this tumultous month. The Economist 4 December 1943 Leaders “Out of Touch?” The Government might be out of touch. “UNRRA Decides,” Something about postwar reconstruction and Germany’s part in it. Will Germany re-industrialise, or will its neighbours be encouraged to take over its place? “Special Areas?” The problems of the Special Areas may reassert themselves after the war. This would be a pity, as they have skilled labour and coal. But perhaps they have to get away from heavy industry and move towards “lighter” and “consumer” manufacture? Or coal-chemical? Or agriculture, focussing on “protective” foods? “The Great Migration” has been set loose in Europe by the war. It will be an effort for the UNRRA to put the people somewhere that they will want to stay. Notes for the Week “Three Power Meeting” focussed on the Pacific; “The Mosley Debate,” the paper supports the decision to release Oswald Mosley, now being debated; “Advance in Italy,” is slow because the creeks have risen and the mountains are unexpectedly mountainous. “Slow Motion,” the paper is concerned that there is not enough action on the Russian front. “Target Berlin:” 10,000 tons have now been dropped on the target. But it is equal in size to Greater London, with only two-thirds of the population. It will take a great deal more than 10,000 tons of bombs to level it, compared with Hamburg. “The Mnister of Production,” and “Hush, Hush;” the question of how full employment was not achieved in the prewar period (“in 1939”), and might be achieved in the future under the Beveridge report is contentious in various ways, the paper reports. The Latins, as Uncle would say, are excitable; “Freedom to Starve;” Austrian émigré socialists are in a tizzy. Apparently there has been a defeatist/treasonous revival of interest in either or both of ‘Greater Germany’ and a ‘Danubian Empire.’Socialists advance dismiss the idea of a lack of Austrian vitality. But is this fair? Actually living in the Vienna in 1938, one got every impression of “lack of vitality:” unemployment, under-nourishment, an even more-rapidly falling birth rate than everywhere else. Will Austrian freedom mean freedom to starve? The future Austria must live under a larger economic framework, whatever the socialists say. “New Measures for Mining,” there will be conscription by ballot, but this is just an admission of failure. What would solve the problem? Owners: a subsidy by effort, not production, so that the less economical pits will not be penalised for staying open under present conditions. Miners think that higher wages will remedy things, but this is regrettably impossible, as all workers would then want higher wages, and there would be inflation. “Higher Milk Prices,” Dairy farmer are to be rewarded for their hard work with higher prices, part of which will pay the labour that works for them. “Portuguese Islands,” and “Exports” both concern our social triumph. Now that we are winning, General Salazar has condescended to be seen in public with us. It seems perverse that we had to be winning the war before we got the bases that would have helped us win them. “American Survey” “Subsidies and Taxes” The paper is very jealous of our American holidays, muttering of a “pre-Christmas spending spree of breath-taking proportions." This in respect to the lead item, covering Morgenthau’s attempts to get his budget through the House. The House refuses to take it seriously, and talks about the agricultural subsidies as a giant slush fund. Much of the agitation reflects, the paper thinks, jealousy on the part of farmers directed at the higher incomes of labour. The Mineworkers’ successes are singled out; but the paper goes on to add that the main victims of price increases will certainly not be farmers or labour, but rather upon fixed incomes. In short, because some pensioners and also the coupon-clipping rich will suffer, the miners cannot be allowed a pay raise. “Hard Knocks for the Army” I must say that I feel rather badly for General Patton, who has had to keep up the side, with all the braggadocio which the army seems to expect of its generals. The paper agrees; everyone agrees. The issue now is the “Army authorities” who tried to deny the incident in the first place. There is also talk of the wasteful drilling of oil wells in the far Yukon. “Petrol Civilisation” A nice segue to the the paper being alarmed by waning American oil reserves and looking to the Truman Committee looking to the Middle East. The dwindling away of American petroleum also now concerns Mr. Ickes. “Canada’s Empty Spaces” Are nowhere near so vast as is supposed. The country will graciously take skilled workers, though. “Hungarian Policy” Is to loot the Jews to pay off the gentry. “Irish Retrospective,” An economist who lectures at Dublin is quoted to the effect that all of Ireland’s troubles are down to the potato, which first made its labour “disgracefully” cheap, and then failed, leading to all those deaths, evictions and emigrations. The little potato is an unmitigated evil, although I have proclaimed a truce for the duration with its delicious, French-fried golden specks of starch. “Germany at War” the old apprenticeship system is breaking down, as young people can get on in the factories directly. The Party seeks to reinstitute proper discipline. Even in Germany, the younger generation lacks all decorum! I shall have to twit Uncle about this. The Business World “The Dollar Problem –II” Is that the dollar is too strong and the pound is too weak. The Economist, 11 December 1943 Leaders “Power and Peace” Something about the postwar settlement? My eyes quite glazed over when the illustrious name of General Smuts was raised. “First Come, First Served?” Perhaps some part of capital reconstruction will be put off to meet consumer demand for “clothing, shelter and maintenance?” The paper disagrees, seeing little need of such fripperies. Well, we of the weaker sex find this cold comfort, as, naked and homeless, we march to shining factories to make a better future. Like a dog to a bone, the paper returns to the same subject with “Consumption and Investment,” invoking the name of Lord Keyens on the proper balance of consumption and investment. This seems to me like the ‘supply and demand’ upon which The Engineer likes to dilate, Having met both, I would take Mr. Keynes over The Engineer in a heartbeat. Notes of the Week “The Turks in Conference” Uncle made a joke to the effect that the Turks have stopped our breath with their “Stay out of World War II” mazurka. The Economist, as economists will, keeps looking at its watch and wondering when it will be over. That’s not the point! I nudge the paper, hard. Settle down and enjoy the performance. We then segue to Persia, as it is right next door, and Russia and Britain are having a spat. I hope there shan’t be tears, and thank the heavens that Fat Chow has reached Istanbul. Unfortunately, for us, Fat Chow now knows that he will be allowed to marry my sister when he returns to Hongkong, and he is full of fire. his new friends have opportuned him with the prospect of great things out of a visit to Berlin, and even if they labour under misapprehensions about Fat Chow, they are not wrong about this. Fat Chow has passed his package on to courier and agreed to go through with the invitation. My heart is in my throat. “Policy for Agriculture.” Labour has intimated a policy that might lead to higher wages for farm labour. The paper is appalled, as this would lead to higher food prices, and so what the poor, naïve labourers think would be good for them would actually be bad! My slide rule is not up to the task of determining whether low food prices make for disgracefully low labour prices in degenerate Ireland, or competition and progress in old Manchester. Perhaps both. It has taken some distance to help me appreciate how obsessed Britons are becoming with potatoes. “Italian sideshow:” if we are not take Rome by the time that the spring fashions are released, attention will turn to Paris, by way of beachwear. I know, Father, I am in danger of only amusing myself! Speaking of the excitable set, Norwegians and Yugoslavs are &tc. American Survey “Industrial Incentives –Two Models” by Our Correspondent in Ohio. Two Cleveland firms offer very different models. The Heintzs offer high bonuses to executives and high wages to labour. Lincoln Electric, by contrast, offers bonuses to labour as high, or even higher, than their wages. Mr. Lincoln is now publicly defying the Navy Board’s demand that he return $3.25 million of his 1942 corporate profits of nearly $5 million on the grounds that they have gone out as bonuses, whereas Heintzs' is in the pink, as their money has gone out as wages, much of it for overtime (84 hours a week being the standard!), but also as a dizzying array of “benefits” ranging from health insurance to piped-in music in the plant to pensions to steam bathes. I asked aloud how one could work so many hours and the fellow painting the ceiling pointed out that right at that moment he was well into his fourth hour of overtime for the week at the Richmond Yards. Only someone as cynical as Uncle would suspect that the Heintzes are padding their cost-plus contracts by neglecting to check the time cards. I wish that I had remembered to clip the ad in Fortune that announced the discrete services of a firm in Philadelphia experienced in the matter of arranging the immediate private sale of war-work firms ahead of the looming peace. “Down on the Farm” Farm incomes have risen very quickly in the last two years, from $761 in 1941 to 1320 last year, perhaps to reach $1500 this year. Distribution has become less unequal, although the upper 10% receives 37% of all income. “Much” of the increase has been eaten up by the increase in the cost of living. I quote, because the estimated increase in living costs over the same period is from $823 to $981, and this seems an odd definition of "most." Poorer farmers are living better than ever, because they could never afford the standard of living permitted by current rationing before. Richer farmers are feeling the effects of rationing and shortages, and instead saving. Farm debt declined in 1941 by 1.6%, in 1943 by 5.4%, and in 1943 by 10%(!) “Nevertheless, black spots remain.” Farm homes are in poor shape and are not being maintained, the provision of medical care and rural education have declined due to call-ups, tyre and gas rationing have hit home, farmers are still not enrolled in the social security retirement scheme. It is supposed that with all of these grievances, farmers will go back to the GOP. “The Soldier’s Vote” The Senate has set aside a bill that would permit a single Federal ballot for absentee servicemen, merchant sailors and the like. That is, it will be the responsibility of the states, which are not expected to be able to organise a worldwide ballot. The paper manages to notice that if states administer their own ballots, Jim Crow will be extended to Coloured soldiers. It does not appear to notice that the opposite is true! “Appears,” I think, will be the focus. “Inflation in Eire?” The cost of living has risen 64%, the amount of money in circulated from 18 to 32 million, and bank deposits from 119 to 162. This does not mean, says Our Correspondent in Dublin, that there has been inflation. The national income has risen from 160 to 200 million since 1939, wages have increased 20%, but “there has been no vast expansion of working class incomes such as has taken place in Great Britain.” In fact, by attempting to control prices, profits and wages, much of the money seems to have been kept where it is meant to be, in the bank and Post Office accounts of tenants and landlords. No doubt with this sensible policy, the runt of our old archipelago home will soon catch up with the pick of the litter(?) (My dictionary says that I just missed a chance to drop “pelagic” into the conversation!) “Latin American Coffee” Due to something about trade balances, America will have to continue to import very large quantities of coffee from the Latins. Now there I go, writing “have to,” and dissolving into helpless laughter at the paper’s so missing the point. Judith and the painter are looking at me strangely. The paper requires some straightening out about Americans and coffee! “American Banking in Wartime” Apparently, more people have gotten out of debt, and more people have gone into debt than at any other time in the history of the Republic. I have no head for figures, but is that not how it must work? Anyway, money in circulation has now passed $19 billion, and bank deposits have increased largely, and, it is now supposed, will remain at this higher level in the future as more people accustom themselves to bank savings. Money is not being invested as much as it should be. (There is some discussion of how the Federal Reserve works that makes this no clearer to me.) Meanwhile, the public debt stands at $168 billion, up from $96 billion a year ago, but spending is still only 10% higher than it was in 1916, and the projected deficit is down, for tax revenues have been gigantic. “The reverse side of the national debt picture concerns the individual who is paying his share of the war costs, buying his share of the Government’s obligations, putting money in the bank, opening bank accounts at an unprecedented rate, and paying his debts. Do not laugh, sir! We have three such individuals living in the cabin! Tho’ I do not know if they would be so diligent had they not their wives to nag them. Just last week I drove with Mrs. Kelly into San Jose to help her open up a “joint savings account.” (And to inspect theDorsa plant, where Henry might have a lead on a post-demobilisation job.) If the experiment goes well, she says, she might even take up cheque-writing, like “the Missus.” I very much doubt that I shall be Mrs. Kelly’s “Missus” for very much longer, though I have been asked to stand godmother, and that I will most gladly do, letting lightly pass the deception as to my being a Roman communicant. . . . There is more. A Congressman supposed in public last spring that people are borrowing to pay their income tax. Not only is this not true, but the most unlikely investment trusts are springing up to find a place for money once spent, on for, example, car loans. Americans might have a reputation for being terrible spendthrifts, but “total consumer installment loans” have fallen from 1,428 billion to 928, commercial loans to 281 from 521, small loans from 481 to 363, industrial from 253 to 170, credit union loans from 173 to 114. Even pawnbrokers are complaining that no-one needs their services! Business Notes Professor Varga of Soviet Russia pooh-poohs Mister Keynes and Mister White’sstabilisation fund scheme for restoring world trade, and expresses a preference for the gold standard. This is either as demanded by the theory of true communism, or just possibly might have to do with Russia’s status as the world’s greatest gold producer. Apparently, Mr. White’s scheme would be even worse than Mr. Keynes, in case you are interested in knowing who to back as thefirmest bulwark against World Bolshevism. The paper jokes about this more cruelly than I! “Cavilling for the Pits” The paper notices the scheme of a random lot to condemn the victims to the coal mines and applauds, but suggests that perhaps something should be done about accommodation in the mining villages. If we are condemning boys to be coal-miners (for I think their parents are wiser about their prospects of liberating them from the mines than is the paper), at least we should arrange for them to have pleasant miners' cottages. “Post War Foreign Investment” and “Shipping Freight Markets” appear as issues in this number. Expect fuller comment from Uncle by the usual channels. “Pre-fabrication of Houses” In Britain, as in America, the future belongs to prefabricated houses, all alike in appearance and size. Honestly! Do no women write for this paper at all? Seek your economies elsewhere. “US Patent Reform” The paper is quite disappointed that the report of a recent American Commission refrains from scolding Cousin Jonathan, instead endorsing the American patent system in every respect and calling for its emulation by the world. I do hope that a Commission of the same philosophy is struck to study American real estate law! The Economist, 18 December 1943 Leaders “Shall We Be Poorer?” Lord Woolton has suggested that Britain will emerge from the war a poorer country. You might have noticed the controversy, and the paper shares its opinion, which is that he has the right of it, as Britons shall have to scrimp and save to rebuild the nation’s productive power for 3 years or so. That being said, the paper thinks that he makes too much of the national debt, which, after all, is only an accounting identity(?) But the bombing and the sunk ships and the liquidated investments (I feel a little guilty here.) Moving on to concrete numbers, the paper quotes “Professor Bowley and Lord Stamp” as estimating that from 1911 to 1924, Britain’s total social income rose 1 to 2%, while income per head fell 5%.” Another way of putting it is that output per person working was 7% higher in 1924—27 than in 1911—13, while the income per head was about the same. Without unemployment and the rise of part-time labour, the national income might have been 10 to 15% higher. After the next war, we can expect to see the resumption of the prewar trends overall. So, if unemployment is avoided, and foreign trade resumes, average income per person might be 10% higher in 1948 than in 1938, not all of which may accrue to the standard of living of the people. But without the war, the increase might have been closer to 25%! “The economic cost of the war . . . will lie in the fact that we shall be poorer than we might have been.” But wasn’t the paper concerned in 1938 that our low unemployment and booming economy was due to rearmament? These things go right over my head. “Power and Fear” General Smuts thinks that Russia is the “colossus bestriding the continent” of Europe, or some such. Or to the contrary. Or he thinks so, and is wrong. Is it too womanly of me, sir, to find worries about the “Russian bear” old hat? And I am too young to own an old hat! I hope. Please don’t contradict me, or I shall be so very cross! “India’s Economic Needs” Attempts to get more food out of Indian agriculture have simply driven up prices. While industry has done well, it is supposed that India needs a Ten Year Plan of investment in railways and rural electrification and such to accomplish an “agricultural revolution.” But the paper wonders if India, with all of its sectarian divisions, is capable of such a thing. Perhaps it would be better for it to continue to bear the white man burden for a bit longer? Or am I misquoting the poet? I am only my father’s daughter in this. Notes of the Week Latins are excitable. “Sunday Entertainments Again:” The Lord’s Day Observance Society is campaigning against Sunday performances for the troops, invoking the Sunday Entertainments Act. The paper thinks that if the welfare of the troops is not to be left in the hands of “a few cranks and reactionaries,” the House should bloody well do something about it. Uncle wonders if the House ever listens to anyone other than vocal minorities of cranks. The people of the Balkans are excitable. As are Finns, and Latins, specifically French in Algeria. “The Influenza Epidemic” Early evidence is that there is not to be one. This year. But next year. . . Oh, please let this war be over by next winter. “Wheat Supplies,” Another anxiety relieved, as the UNRRA reports that there is enough to meet the needs of the currently occupied countries. The supply will continue to be sufficient if the war ends next year; but production will probably continue to fall, the size of the next harvest cannot be predicted, and much depends on how much is diverted to feed livestock and to industrial users. “Mounting the Winter Offensive” The German counter offensive in the Kiev salient goes on. “The danger to Kiev has considerably increased.” Looking back even after only two weeks helps put this in its proper perspective, but the fear was real enough! American Survey “California Boom” Recent surveys show that most of the migrants brought in to work in Southern California’s aircraft factories intend to remain there after the war, even in the full knowledge that most of the plants will close, and that Federal and state authorities have warned that the area “may be one of the most seriously distressed industrial districts” for a few years. Of Los Angeles's 7500 factories, 2000 are new since 1939 and have never made anything save war goods. 1000 of them are in aircraft accessories, and 5000 others specialise in tools, dies and machines. Before the war, Los Angeles County was far less industrially developed than many eastern centres. To meet the sudden demand of the wartime aircraft industry, a whole southwestern feeder zone built up. I assume the chain of thought is that this is also threatened. BUT, on the other hand, agriculture and “apparel” have built up to meet the needs of the region, power supplies have been secured, iron and steel production is up, molybdenum, tungsten, zinc, lead deposits have all been discovered, and the synthetic rubber industry is supposed to be capable of rapid expansion. I think the real reason that Uncle left his bundle of old Economist numbers in Palo Alto is that at this point he couldn’t go on reading. Iron! Steel! Synthetic Rubber! Los Angeles to be the new Tyneside! It may have escaped the paper's attention, but California has already had a mining boom, while the synthetic rubber industry can only expand to the limit of public subsidy and at the cost of pound sterling are earnings. At this point, the writer makes one small concession to modernity.The plastics industry might take off. Is this not a rather more logical "value added" use for the region's oil than is synthetic rubber? “Third Party Threats” This week, Mr. Wilkie has refused to confirm or deny rumours that he has considered leaving the Republican Party for a third, while southern Senators were enraged and ready to revolt over accusations that they had “entered into an unholy alliance” with the Republicans to kill the Soldiers’ Vote Bill for fear that it would lead to Coloureds voting. Unfortunately for them, Senator Byrd declined to place himself at the head of the revolt, and it all blew over, subject to the President doing nothing further to press the issue of letting soldiers vote. The next para down, “Another Blitz,” points out that the Wilkie speculation has much to do with Mr.Landon and Mr. Hoover’s unwillingness to rule out having a terrible tantrum over the idea of approving of the Administration’s foreign policy. I will not be unladylike and express my opinion of The Engineer. “NAM And the Future:” the annual meeting of the National Association of Manufacturers” was marked by Mr. Sloan of General Motors graciously committing to spend $500 million on expanding plant if there was tax relief on investments and the like. In the opinion of the Post-War Committee, industry will only be able to find new outlets of production if the most energetic measures are taken to open new methods of distribution and “consumer wants” are increased somehow. I confess to being a little perplexed by this, as it is quite clear that consumers want new cars, new houses, and new everything else. But, apparently, they will keep their money in mason jars unless taxes on enterprise are reduced. The altruistic instincts of the American common man are sound. “Manpower Politics” The President has signed the bill that delays the drafting of fathers. This reaction to public opinion naturally leads those who are not fathers to suggest that there is a terrible shortage of manpower that makes the delay nugatory. In spite of cuts to war production, war industries are expected to need a million new workers by next July. “Inflation and National Unity” Congress has allowed the 8 cent an hour increase for non-operating railway employees and a 35 cent a barrel increase in the price of oil, and Mr. Charles Wilson of the War Production Board and Secretary Byrnes are appalled at the lack of national unity. Mr. Wilson supposes that there will be a “right-wing reaction among some sections of capital,” but the paper holds the danger of reaction to be more general. “Germany at War” Uncle found this dissertation on Germany’s difficulties in procuring strategic metals, and the lengths to which its metallurgists have gone in finding substitutes fascinating. His little margin note suggests that there might be profit in the substitutes, and new possibilities for his beloved electrical machinery if they prove economical, necessity being the mother of invention, and all of that. “Motorways in Britain” A thousand miles of new motorways are needed. The paper thinks that the road-building programme might take ten years or more. “Premium Bonds in India” the Government of India’s anti-inflationary policies of forbidding the hoarding of essential produce and of selling gold on the open market have had some effect, and now it I is introducing a state lottery bond to soak up “redundant purchasing power.” -There is trouble with China’s exchange apparatus (as you will have heard), in the coal mines in Britain, and with the “industrial ten,” the extra clothes coupons issued to employees in certain sectors of British heavy industry. Cotton workers will get a pay-raise. The Economist, 25 December 1943 Leaders There is trouble over Brazilian loans; the Turks dance on. Jugoslavs, Bolivians, Swedes and Australians(?) are excitable. The idea of a National Minimum Income combined with the universal income tax is to be deferred in Britain. “The Future of Coal Mining” is bleak, as no-one wants their son to be a coal-miner. “The Baltic Front and Ukraine” it is hoped that the Russian offensive in the north will take pressure off of Kiev. “A Liberal Revival?” The recent byelections have led to talk that it could happen, and the paper should like it, if it could, but it probably can’t. Isn’t the Secretary of State for Air the Liberal leader? I was only a little girl when Mr. MacDonald was accused of using the Air Force to assist him in campaigns, but I remember it because the pictures of him in flying gear were so dashing. Or am I thinking of another flying politician? “Property and Income” Mr. Beveridge is in trouble for saying that “80 percent of the private property in this country is owned by 7 percent of the population.” The paper explores the statistics and shows that it is true –and that it is necessary to go as low as £1000 in holdings to encompass 7 per cent of the population. Matters stand a little differently with respect to income, but the same 7% draw 28 per cent of the national income. American Survey “Labour-Management Councils,” such as exist in Britain, are being tried in Massachusetts. The paper finds this worthy of almost a page and a half of prose, ending with the curious observation that the strongest proponent is the business partner of Lou Maxon, the man who flounced out of the Office of Price Adminsitration with a Parthian shot to the effect that it was a threat to the whole American way of life. So controlling wages is vital for national unity, while controlling prices is a threat to the American way. So much is clear. American Notes “The Home Front” Congress, railway workers and farmers are attacking the Administration’s apparatus of anti-inflationary measures, and the President is surely doomed. Does Mr. Janeway write for the paper in some guise? “The Future of Contracts” If the war ended today, there would be $75 billion in outstanding contracts to be wound up. The speed of settlement is thus so very important that I can almost read this –no, my eyes just nodded. Senator Butler of Nebraska and Colonel McCormick are ridiculous, at least to the paper. The Office of War Moblilisation has relaxed some price ceilings that are hindering the production of essential civilian goods. The paper is too decorous to talk of details, as did Time, but of course this concerns textiles and necessities. “Family Allowances in Eire” The proposition is that raising children is too expensive, and that there is no intention to affect the marriage rate or birth rate, as this would sound all-too Romish, I imagine. It being supposed that the tax burden to pay for it will be met through excise taxes, Our Eire Correspondent feels that the effect will be nugatory, the extra money being spent on a stout at the pub coming back into the house in a cheque. If the paper is to continue to bemoan the poor American attitude towards Britain, it would do well to remember that Americans can read, and that many Americans have Irish connections. “Palestine’s Inflation Problem” is much the same as India’s; too much money, too little goods, too little gold and silver to be sold at public auction to “soak up excess purchasing power.” Russia at War “The Third Winter” Russia is short of labour, and of tractor spare parts against the spring planting. Business Notes The demand for notes at the year’s end Christmas season is up to 1.018 billion, but supply is adequate to demand. Farmers are upset that increases to prices do not quite make up for increases in wages, but the minister points out that hitherto, their receipts have risen faster than their expenses, and to a much greater extent than the Ministry expected at the time due to increased efficiency and productivity, so the farmers are just going to have to live with it. Farmers, my dear Minister, are never going to just live with it. We shall complain and complain, and the price of oranges, dear sir! Uncle says that we cannot continue in citrus after the war. Neighbours look to almonds and even vines, but he is reluctant to go into a tree crop when there are so many houses to be built. Now, as you will know, dear Father, I write this after Epiphany, and this means that I have two numbers of The Economist to hand that Uncle will weave into his summary/special pleading of next month. But now I am going to cheat, and discuss just one article from the 1 January number, first because it caught my eye with a phrase that always bothers me, and because I have recently been reading Great-Great-Grandfather's journals, and specifically his account of Mauritius during the Napoleonic Wars. Well, here is that 716 square mile Indian Ocean outpost, in the news again. One Major Orde Browne reports to the Foreign Office that since its 415,462 people, including 268,885 Indians, and the remainder are Africans, Chinese, Europeans and mixed blood, and are “poorly paid, undernourished, sickly…” Thus, there is no point in increasing their wages, since this offers “little prospect of improved performance." Browne goes on to note that a high property qualification restricts the electorate to 10,000 of the population, and that it is scarcely suprising that the sugar interest for some reason dominates the legislature, as it does the economy. Unemployment is high, especially outside of the sugar harvest, as secondary industries scarcely exist. and wages, it is to be reiterated, are low while congenital illness is rampant. Since employers stopped extending a ration as part of daily pay in 1938,malnutrition has been added to the burdens born by the poor. There has been industrial strife, occasioned by the odd combination of labour shortages with a falling standard of living for labour. It seems that the working poor naively believe that their hunger and poverty might be remedied by increased wages. Major Orde Browne, however, sees the flaw. Being foolish, the poor will simply eat their preferred white rice, a food low in "protective qualities," and remain hungry and sick. As he has already observed in his odd introduction, this will mean that higher wages will not fetch higher productivity. A more sensible policy would be to allot some of the land currently being reclaimed in the northern corner of the island to subsistence potato farming lots. This will allow the native population to occupy themselves and feed themselves in such seasons as they are not required to work on the sugar plantations and perhaps in some vague way lead to diversification into tea and the like. Major Browne is too modest to completely spell out the advantages of his scheme, which will include maintaining the price of sugar land against the sale of the reclaimed sector, and further raising land values by shifting some of the existing acreage out of sugar. Perhaps I have been round Uncle too long and have acquired his cynicism, but after talk about low wages and potatoes in Ireland and low wages and low food prices in England; and simultaneously of generous payments to farmers in England and America, I can only hope that Major Browne's sleep is haunted by images of starving "mixed blood" children. But I doubt that it is, and expect that he sleeps the sleep of the just, exhausted by the noble work of keeping the profits of landlords high and the wages of labourers low. Now, as I have told you, your wife would not part with me until Judith was on hand, but, in spite of her concerns, did not forbid me to go to Seattle with James, who was called to an inquiry at the yards into the jury-rig of the steering system that either saved USS Lexington or nearly wrecked it. James was able to work out a nice little algorithm modelling the system, and the slide rule he used was so prepared that he was able to calculate the point where the rudder would 'stick' for every increment of power. The court was impressed by this demonstration of the correctness of Captain Stump's interpretation of events that it recommended that the Lexington jury-rig be extended to all ships of the class. Captain Stump was grateful, and James had occasion to speak with him about Wong Lee's son, with favourable results, provided he passes his course. So much, then, for my husband's little professional triumph, and the chances of our man Wong's son. The amusing part is that there was an Army Signals Corps officer there, who, thanks to his minor movie star status, had landed an assignment making training films, in this case being loaned to the Navy to film an instructional movie on installing the manual emergency steering system. You may guess to whom I refer, a distant relation not unknown at Santa Clara! It is a small world. In person, he looks only a little like his father, and is handsome and far more charming. Though in contrast to his father's vaunted intellect, he struck me as entirely at sea and, worse, uninterested in getting a grip on the process. Imagine my surprise when, after the session, he pointed out that James put the slide-rule away in a very 'feminine' case, and asked if it were mine! Which, indeed, it was. This is a man to watch: incurious does not mean unintelligent. Even the affability may be a cover for ambition --of various kinds. Judith was able to procure a used telegraph pad from a Mexican hotel maid. I gather that certain persons sought an eye on the process. Were you aware that our soldier-film-maker corresponds with the Federal Bureau of Investigation? That, however, is only one thing to be distressed about. He is also much too gallant, both with Miss V.C., and with ranch house housekeeper, a girl of the same age. In the former case, I suspect his father's purposes. In the latter, it is a matter of a notch on the belt, as they say. While our gallant does not need to marry into money, the appearance of having done so will provide a more convenient explanation for the passage of some share of his father and grandfather's fortunes than some feather-bedded employment. And it will continue a family tradition, Uncle suggests, considering his father's decision to marry anactual engineer. GRACE.

"Oh, hey, good to see you, A---. Ready to start your first day of work? I guess that means you quit your old job? Hmm. Now, I know that we never got back to you after that phone call where we said we'd get everything nailed down right away, but, well, and there's a funny story about that. No, really funny. I swear, you'll laugh when you hear it. Hilarious. Oh. And by the way, don't bother punching in." Seriously. Though, to his credit, our District Manager showed up to explain in person.

I've always liked the stark simplicity of Captain Comet's origin. "Born a hundred thousand years too soon." There's the same somewhat-squicky eugenical subtext as the later Marvel mutant explosion, but Captain Comet is alienated and alone with his super-brain. The time of his people is coming --in a hundred thousand years. So, anyway, he fights crime. I gather that this has been retconned to make him the first of Neo Sapiens. As a teenager, I would have loved this. I'm not sure what I think of it, now.

Sorry to hear it, Marcus.

The idea of sending my office printer to the Moon is strangely attractive to me. Can I be the person who launches it?

You ship Tarquin, too, Hermit? I sure hope he ends up with Miko, so those two crazy, misunderstood kids can sail off into the sunset somewhere together.

Dinner at the Admiral's table sucks. The soup dish was brought in cold!

Postblogging Technology, December 19443: I'll Be Home For Christmas Happy Christmas from Santa Clara! I apologise for including snapshots of the neighbours, but the pictures that I include are a great deal easier to parse than the family writing! My Dearest Reggie: I know that it is my invariable practice to wrap up the family news with an overlong restatement of my investment strategy, buttressed with the last month's news in scientific progress ("research and development" as we are saying now) and such economic, military and political news as seems relevant. You will find, as far as precendent goes, that this is a somewhat truncated entry due to my having left my copies of Fortune, Aviation and the month's run of The Economist in a certain library just to our north in a state of high dudgeon a week ago, but there is more than enough material for the boring parts, as you will see. As for habits, they are made to be broken. After a long and difficult month, I am finally in the Christmas spirit this holiday eve, and with a variegated feathered flock a-roast in the back under the supervision of your wife (Bill and David are most grateful for their Christmas gift), I shall endeavour to share the celebrations with you. All of this was inspired in part by Mrs. J. C.'s blessed news, in part by potentially more dispiriting war news, which I think I will reserve a few weeks in the hopes that it will blow over. The long and the short of it is that we will have the Captain and Mrs. here with us on the West Coast for an indefinite extension, as the Engineer Vice-Admiral has conceived a lively concern about his newest pets that will only be assuaged by investigations on the ground. I am torn between rejoicing and trepidations, but I repeat myself, and I really should finish this letter. The indomitable mother-to-be has led the youngsters on a hike up the mountain. I have begged off with the excuse of fearing a recurrence of gout. But it is only an excuse, as you will have realised by my mention of that certain library, it being you who forwarded the Earl's instructions to seek the Engineer's guidance concerning Cousin H. C.'s persistent requests for investment in his steel plant. See how I nickname him so respectfully? You, who knows me so well, will seek out the irony and realise supsect that I imply that this honour is as empty as every other "achievement" of the life of his (real) father's son. The Earl, of course, thinks that the son of the man whose oh-so-successful American life we helped launch will owe us dispassionate advice. I dissent on two grounds. First, gratitude is an odd thing, and in the Engineer's father's heart, I suspect that events in Batavia came long ago to be seen not as Great-Great-Grandfather sweeping a hanging crime under the rug, but rather as an excuse for Great-Grandfather's imposture: that the Engineer has aligned himself with our cousins across the divide of 1823. So much for the incestuous concerns of our house, because, much more importantly, the Engineer is certainly bitter about this Administration, and dear Cousin H. C. owes virtually everything to it. This, at least, is my excuse for maintaining my side in our difficult interview, in which he did his best to encourage me to invest in the steel enterprise before dismissing me on the grounds that he was "busy/" With his memoirs, or with coupon clipping, or some other vital enterprise having to do with his legacy, I do not know. In any case, Wong Lee, whom I took as my driver on some mad impulse, had to lead me to the car by the shoulder, or I think that I should have burst back into the Engineer's study with some "wisdom of the staircase" that might have descended into fisticuffs. In many ways, Wong Lee is a wiser man than I, hard as it is to tell when one's eyes go first to that kris scar. A more unlikely male nurse it is harder to imagine: but that is why Grandfather kept him around, I suspect, back when Grandfather was still making decisions. And his boy, who accompanied him, is smart as a whip, always with a "Number One Son" quip on his lips, as big as his father and as fair of face as his mother. (You remember Chang Wei, do you not? I believe that we had to make her a Peruvian to get her into the country. . . .) I suspect that I am meant to conceive a desire to do a favour for the young man, which will be vouchsafed to me at the right moment. I shall not require much persuading. Enough of this, then, especially as I owe you a month's worth of the "big" magazines yet. I shall even be able to cover the end of the month, in the unlikely event that major war news troubles the week between Christmas and New Years. Flight, 2 December 1943 This splendidly modern building is the new “Shakespeare Memorial Theatre” in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Amongst aviation firms, not only Boulton & Paul, but apparently Parnall and Sons have reason to be proud. Leader: Roy Chadwick, Avro, postwar airliners will all be pressurised, but most will cruise at less than 200mph. “Flying wings” and jets are still ten years out, Chadwick says, but Frederick Handley-Page disagreed. Jet propulsion is closer, he pointed out. There was argument about Edward Warner’s recent Wright Memorial Lecture which suggested that the advantages of high flying are overrated. This will not be true with jets. If fuel-efficient compressors can be developed. Which Chardwick thinks they will be . . . in 10 years. War in the Air The Battle of Berlin continues. Twelve thousand tons have been dropped so far this year. Berlin’s Gauleiter estimates that 8 to 10,000 have been killed. The paper splits the difference on the "morality question" between those who have suffered at German hands not having much sympathy; and those of a more sympathetic bent accepting the grim necessity. Pathfinders find their way to the target in spite of overcast by “some method.” A secret weapon, in other words. I suppose that I shall have to turn to the funny pages to discover radar and radio beacons. Or secret weapons are in the air, notably the ones that the Germans threaten to unleash on Britain. (A strategic bombardment rocket, it is supposed, and page over there is a surprisingly detailed drawing of a hypothetical rocket weapon presumably based, the text below suggests, on the basis of Fritz Opel’s “rocket-assisted cars," which, we are told, led to a rocket-powered aircraft experiment. Meanwhile, “U.S. Fighter-bombers” strike at air bases in Holland and northern France. As do Whirlwinds escorted by Spitfires, while “Mediterranean Command” attacked Toulon and Sofia, while RAF Wellingtons attacked Turin. In the Pacific, the attack on the Gilberts went unbelievably well. Yes, Reggie, that is just what we are hearing down on the Bay. That's the brand new Lexington aircraft carrier, 27,000 tons on fire and steaming out-of-control within machine gun range of a fortunately not-machine-gun-equipped atoll. That's my candid shot from a page of the After Action report, which is classified, but not not severely, since the Navy was shopping it around the West Coast yards. The Captain of the Lexington has blood in his eyes, on the grounds that the ship was only saved from the consequences of a single aerial torpedo hit by an improvised manual steering gear introduced into the system by his crew. I suspect that there is more to the story than that, but, in any case, if you are wondering what is taking your son up to Seattle over the next few weeks.... Well, actually, I do. It is hard to imagine Nimitz or King seeking out a British engineer's opinion, even one with experience of the analogous problems suffered by Illustrious. I have warned your son that this is probably politics, and that he is being sent off to show someone up by being all plummy and British --the path is still open to lay the blame off on poor Captain Stumpf!-- but he just smiled and told me that he had, after all, been educated by the Poor Clares. So was I, I said, and they never smoothed my rough edges. He answered that, after all, they had had him for an additional four years, to which I had no answer. Here and There Blue Star Lines is the latest shipping company with liner interests to change its corporate charter to authorise itself to run an airliner. It is quite the trend! Articles: “Rocket Research.” British amateurs did experiments with rockets in the 1930s, and we can tell you about them. Unlike any work that might or might not have been done in any other countries for any other reasons! They can be automatically controlled with clockwork mechanisms! The “Aircraft Types” series covers two Lockheed transports, the C-56 and C-57 covered by the Lockheed Lodestar nickname. Also, an Avro Lancaster transport variant, the York. “Microgram Service: How Airgraph Letters are Handled” Using the new microprinter, great masses of documents are turned into miniatiurised pictures and sent by air mail. This is an ad for the Williamson Cameras’ micro-printer by the way. It’s even perfect for blueprints! Which is exactly what American machinists say when they see these things. Better than nothing, I suppose. “Keeping Them Warm: Anti-Icing System Uses Engine Exhaust Heat.” The system installed on several Consolidated types is shown. The actual circulating fluid is atmospheric air and the amount of heating is automatically controlled, as are so many things these days. “Native Weapon:” Australia’s new, indigenous fighter, the Boomerang, is too secret to be revealed in any detail, but here are pictures that make its secrets perfectly obvious! “Russian Aircraft Materials:” a translation of a highly complimentary German report. The quality of Russian compressed-wood and phenol-formaldehyde glued plywoods is impressive and improving rapidly. I am sure that this is something that you are paying close attention to, Reggie, given your plywood interests in Port Alberni. Letters “Technical Training: Purely A Matter of Finance” “Thirty Year Old” writes to comment on the recent comments of Mr. Biles of Blackburn Aircraft, Ltd, to the effect that the industry will need many more theoretically-trained aeronautical engineers after the war. The writer points out that after the last war, the market was flooded with B.Scs who could not find work appropriate to their direct and indirect investment in their education. What father is going to finance this? If it is in the public or industry interest, the public or industry bloody well better finance it. Time, 6 December 1943 “Manpower: The Last Shortage.” The “manpower shortage” has actually been critical for some time, but trends are towards relief. The paper says, anyway. The all-time employment peak was actually hit last winter, and the trend has been downwards ever since. There are 2 million fewer non-farm workers now than when the “crisis” was discovered. The government and services have acted. Small weapons factories have been closed in the Mid-West, saving 30,000 jobs, while the navy pulled a major contract out of West Coast yards. Now Boeing has a surplus of labour. B-17 production is up 10%, all war production up 4%. With victory on all fronts in the news, employers are beginning to think not of meeting contracts, but of the cost of severance pay on D-Day. Fat cheques and good-bye to Oakland, the workers are saying, very loudly, below my office windows. “Inflation: Report From the Front:” The railway workers get an 8 cents an hour increase over stabilisation commissioner Vinson’s veto. The OPA’s power to regulate oil prices has been taken away by Congress, which has also ignored most of Morgenthau’s tax increases. But a compromise has been wangled over farm subsidies explicitly tying them to wage increases. “Report on Tarawa: The Marines’ Show.” The fighting spirit of the Guadalcanal veterans of the 1st Division fought its way through the hell of Betio, which was made worse by the fact that the water was too shallow for the LCAs to beach. Many a man expressed a wish for more than his service standard $25 life insurance policy. Some people say the fighting at Betio (on Tarawa) was "hell." Others that it was a cakewalk. The operative question being just how many Marines have to be killed before a cakewalk turns into Hell. Rather a lot, it seems. “The Admirals.” The average age of United States admirals is 57, and he is an Annaopolis graduate, whereas the average age of generals is 51, and only 45% are West Point graduates. The Navy has 202 flag officers. There are 6 full admirals (King, Nimitz, Halsey, Stark, Ingersoll, and Reeve. There are 21 Vice-Admirals, average age 58, including one Engineering Duty Only, five aviators, 1 aviation observer. There are 153 Rear Admirals, not counting staff corps (supply, medical, dental, engineering). Twenty five are EDOs, 33 are aviators, 2 are aviation observers. There are 23 comodores, including 1 EDO, 6 aviators. The USN has superannuated admirals that include many aviators, albeit all qualifying through postwar flying training, unlike our own Admirals Portal and Bell-Davies, and they have a rather dismissive title for Engineering Branch admirals. “World Battlefronts: Balance Sheet:” The Gilberts have fallen at what the paper calls a light price of American lives, giving an airfield suitable for heavy bombers. We go on to clarify: “Of 2000 to 3000 men who stormed the Tarawa Beach, only a few hundred came through the hail of Jap lead without dead or injury. No ship losses were announced (Rear Admiral Henry Maston Mullinix was reported [MIA].) Unless Mullinix took a wrong turn on his morning constitutional we can assume that a flagship was lost. Or instead of assuming, you can ask a dockyard man and be told that the Navy is looking at underwater protection for the "jeep" carriers. The appropriate underwater protection, I told them, was to keep torpedoes and mines away from those tinder boxes.. Science: “Light on the Future” General Electric's famedPhysicist-Chemist Irving Langmuir recently predicted that man would some day speed up to 5,000 miles an hour in a vacuum tube. “General Electric’s famed Physicist-Chemist recently predicted that man would some day speed up to 5000 miles an hour in a vacuum tube. Meanwile, Westinghouse did a thing for the press the other week where it showed fluorescent lamps lit by “a high-frequency radio beam generated by a physicians’ ordinary diathermy set. Westinghouse admitted that this was a stunt and that wireless electric power “might” not be commercially viable for years. But the FCC is reserving a part of the postwar radio spectrum for wireless heating and cooking." A heat lamp was shown. Also sterilising lamps, a shatterproof lightbulb, a compact new sun lamp for easy tanning, and a 10,000 watt mercury vapor lamp. More business for electrical engineers! I am not sure how electric cookers are an improvement over electric ranges, and I cannot see the use of "wireless lamps" but a device for home tanning has pretty profound implications for the American colour bar. Not that I expectTime to notice that. The Press: “In the Windy City,” where the Tribune has been abusing workers at Chicago’s Studebaker aircraft-engine plant as loafers, malingerers, gamblers and Communist-led,the Sun went out and found that it was actually Colonel McCormick who is a very bad person! Whatever sells papers, I suppose. “Postwar: Frozen Future.” Time advertises the Fortune story (which I will get to in a few weeks) about how manufacturers “expect to put electric refrigeration into practically every one of the nation’s 40,000,000 housing units. Or two, with one a “home freezer.” More on ready-cooked frozen foods of the future. “Fiscal: Mr. White’s White Paper.” There is to be a World Bank to finance the world’s postwar reconstruction. I will believe it when I see it. “Retail Trade: Record November.” This will surely not come as news, although the extent of of the record –201% above the 1935—39 average, up 21% over last year, is still astonishing. “But we are still below the last-gasp before-Christmas rush a year ago.” A few weeks on, I can report that while it has been a busy month for the men folk, and the expectant mother, we have been able to lean heavily on Wong Lee, surely one of the oddest of persons seen loaded down with parcels in the queue at Magnin’s. . . . "Production: “Navy Bean Soup” is the Navy’s obscure nickname for carbon dioxide fire extinguisher cartridges, which have buoyed National Foam from a gross of $500,000 in 1942 to $6 million this year. Music: “Record Shortage.” Last year, U.S. record manufacturers hit an all-time production record with 136,000,000 discs. This year, production is down “at least 50%.” Causes include lack of manpower, rationing of shellac (which comes from India); wear and tear on nonreplaceable machinery, and lack of transportation and packing facilities. Meanwhile, orders are up to three times their 1942 rate. I am skeptical that this reflects more than retailers ordering everything in the catalogue so that something will be delivered, but I am heartened by the thought of re-equipping the industry. Electrical engineering products go into record manufacturing, too, you know! Radio: “Cousin Emmy;” at CBS station KMOX in St. Louis is famous! (Mountain music is big in Oakland, and not just in the places reached by this 50,000 watt station with 2.5 million steady listeners. The appeal of acts such as Cousin Emmy and Her Kin Folks may elude you and me (she apparently gives people a taste of “the natural twang of real mountaineer goings on” every morning at 5:25. She plays the banjo, “gui-tar,” French harp, and sings, all at the same time. Also, she yodels and dances and sings gospel songs, and sells cough drops and hair dye. Which is how she takes in $850/week. Sneer at her, but not her money! Flight, 9 December 1943 Leaders “Harrissing” Berlin: It’s a deliciously subtle play on words, dear cousin. We are indirectly told that there have been doubts expressed about the merits of the current Berlin offensive by way of quotes of Archibald Sinclair’s defence of it in the House. “3-in Guns in Aircraft.” B-25s carry 3" guns. Cousin Emmy would make a joke about critter-hunting now. "Those are big critters," she'd say. That fly. Or something . “Aeronautical Science School:” Sir Roy Fedden has “seen too much of the lavish way in which training and research are treated in the United States of America.” He wants something big and impressive. But is there money for it? Will it be a school for practical engineering or an “academic hot-house?” Opinions differ! War in the Air Sinclair’s statement in the house: from 1 January 1943 to 6am on 30/11, 2,189 British bombers operating from this country have been lost over Europe, while US 8th Air Force has lost 829. This news is simultaneous with that of news of von Papen’s visit to the Pope to invite an intervention in favour of a bombing armistice. Many raids have been made, and Bomber Command’s diversionary tactics were quite successful in protecting a raid on Leipzig the other day. A major German U-boat offensive was just broken, in the course of which a B-24 captained by a son of Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore was lost. The Japanese made a daylight raid on Calcutta. “There were some casualties among the civilians in the crowded city.” Article: “Lancaster I and II: Interchangeability of Power Eggs Applied to One of Our Four-Engined Bomber Types.” Not terribly relevant, but I took a plan-view picture showing “the way that the bomb load is supported by a beam built into the structure.” This is old news to you, Reggie, but let me pause for a moment and meditate on the existence of a girder, in an airplane which flies, that can take a 12,000lb load in suspension. Here and There The paper has a vacancy for a junior artist with drawing office or art school experience. The Canadian Director-General of Aircraft Production is back in Ottawa, where he forecast a “20 percent bigger Lancaster in 1945.” Fairey has a new chairman, in the absence abroad of Sir Richard Fairey. “Another U.S. Record;” American ‘warplane’ production set a new record in November by topping the 9000 mark, it has been reported. (More on that. . . .) Another day, another prediction of postwar trans-Atlantic commercial flying. Behind the Lines A Swiss paper reports the details of new German secret weapons, rocket shells with a range of 200km weighting from 2 to 20 tons, the average weight being 12. The smaller types have been satisfactorily trialled, but the larger ones are giving difficulties. Jean-Herold Paquis, a military commentator on Paris radio, reports that the Germans have doubled their fighter force since January and put three new types of aircraft into service, of which two are fighter-bombers, whose speed reaches 434mph. The third is a giant machine capable of transporting lorries. AGotha 244 is pictured. A neutral source says that several towns in southern Fance and in the Balkans have been evacuated. Japan is pushing to increase aircraft production. The Germans now have a centralised Air Defence Command (Fluko), staffed by the best of the best of the Luftwaffe’s signalling units, and from the women’s auxiliary services. “They must have iron nerves,” German radio reports. No flighty dames here! Aircraft Types Curtiss AT-9 “Jeep;” Beechcraft AT-10 “Wichita”. Unimpressive small trainers. Articles “Pitch Panic” the story of how De Havilland Co. raced to change both Spitfires and Hurricanes from two-pitch to constant-speed airscrews in time for the Battle of Britain. Tw-speed props could be delivered faster, so were specified for Blenheims, Spits, Defiants, Hurricanes, while other aircraft, such as the Welllington, Beaufort, Stirling and Whirlwind got constant-speed units. D.H. was asked to do its first experimental on-site conversion on 9 June, and was ready four days later. By 20 June the plane had been put through its paces and on 22 June DH got verbal direction to convert in the field all modern SE fighters on first priority. The conversion was easy, because the airscrews had been designed with constant speed in mind, but pipes and engine reservoirs and cockpit controls all had to be installed, and the screws did have to be dismantled to move the index pins. DH made the qull shafts for driving the cs units per Rolls-Royce drawings at the Gipsy engine factory. Outside contractors such as M.R.C. Ltd, which did pilot controls, did a fine job. The actual work was done by picked teams of fitters at each station, initially under DH instruction. DH engineers worked 105 to 110 hours a week to get this done. And then, mysteriously, a few years later, all the engineers in Britain died of heart attacks. I am an old and cynical man, Reggie. “Blind Landing in Mid-Atlantic” S/Lt (A) R. A. Singleton and observer Lt. Cdr J. Palmer (A) managed to land on board in 50 yard visibility with lighted paddles. Something strange is going on here, as Palmer is by now long past active flying, and in fact seems to be commanding HMS Eglington.One wonders just why this story gets press, and what we are to infer of Lt. Cdr. Palmer. “Atlantic Record” of 11h 35 minutes set by B-24 piloted by Captain Richard Allen. Do I smell a “Blue Riband” coming on? Time 13 December 1943 “Foreign News: The Known and Unknown” Have you heard that there was a big powers conference at Teheran? That “unconditional surrender” was agreed upon, and that there are various uncertainties about the postwar world? You have? Well, then, you shall have very light reading in the fields of politics and foreign affairs for the rest of this month! For my part, I notice that Fat Chow is in Herat, suddenly trying to negotiate passage to Erzerum through great masses of NKVD and Indian Police. “India: While the Paddy Ripens:” the Bengal famine will not end until the rice harvest, and there is not the manpower to harvest the paddy, and the Bengal Provincial Government reportedly refuses to ask the army to help. “Foreign News: Raw and Unrestrained:” British womenfolk are complaining because of a critical shortage of wearable underwear. The title of the piece has a clever double meaning, if you will pardon me for reusing a joke until it is well past wearing out and can no longer support its own weight. Other Foreign News: Frenchmen, Yugoslavs, Argentines and Icelanders(!) are excitable. “Foreign Trade:” American heavy industry, haunted by the nightmare of being overbuilt and underdemanded in peacetime, are ecstatic about a proposed 3-year Russian $10 billion order to rebuild their heavy industry, perhaps paying for it with Russian petroleum. America is so far reluctant to buy Spain’s record olive oil harvest in spite of the edible fats shortage. “Fiscal: Compensatory and Mr. Chase:” Will the national debt of $300 billion bankrupt the United States? Where will the money to finance postwar full employment come from?Stuart Chase has a brilliantly written answer (the paper says) to these questions in the form of his new book, Where’s the Money Coming From? “Stripped to its bones, the Chase compensatory economy is nothing but old-fashioned pump-priming on a vast scale, through self-liquidating public works and expanded social security,” with high taxes in boom times to cover spending in the lean. The concern is that it will be hard to keep taxes high in good times. I cannot help but notice that someone is optimistic about the postwar economic scene. Guardedly. “Aluminum: The Boy Grew Older:” a war-boosted industry is getting bigger. H.C.’s play in Columbia Metals, however, is unlikely to play a big part in this unless the war goes into 1946. “Government: Permission Or Else:” Parkland Sportswear Co. of Dallas has been fined for raising the pay of its 47 employees in disregard of the regional War Labor Board. And this is national news because the WLB is actually enforcing the regulation, I suppose. “Timely Figure:” A condensed English version of the Four Classics occasions the paper to discover that Confucius was a great man. Not great enough to warrant studying the actual texts, but a great man. . . Flight, 16 December 1943 Thackery is to diesel engines as oranges are to movie stars! Leaders “Close Air Support:” The Allies have air superiority in Italy, but are not blitzkrieging. Does that mean that Allied CAS is much less efficient than German in the old days? Why, no, the paper says. “Allied Air Supremacy:” fighter pilot wastage has been less than expected, says C. G. Power, Canadian Minister of National Defence. So resources are being redirected to training bomber pilots. War in the Air Wintry weather in Italy has cut down on air operations in support of the troops there, while the Germans have pulled out in the air. In the Pacific, more on the American carrier attack on the Gilberts, although it is also noted here that first production priority has been shifted from aircraft to landing craft. A joint statement by Roosevelt and Churchill notices that the quantity of shipping sunk by the enemy has fallen to the lowest level this last month since May of 1940. Here and There There is now a US-India air freight service; six new airfields have been added in East Anglia; the US industry will deliver its 150,000th aircraft in time for the anniversary of Pearl Harbour. “Microgram” is not the same as “Airgraph,” which exclusively denotes the service which Kodak provides for the GPO. The paper regrets the error. Microgram or Aerograph, it is very Research and Development! Articles C. A. H. Pollitt, “Will There Be a Place for the Flying Boat: A Critical Revierw of the Saro Report.” No, there won’t. They’re boats. Get over it, paper. Time for pastures new. “Fortress Evolution:” the new B-17G, with a chin turret, represents the latest stage in the evolution of this venerable ship. It is noted that the “10 ton load” can be achieved by hanging 4000lb bombs off each wing rack, but this is well beyond a safe takeoff limit. Take that, American cousins! “More Rotating Wings:” Greyhound has applied to run 78 helicopter routes covering 49,000 air miles. And they even brought Igor Sikorsky in to testify that it was actually possible! In two-an-a-half years or so. The paper finds this to be optimistic. Behind the Lines The German press wants you to know that the Luftwaffe is still active in Italy, attacking partisans. Up around Bergamo. It is apparently presumed that maps of Italy are hard to come by. A Swedish newspaper reports that the courier plane carrying diplomatic mail forthe Hungarian legation in Stockholm is now mysteriously five days overdue. (Last week’s number also noticed this.) Hungary has a “satellite industry” now in service of German war production. Aircraft Types: The MiG-3.; and Mitsubishi KB-98 ‘Karigane.’ “High Command Changes:” ACM Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferte has retired as Inspector General of the Air Force, and AVM Sir Christopher Brand. Joubert has agreed to be employed by the air force at the lower rank of Air Marshal, perhaps in India. Articles “Russian Land” The Russians have an air force, too! “Engine Cowlings:” a précis of the MAP report on German practice. Time, 20 December 1943 International News: There as an international conference! In Teheran! And another in Cairo, for which the President of Turkey was present, adroitly doing the stay-out-of-World-War-II-mazurka! Fat Chow writes that he is pretending to be a Kirghiz princeling to play on the sympathies of Turkish nationalist . . The Furhrer is a second rate fellow. Brazil is having inflation. “Foreign News: Coal: A Dilemma” The paper notices that the mines are still a problem, emphasising low morale in the mines and mentions, by-the-by, what The Economistwon’t, that conscription for mine labour will fall heavily on mining families and that families that aspire to get their sons out of coal mining are upset that coal-owners get something out of it, too. “The Hate Debate:” Civil war amongst the Democrats, it is proposed, is occurring! It is suggested that southern Democrats would like to see a Republican Presidential/Senate/House victory in 1944, giving the party four years to purge the New Dealers, who have excessively "coddled" Coloureds, labor and the poor. Now, I am a squire, and you are -well, apparently the phrase for inherited wealth her in the New World is "self-made man," but whatever. But we --I think-- still remember that in a democracy, you have to get most people to vote for you to win an election, and that most people are not rich. Oh, true, one of the things that these New Dealers do is to“attack” the poll tax, and one might place one's hopes on lifting the poll tax high enough so that only the rich can vote. Now we shall look at the Democratic record in the last 80 years of national elections and find that, yes, this is a strategy. A terrible, terrible strategy, but a strategy. The paper goes on to add that this rush to political suicide is inspired by the “group tactlessness” of the White House inner circle. Theat is to say, the President’s aides werecutting, and this is a perfectly sound reason to plan to lose every election from now on forever. One suspects that, when push comes to shove, a more practical spirit will flourish in Democratic circles. Flight, 23 December 1943 Leaders “The Shape of Things to Come” aviation folk working 16 hour days have to take a breather sometime, and when they do, they talk about postwar aviation. Some even say that the flying boat has had its day, but they are mad. Sigh. There is also much of interest in theMiles “X” type, which only seemed mad five years ago, but now looks like an acceptable compromise between the conventional types envisioned for the next ten years by Chadwick (which Handley-Page said no-one would buy), and the unconventional types thereafter, perhaps including the all-wing type. War in the Air In the Battle of Cherkassy, the Russians made “effective use of airborne forces.” Unless some spectacular news breaks in the next few days, I suggest that this is a generous use of the word "effective." Also, there was bombing and close support on the Eastern Front, unlike in Italy, where the weather sucked. In the Mediterranean there were air attacks on the Brenner Pass and Innsbruck to further isolate the Itality theatre. MacArthur has invaded New Britain, and the Americans acknowledge heavy casualties in the German air raid on two ammunition ships unloading at Bari. “More jet propulsion” is the caption of a picture of German Nebelwurfers firing in Russia. Articles “Teaching Air Photography” the paper visits “the R.A.F.’s oldest photographic training establishment.” (Historic pictures.) Number 1 School of Photography got its start in 1915, with Moore-Brabazon as its motivating spirit. Stereograms are a big deal, and so are multi-printers. “Jet Propulsion:” A Swiss expert speaks. “The Miles ‘X’”. It doesn’t exist. But if it did exist, it would be amazing, a sentiment from which I cannot dissent. You know what else would be amazing if it only existed? Father Christmas's sleigh. Imagine the ratio of loaded to unloaded weight it must have. At least Miles is not proposing to build it. That sounds more like a Sikorsky job. Behind the Lines Japanese ramping up production and trying to do a better job of building combat effective aircraft to offset the American numerical superiority. Germans have the Me 323 . Aircraft Types Boeing 314 and Sea Ranger. Service Aviation has a picture of F.O. S. E., Sukthanker receiving his DFC. A member of the Pathfinder Force. Time, 27 December 1943 (Yes, I received proofs of this a little early. The publisher has yet to drop me from the advance circulation list after I was added over the "Kaiser expose" matter in the fall.) China: Nine Tings of Yü “A well-informed traveler from Chungking” tells the press of a story suppressed in China, of Marshal Chiang being presented with a set of nine bronze tings, the familiar symbolic precursor to . . . well, I hardly need to explain it to you. The Marshal rejected them angrily, the paper reports, imagining that this is to the credit of the Marshal. Why, one wonders, do Westerners never imagine that wu jen are capable of ironic comment? “India: Death in Bloom:” Bengal now has ample food, but the privation-related disease of cholera, dysentery and dropsy are on the march. “Foreign News; One More Close Call:” The paper notices, and is concerned about, the Prime Minister’s recent bout of pneumonia. That will happen when old men are tasked with such arduous travels. Which is not to say that dread does not grip me, too. “Tristan da Cunha: The Lily Maiden:” the main title will allow the future archivist to group this with all the other Tristan da Cunha-datelined stories. But I should not joke, because the lily maiden in question is the figurehead of the Admiral Kampfanger of the Holland-America Line, reported overdue In New Zealand five years ago, with a crew of 16 and 44 boy cadets aboard, all lost to the world for five years, and now forever, a price demanded by the sea that pales only because of the war that has come since. How many have been swallowed by the sea? And how many of them, spit forth from a sea-change, made wondrous strange? Family history always makes me pensive. “FEPC vs the Railroads:” First on the returned President’s agenda is the Federal attempt to desegregate the Southern railroads. The Southern railroads made the expected response, but the head of the FEPC pointed out a national shortage of 850 locomotive firemen, even though Coloured firemen were unemployed. Also on the rails, the strike question. In spite of the pay increase, 145 million railway employees are ready to walk off the job at Christmas time, and the country is not happy, especially with Bing Crosby crooning his latest crime against sentiment from every radio. “Ban Facts:” London and Washington’s unwillingness to be straight about the devastating German air raid on Bari harbour is not reassuring. Surely the people can “take it?” So how did the explosion of two ammunition ships kill more than a thousand service men without sinking any more ships? A puzzler. To those who have already forgotten the last war, and more than suggesting why this is being so carefully concealed. Shall we see gas used on the Italian front soon? “Catastrophe: Why?” A railway accident at Buies, N.C. kills 72 Christmas travellers in a gruesome scene. It was a failure of signals to alert the Tamiami East Coast Champion of a derailment ahead. The paper is not impressed. The Engineer would be even less so. The signals just have to work. “Wartime Living: Minimum Comfort:” There is not enough coal to go around, due to John L. Lewis’s strikes and shipments to Europe. Say some. Plus a shortage of labour and machinery. Others suggest that it is because of distribution problems. Coal is shipped by rail, and the rails are slow in winter, when coal is wanted. Which is why coal is often short in the winter. Solid Fuels Administrator Ickes, however, is gloomy, because this shortage is unusually severe. He says that while Britain has become used to ‘no coal for comfort,” America enters 1944 on a ‘minimum comfort’ standard. Fair enough in California. But in Michigan? “U.S. At War: The Bobbie Pin Front:” people miss these. And many other “indispensable doodads.” “U.S. At War: You Can Get Something:” At this point, Christmas shoppers are basically buying anything they can get, since everything they want is out of stock. “Decent lingerie –in both senses—is especially in demand.” I am a little perplexed about what this sentence seems to imply about indecent lingerie. Wong Lee did not set out to buy lingerie, but given the way the stores were picked clean, I may be receiving some, if only because I put my foot down on giving any from the glum pickings-over of his expeditions. Ah, well, at least by measure of money spent, this will be a generous Christmas, and I did manage to find tyres for your namesake son's car, bringing it that much closer to "roadability." “Food: Meat Moratorium:” appears to mean the opposite of the strict reading, as the fall slaughter was “near-record,” and the OPA may be forced to temporarily lift the rationing of pork. Battlefronts” Amphibious assault takes location on New Britain, carrier task force raids Rabaul and Truk, USAAF Liberators raid the Marshal Islands in preparation for operations there. “Battle of Russia: The Push?” The question marks says it all. “Army And Navy: In This Total War:” Recruiting for the WACs and WAVES has been very disappointing. Possible things to blame include male chauvinism; female careerism The New York Daily News. The British had to go for conscription. Should we? This is an interesting question. Where are the lady volunteers? “Army and Navy: Shining Planes” Henceforth, US planes will not be painted except where tactical considerations require. Tis, it is suggested, is partly for weight saving. A bomber might save 70 to 80lbs. Excuse a shipyard man, but isn’t there another reason why one might skip painting? To save labor? “Transport: Failure in ‘43”: Truman Committee warns that only a generous quantity of new equipment and replacement parts can prevent a critical transportation breakdown in 1944.” There is mention of rails, tyres and airliners, but not what the Rennert accident reveals as essential, more and better signals equipment. Well, the less attention it gets, the more room there is for first moving investors? In fact, I broached this to Bill and David. And while they rolled their eyes and explained that they cannot be into everything, they did offer me the name of an acquaintance made down on the water with a bug in his brain aboutimproving rail traffic control that he works on when he is not fitting radar to ships. Or we could just drop some money into Westinghouse, although I am skeptical, as we certainly could not mobilise the capital to have a place on the board of so colossal an enterprise. “The High Cost of Ceilings:” Ceilings on textile prices have squeezed out low-cost producers of cheap socks, work clothes, aprons, dresses. Secret inflation! As the paper sees it. “No Time on Their Hands:” the national radio networks have basically sold their entire time table, and profits are up 20%. Notice that the paper has already complained about paper shortages. No relief for advertisers there. ..And I hear adolescent feet stamping below. The sojourners have returned, and I suspect that Christmas Dinner is imminent, with hopefully enough food to keep even young bodies abed to a reasonable hour. Wishing, in this happy moment, for one of Mr. Wells' time machines so that you can read this as I write it, looking forward to the unwrapping of gifts on Christmas morning. Unless with the time shift that is actually happening in England? Or is it the other way around.. You know that I could look this up. Or I could descend to greet my family. Ah, well, it may be too late to say Happy Christmas, but best of the New Year, Reggie!