Censorship station set up in El Paso
Washington, Feb. 25 (UP) –
Governmental officials disclosed tonight that a postal censorship station has been established in El Paso, Tex., to examine mail between the United States and Mexico.
The station, which will employ some 200 persons, is one of a series that will operate the length of the Mexican border. Location of the others was not revealed.
The Pittsburgh Press (February 26, 1942)
Rambling Reporter
By Ernie Pyle
SALINAS, California – International affairs are slightly out of my line, but it’s my assumption that henceforth when we send American ships to the East Indies for rubber the Japs will say, “So sorry. Scat, please.”
If that is right, then it would appear that we must make other arrangements, and very soon. There has been talk, but I don’t recall having seen any new rubber factories or plantations on my recent travels.
And since I happen to be here in what some day may be the “rubber capital of America,” I thought I’d write me some pieces about rubber.
The U.S. Rubber Commission last September made a thorough survey of our rubber possibilities, and by curling up for 10 minutes with the commission’s report I have become a rubber expert. Out of all my new wisdom on the subject I can draw only one conclusion – we’re in a mess.
There are three ways to get rubber:
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From trees, most of which are in the Far East. Now gone, or rapidly going.
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Synthetically, from coal, limestone, oil, etc. Very expensive, and not real rubber.
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From the guayule bush, which can be grown in this country, and is real rubber.
Now, in the same order as above, what are the potentialities? They are as follows:
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It takes a rubber tree seven years to mature, so if we were to splatter Central and South America right now with millions of trees the rubber from them, consistent with Allied policy, would arrive “too late.”
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We could eventually make huge quantities of synthetic rubber, quite good enough to serve our purpose. However, it requires terrific plant facilities. The Tariff Commission reports that because of the difficulty in obtaining steel and chemical equipment, it appears that from three to five years would be required to construct and equip a sufficient number of plants to supply the rubber requirements of the U.S.” Again – too late.
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The guayule bush. It could eventually supply our total rubber demands, but like the others, it takes time. There is not enough seed in existence to start right off with a bang. The most hopeful estimate of matching our present rubber consumption from guayule is 1946. Once more – too late.
However, slow or not, guayule is going to become a very prominent bush within the next few years. Farmers all through the Southwest will be raising it. So I will tell you something about it. Incidentally, it is pronounced “y-oo-ly,” with the accent on the “oo.”
Guayule is a gray-bluish bush about as high as your knees. It takes it around seven years to get that high, and then it doesn’t get any bigger, though it will live 50 years or more.
It is a desert bush, and needs a little rain in the winter but none in the summer. Like all wise desert plants, it stores up stuff inside to live on in some future drought. In the guayule this stuff happens to be rubber – pure rubber, not an imitation.
So far as is known, the bush is native only to northern Mexico and southern Texas. It grows wild, but there isn’t enough wild growth to keep us going, for you don’t tap a guayule bush for its sap year after year. You cut it down and grind the whole bush up.
However, guayule can be cultivated as a crop like corn or beans or wheat, and that’s what will soon be done.
They’ve been experimenting with guayule since the first of the century, first in Mexico and then in California. It costs slightly more than East India rubber, but wouldn’t if produced on a large scale.
All the experimentation has been done by one private company – the Intercontinental Rubber Co. And it’s funny about this company. It has spent its own millions on guayule, has upped the yield, scouted out the best soils and climates, developed special machinery, and proved that guayule is feasible. Yet it has deliberately held back production.
Why is that? Well, they say it’s because the company is owned by the world’s great rubber-producing companies (mainly Dutch) with vast rubber holdings in the Far East. Naturally they didn’t want to cut their own throats by setting up competition with themselves.
Practically all that is known, or physically held, in the guayule world is the property of this company. Congress has recently passed a bill to buy them out for $2,000,000. Even critics of the company admit they’ve spent that much or more on experimentation.
Undoubtedly the sale will go through, and then we can take off the brakes and get going on at least one of the methods of making ourselves rubber-independent.