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Show THIS BUSINESS jg g SUSAN THAYER 4Lf I t V L The "Secret Weapon" of the U. S. A. A type that destroys a good ' yarn by analyzing it has been telling tell-ing us that Bugbug, on the Egyptian Egyp-tian coast, isn't pronounced that way. o The heart, a specialist concludes, con-cludes, is incapable of pain. Thus, what the poet diagnoses as unrequited un-requited love may, in reality be something he ate. that, as industry buckles down to the work of producing defense adequate ad-equate for 1940, a similar thing will happen and that products and methods undreamed of now will be everyday matters in a year or two. Already since the first sisns of danger appeared on our horizon, the octane rating of the gasoline of the United States has been stepped up from 80 to 100 and a still more powerful fuel is in sight. Airplanes have been made faster, surer, safer. Substitutes for rubber rub-ber have been perfected so that the time is near when we shall probably be independent of the rubber plantations of foreign lands. We've found how to conserve con-serve tin by putting up various foods in transparent plastic bags and other plastics are being put to use in a variety of ways import-! ant to defense. j It is too soon to say what the greatest need of this country will be in the. critical moments ahead. But no matter what it may be I whether for basic material or for ' improvement in the equipment of our defense forces we know that with our "secret weapon" we shall meet it triumphantly. It isn't poison gas or a new and deadlier kind of explosive. It isn't even that coveted bomb sight we hear so much about these days which is known to us alone. Nevertheless, Never-theless, we do have a "secret weapon" which gives us great prestige among the informed leaders lead-ers of other nations and would make us a formidable enemy to any foe. And unlike the so-called "secret weapons" of which other poeples boast, it is of use to us in peace time as well as in periods when we build for national defense. de-fense. What Is this unseen weapon of ours, not found in arsenals or military mili-tary camps, that gives us an advantage ad-vantage over any possible enemy? What is it that makes us certain of our ability to face any emergency, emer-gency, unafraid? It is our native genius for invention now put to work on problems of defense in the efficient laboratories of all our great industries. All but a few of the great inventions in-ventions used in modern warfare have come from the United States. The submarine, the airplane, the tubes that made radio possible, were developed in American laboratories. lab-oratories. And when a national emergency arises the inventive genius of our people, as well as the productivity of our industry and the power of our Army and Navy rise to meet it. In 1919, at the close of the world war, which had caused such concentrated effort, ef-fort, there was an increase over 1918 of 34 in the number of applicaions for patents and a flood of new products and techniques appeared that gave us a new standard of living. There is every reason to believe |