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Show Synthetic Era Taking Shape Today. MORE SUBSTITUTES Raw Materials Might Have Less Importance After War Ends. Remember not so long ago when the slogan, "Accept no substitutes" was popular? Today, To-day, because of war demands for strategic materials, the very opposite of that is the rule! i And the enemy is beginning to realize that what with Paratroopers dropping down on them from the skies in synthetic cloth parachutes, from transport planes made from substitute synthetic material, it would be good for them if they could get a personal substitute on the battle fields all over the world. As the war progresses, Americans are awakening to the fact that they are in the middle of a chemical revolution, the end of which is not in sight, and the social possibilities of which are far from being completely, com-pletely, thoroughly achieved. It used to be that the motorists of this nation were completely dependent de-pendent on the laboring, sweating natives coming out of the jungles of South America and the Southwest Pacific area with their crude rubber extracted from trees. Within a year, according to William M. JeiTers, there will be plenty of synthetic tires for every one who has a car. And those tires will be synthetically made from all native, easy to obtain, either ei-ther chemically or from the earth itself, material in the U. S. An interesting part of this chemlco-industrial revolution is that the rural section of the . United States is taking an increasingly in-creasingly important part in It. Chemurgy, the science of finding new industrial uses for farm products, has been very busy during the past years. Now that the war is on, the good it is doing do-ing can be noted in the extensive exten-sive use made of casein obtained from skimmed milk,. The plastic, plas-tic, material obtained offers the best possibilities as a substitute material in various kinds of war material. Parts of many bombers, dropping block busters over Italy and Germany, Ger-many, are made from casein. Further Fur-ther research will find still greater uses for it. As it is now, a contented con-tented cow chomping grass along a Mississippi levee in Louisiana is partially the cause for discontentment discontent-ment in Axis natioTts. Soybeans, from which many plastic plas-tic articles useful both for the war effort, and helpful in the homes, is another farm product that is being further developed. Bagasse obtained from sugar cane waste has proven its worth for electrical goods, washing wash-ing machines and automobile parts. Possibly the toothbrush you used today to-day had a handle made from sugar cane. Often you hear the statement that possibly, because of the nation's all-out all-out war and deathdealing on the Axis, most of its natural resources such as oil, coal, iron ore, will be used up. But from the great strides taken by industries making substitute substi-tute synthetics and plastics, it isn't far-fetched to suggest that maybe there will be no need for the present natural resources in years to come. At least, not as necessary as today. Miss and Mrs. America have found that many synthetic products prod-ucts are clothing them just as well as when they could buy all the silk they wanted from Japan. Scientists state that it is quite possible that every bit of clothing cloth-ing you will be wearing in the not too far distance will be synthetically syn-thetically made. Maybe four or five of the pieces of clothing you own today are synthetically made, and yet you never realized real-ized it. Household furnishings, from glass fireplaces to dishes, from dressers to stoves are now being made from synthetic materials. The old gag about the errant husband hiding all the dishes before facing his wife holds no more. For many plastic dishes don't hurt when they land on the target because of their light weight. Or! top of that they won't break and are also too colorful to throw around. Any angry wife will think twice before she begins to lay down a barrage with such ammunition. am-munition. Many of the war plants constructed, construct-ed, and in the process of construction construc-tion today, have no windows. All artificial lighting and air-conditioning takes care of what nature used to consider her job. Glass bricks that let the health rays of the sun through, but prevent vision, now take the place of windows. Those who aren't "up on" their knowledge of what is going on in the world of substitutes still say something to the effect that "People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones." But there are glass houses today, with more in the offing, off-ing, that wouldn't be in the least affected by anyone who might want to throw somestones at them. Even some good, solid glass bricks wouldn't cause them any damage. Statements from scientists busy working in laboratories far into the night in all the free . United Nations have hinted that what has been seen so far ii plastics, Is nothing compared to what is to come. One spokesman spokes-man stated that by October, 1943, synthetic production will be sufficient to provide the nation's na-tion's military needs. As you look about and see the hundreds, hun-dreds, thousands, of articles of everyday ev-eryday commonplace variety, you automatically begin to ask yourself, after fully realizing the significance of the substitution era you are in, whether that article, or this article probably having some strategic, or scarce material could not be substituted sub-stituted by a plastic. More than likely like-ly in the months to come you won't be surprised when that article appears ap-pears in its plastic dress. Scientists have tagged the millions of years in ancient man's past as belonging to certain periods as he slowly developed from the brute stage. Then there were the various ages, of stone, wood and iron. The astounding use of steel, brought about by quicker, more efficient production pro-duction methods, gave that period of development in the U. S. the title The Steel Age. You wouldn't be surprised, would you, if after this war is over and won, the present days, and then, would be appropriately titled the Plastic Period, or the Synthetic Era? |