| Show I DuPonts Are Working Magic in Delaware S By BRUCE CATTON CATION This Is II one of 01 a United States Slates tour erics eries by Bruce ruee Cation Catton NEA Washing ton columnist who's ho hoi out calling on America WILMINGTON Del East East of Washington is a seemingly endless endless end end- less fess belt of waterfront docks factories factories factories fac fac- fac- fac tories and storage storage stor star age yards that extends between between between be be- tween Phi Phila Philadelphia I ad a- a 5 d delphia e I phi a and Baltimore In the middle of It is Wilmington Wilmington Wil Wil- and Wilmington is isa isa isa a likely place for a a roving C cor 0 r respondent to make a stop because whatever whatever whatever what what- ever conflict or rt clash of interest interest interest inter inter- est there may maybe maybe maybe be between the Catton new deal administration and the nations nation's business men seems t to tobe s' s be highlighted more vividly here than elsewhere Wilmington Is the du Pants Fonts Physically it Is overshadowed o by the tall headquarters office building of E. E I. I du Pont de Nemours Nemours Nemours Ne Ne- mours Co And the most most most-ex- ex exciting citing place in that building Isa is isa isa a little room where samples of this firms firm's twentieth century magic are on display Whatever the du Pants Fonts themselves themselves themselves them them- selves may be as a corporate unit they work magic And the magic is of a sort to make you wonder just how important politics is after all The new deal has done things which will have a lasting effect on American life Yet in the long longrun run run after after the name calling has stopped the Liberty league has been forgotten and the term economic royalist has gone into the discard discard it it may well turn out that it is the du Ponts Fonts who have left a deeper imprint on the life of their time Take nylon for instance Down the shore of Delaware bay a huge new factory is rising where du Pont workers will make this uncanny new textile fiber out of coal air air air- and water Sheer hose can be made out of it and sleek j fabrics as well well well-to to say nothing I of tooth brushes hair brushes and other things which arent aren't even in the discussion stage yet Or take the sink-and-float sink process a cheap and handy new ore separation process which which which-to to mention just two of its possibilities ties ties may may restore the anthracite coal industry to a profitable basis and may add 60 years ears or so to the productive life of the great Mesaba Mesaba Mesaba Mesa- Mesa ba iron range Lucite Lucito Pipes Pipes' Light Then theres there's a queer plastic called lucite which looks like glass and has the queer property of piping light Take a long corkscrew cylinder of it apply a flashlight to one end end and and the light comes out of the other like water flowing through a pipe Already this is changing techniques techniques techniques tech tech- in surgical and dental operations it may also do things to home and office lighting They'll show you a species of rubber made out of coal limestone limestone limestone lime lime- stone and salt saIt which will serve practically every purpose natural rubber will serve will outlast natural rubber five times in inmany inmany inmany many uses uses and which even now costs less per pound to produce than natural rubber cost during the World war They will show you camphor not not synthetic camphor but real to honest-to-goodness camphor which comes not riot from the camphor trees of Formosa but I from the turpentine of southern pine trees The list is almost endless Theres There's zelan a chemical which renders a fabric water-repellent water so that you can spill a bottle of ink or a bowl of greasy soup over an eveni evening g gown wipe the mess off with witha a damp towel and come out as fresh and spotless as before Theres There's a new rayon cord which triples the life of a heavy-duty heavy auto truck tire Theres There's something called buta- buta cite which makes shatterproof glass much stronger and safer And so on Costly Research AH All of this of course means research research research-on on which the du Pants Fonts spend some a year They have a huge laboratory here and more than two dozen others in other places They keep 1200 research men and 1700 as assistants assistants assistants as- as constantly busy Right now several thousand projects and exploratory inquiries are Under under under un un- der way A lot of them wont won't pan out at atall atall atall all and some of them will pan out differently from what they're expected to A man may spend six months trying to get a new plastic and find in the end that what he has is a potent new drug But altogether year after year there comes this stream of things which create new Industries industries Indus indus- tries change hange old ones make production production pro- pro processes cheaper and in one way or another profoundly affect the material framework in which American life is lived And so Wilmington makes you wonder just how important politics politics politics poli poli- tics really is after all Who wins In the end politician end politician or Industrialist Industrialist industrialist Indus Indus- Or is it perhaps foolish to talk about either of them winning winning win win- ning since the things they do fuse in a a. strange unlooked for amalgam by which our grandchildren grandchildren grand grand- chil children ren are going to live 4 w |
