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Show Urgent Need for Steel and Iron Scrap Told; New Drive Planned 4- Belief Expressed That Most of the Scrap Will Be Fo::nd On Farms By R. ?t. REBER Washington County Chairman Contrary to the belief of many people there is still an urgent demand de-mand for steel and iron scrap. In fact the situation is so acute tlrat the United States Army is going to send out Army trucks to haul the sc ap to the nearest rail point. Since nearly all the suitable scrap left is on the farms, it is up to the farmers to get behind this drive. Held Responsible It is the plan that the neighborhood neigh-borhood leaders, under the management man-agement of the Extension Service, will be held responsible for getting get-ting the farmers under their jurisdiction jur-isdiction to get the scrap moved from the farms to a sub-depot at once. Each neighborhood leader has or will have from 6 to 10 farmers under his control, and it will be his job to get those farmers farm-ers to do something about moving mov-ing the scrap. When this is done then the Army will dispatch their trucks to the county to move this scrap without delay. It is contemplated con-templated that in addition to the trucks, the Army equipment will also include torches, wreckers and winches. They will pick up scrap in accumulations of two tons or more. In many of the steel producing areas, steel mils are operating on less than a ten-day's supply of scrap. This Is n unhealthy condition and might endanger the operation of some steel mills. This we must prevent happening, and this acute situation has caused much concern in the steel industry, which brought about the necessity of an intensified fall and winter program. 75 Million Tom Desired The desired inventory of scrap is 75 million tons, and when the consumption of scrap exceeds the collection and inventories start (Continued on page three) Scrap Drive (Continued from first page) to diminish, it brings about a critical crit-ical condition and this explains why the United States Army has been asked to participate in a nation-wide scrap drive to move all dormant materials into channels chan-nels where these vital materials can be processed and fabricated into implements of war. With the obvious concentration of warfare war-fare in the Pacific theater, the need for tremendous amounts of fighting equipment will unquestionably unques-tionably be the burden for the western producers to solve. Therefore, There-fore, it becomes our responsibility to build up the stockpiles of scrap to the point where a guarantee can be given the steel mills, smelters and foundaries of an uninterrupted un-interrupted operation. Steel requirements in this war are 55 times greater than in World War I. In the first World War it required 90 lbs. of steel to back each soldier at the front. In this war is requires 5,000 lbs. In my opinion, the nations who can produce the greatest amount of steel will be the ultimate winner win-ner of the war, and the more steel we can produce the sooner the war will end. At the present time, the steel mills are using 55 per cent scrap and 45 per cent pig iron. So you can see the need for a constant program of collecting scrap iron. Desirable Scrap On Farms The most desirable type of scrap remaining today is on the farms, since it is heavy and produces pro-duces large tonnages. Farmers have held on to their old implements imple-ments because prior to this time they have been unable to get parts for their present operating equipment. However, the War Production Board has released an order. It is now permitting, and has done through 1943, the farm implement companies to make all the parts necessary to keep farm equipment in operation. The farmers, farm-ers, therefore, need no longer hold on to their old antiquated equipment equip-ment with an anticipation of using it. To this end, they should immediately im-mediately let go of all the old material and equipment that he has no further use for and put it into the stockpile of scrap. |