The Air Conditioning and Refrigerating Machinery Association was one of several associations which met with the Office of Price Adinistration and Civilian Supply (OPACS) in a series of meetings held during late July to work out allocation of scarce materials among industries not primarily military in character.

Other associations at the conference representing the "commercial and industrial air conditioning and refrigerating industry" included the Refrigeration Equipment Manufacturers Association, Commercial Refrigerator Manufacturers Association, National Electrical Manufacturers Association, and the National Frozen Foods Locker Association.

These names indicate the fact that in most industrial fields there are a number of national associations of manufacturers of specialized types of products. At the OPACS meetings, representatives of eight consumer durable-goods industries presented data on their raw material needs, and the most suitable methods of making curtailment, when necessary-with due regard to displacement of labor, the possibility of using factory facilities in Defense work, and the national importance to consumers of various types of goods.

The Refrigeration Association presented material on the industry's place in the nation's food supply, tracing the use of refrigeration in packing plants, freight cars, trucks, retail store refrigerators and household facilities for food protection.

The ACRMA was organized in 1903 and features services to members in industrial search, standardization, statistics, and gov

re

ernmental relations. (1717 Southern Bldg., Washington, D. C.; W. B. Henderson, Executive Vice President.)

Unique

The Machinery and Allied Products Institute is a unique type of association in that it acts as a coordinating agency for approximately 30 national associations, most of them covering specialized products. Some of these associations have no separate staff of their own, and the scope of their activities is receiving general legislative and economic research information service from MAPI headquarters, plus the holding of an annual convention and occasional special conferences. George Terborgh became the secretary on July 10, succeeding Alexander Konkle. ΜΑΡΙ has a staff of approximately 10 persons, including a branch office in Washington, D. C. It has issued a number of educational publications relating to the durable goods industries since its organization in 1933, when it became the chief sponsor of the 1933-35 NRA Code, "Machinery and Allied Products", which was made up of several dozen supplemental

codes.

Among the associations now affiliated with MAPI are the Associated Builders of Small Locomotives, Diesel Engine Manufacturers Association, Electric Overhead Crane Institute, Mechanical Press Builders Association, etc., as well as several national associations with separate offices and comparatively large staffs such as the National Machine Tool Builders Association.

Among its committees are those on Educational Publicity, Wage and Hour Legislation, Reserves for Rehabilitation (to study depreciation and related matters), and Patents (to study the relation of invention to new enterprise, greater employment, and industrial efficiency). According to MAPI, it has served effectively as a vehicle through which machinery manufacturers in various fields exchange views on current economic questions, and has aided in advancing research relating to the machinery and capital goods industries. (221 N. LaSalle St., Chicago, Ill.; George Terborgh, Secretary.)

Public Law No. 155, 77th Congress, amends the Communications Act of 1934 to give the Commission power during the emergency to waive certain rules relating to radio operators on vessels. Nos. 156 and 157 relate to the manning of certain vessels.

Public Law No. 160 amends the law prohibiting the transportation of convict-made goods, adding the District of Columbia.

Public Laws Nos. 154, 158, 159, 161-6 are of local or noncommercial importance.

The Ship Warrants Act was signed by the President July 15. It authorizes the Maritime Commission to issue warrants to domestic and foreign ships operating in trades touching United States ports. Ships receiving warrants will be given priority for the use of loading, discharging, bunker, towing, overhauling, drydocking and repair facilities. The Maritime Commission also has authority to control the character of cargoes carried, as well as the freight and charter rates charged. The Ship Warrants Act has been designed to protect the interests of the public by furnishing the means of control over transportation charges for carrying defense materials as well as materials for public consumption. Carriers receiving and holding warrants would be required not to charge more than the prescribed maxima.

SENATE

Bills passed include: S. Res. 139 for printing monographs by Special Committee to Study the Problems of Small Business (passed also by House); H. R. 4816 to facilitate construction of interstate pipe lines related to National Defense.

New Bills include: S. 1743 facilitating settlement of small claims against the Government; S. 1746 to proceed with certain Naval public works.

"The Proclaimed List of Certain Blocked Nationals" authorized by the President July 17, is a list of certain persons deemed to be acting for the benefit of Germany or Italy or nationals of those countries and persons to whom the exportation directly or indirectly of various articles or materials is deemed to be detrimental to the interest of the national defense. Additions to and deletions from the list will be made public from time to time. Anyone acting as a cloak for a person on the list will have his name added forthwith to the list.

The list will have two principal functions. In the first place, no article covered by the Export Control Act of July 2, 1940, may be exported to persons named in the list except under special circumstances. Secondly, persons on the list will be treated as though they were nationals of Germany or Italy within the meaning of Executive Order No. 8389, as amended, under which, on June 14, 1941, the freezing control was extended to all of the countries of the continent of Europe and nationals thereof.

Information concerning the list is available from the Bureau of Foreign and Domestic Commerce, Washington, or from any Regional or District Office of the Department of Commerce.

More than 3,413 persons or about onefifth of all the employees of the aluminum cooking utensil industry have been laid off or have quit their jobs as the result of the industry's present inability to obtain aluminum for nondefense products.

This number of lay-offs and resignations represented the total for 14 of the 22 concerns in the industry. Information from the remaining companies is not yet available.

New Labor Committee

Establishment of Defense Labor Advisory Committees corresponding to the Defense Industry Advisory Committees has been announced.

The Labor Advisory Committees will consult with government representatives in the various commodity sections and advise them on those aspects of defense production which are of primary concern to labor, as the Industry Advisory Committees will consult and advise on matters of primary concern to industrial management.

Warning

Sellers of cotton grey goods have been warned not to exceed recently announced ceiling prices.

The warning against nonobservance of the ceiling prices was occasioned by reports that mills have been offering to make deliveries at prices above the ceiling. This is being done in accordance with contracts made prior to issuance of the price schedule at prices exceeding the scheduled ceilings.

Will Raise Steel Plate Output

Capacity of wide strip steel mills to make light plates for ships, railroad cars and other purposes will be increased 754,000 tons to a total of 2,480,000 tons by the early part of 1942.

This increase in annual capacity will be brought about by construction programs now under way at a number of the mills.

W. A. Hauck, Steel Consultant of the OPM, disclosed the outlook after visiting several strip mills and compiling results of a questionnaire submitted recently to the 13 mills rolling strip 54 inches or more wide.

Present total annual capacity of these mills is 12,941,400 tons, of which 1,726,000 is light plate capacity and 11,215,400 is capacity for the manufacture of strip used in direct defense production and by the automobile, refrigerator and other industries.

A Step to Conserve Tin

Silver may be substituted extensively for

tin in solder to conserve tin and hasten accumulation of adequate reserves of it, a committee of the National Academy of Sciences has advised the OPM.

This suggestion topped a list of measures recommended by the committee as "the most ready means to bring about further conservation and substitution of tin, in actual emergency, or in order to facilitate the accumulation of an adequate stockpile."

The committee pointed out that, with the exception of imports from Bolivia, tin used in this country travels over long sea lanes on which shipping might be interrupted.

The United States stockpile of tin should be brought to such size, the committee said, that it would be adequate, in event of an emergency interrupting imports from outside the Western hemisphere, to meet essential needs while new equipment was being built and new techniques adopted.

Good News

The Office of Production Management has announced that military aircraft manufacturers delivered 1,476 airplanes during June. Comparable final figures for May showed 1,334 deliveries.

In Search for Skilled Labor

A new and concentrated approach by the Labor Division of the OPM to the problem of filling skilled labor and manpower requirements in the expanding defense industries has been announced.

Under this new program, the defense work of 12 government units, dealing with all phases of industry's needs for qualified labor,

is combined into a new Labor Supply Branch within OPM's Labor Division. The Labor Supply Branch of the Labor Division is directed by Commissioner Arthur S. Flemming of the Civil Service Commission, who is also in charge of the Civil Service Commission's defense recruitment activities.

Twelve Regional Labor Supply Committees, combining the same 12 agencies with labor and management groups in the industrial areas of the United States, are established as outstanding features of the new reorganization. This setup was described as "unquestionably one of the most significant poolings of labor, management and government resources that has thus far taken place in the national defense program."

You Can Do Your Bit

Housewives' donations of used aluminumware during the aluminum scrap collection campaign July 21-29 should permit construction of more than 2,000 additional fighting planes of 500 additional 4-engine bombers, Robert E. McConnell, Chief of the Conservation Unit, reports.

Although only a part of the coffee pots and frying pans which housewives will give to the Government can be used directly in aircraft manufacture, virtually every pound collected will be used for essential defense needs, he said.

The donations of aluminum will free an equal amount in pounds of virgin aluminum to be used for aircraft purposes, so that whether the family coffee pot goes into an airplane or not, it releases an equal weight of aluminum for aircraft construction.

***

Medical science scored another victory last year when the United States infant death rate reached a new low of 46.4 per 1,000 live births, according to preliminary tabulations by the Bureau of the Census. The 1940 figure was about 3 percent below the rate for 1939,

which was the lowest previously reported.

The trend in the infant death rate has been steadily downward since establishment of the birth registration area in 1920, but the rate of decline during recent years has been especially impressive.

FARM-MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS AND SUGGESTED ADJUSTMENTS ON VEGETABLE FARMS IN BRISTOL COUNTY, MASSACHUSETTS. Bureau of Agricultural Economics in cooperation with Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment Station. (1941. 27 pp. Mimeo.)

Available from: Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Washington, D. C.

INDEX TO STUDIES OF CHANGES IN TECHNOLOGY AND EMPLOYMENT IN AGRICULTURE. Bureau of Agricultural Economics in cooperation with Works

Projects Administration. (1941. 63 pp.

Mimeo.)

Available from: Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Washington, D. C.

MARKETING EGGS. Agricultural Marketing Service, Department of Agriculture. (1941. 37 pp. Illus. Farmers' Bulletin No. 1378. Price 10 cents.)

Available from: Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.

ADOBE ARCHITECTURE ITS DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION. Forest Service, Department of Agriculture. (1941. 36 pp. Illus. Processed.) Available from: Forest Service, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C.

LETTER OF JESSE JONES, FEDERAL LOAN ADMINISTRATOR, TO THE PRESIDENT AND THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES, Reporting upon the Activities of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and Affiliates in connection with the National Defense Program. Federal Loan Agency. (1941. 43 pp.)

Available from: Federal Loan Agency, Washington, D. C.

TRENDS IN RAILROAD TRAFFIC, FREIGHT RATES, AND PRICES, PERISHABLE AGRICULTURAL COMMODITIES, UNITED STATES. Bureau of Agricultural Economics. (1941. 60 pp. 60 pp. (Mimeo.) Available from: Bureau of Agricultural Economics, Washingron, D. C.

FAMILY EXPENDITURES IN SELECTED CITIES, 1930-36. VOLUME VII. RECREATION, READING, FORMAL EDUCATION, TOBACCO, ТОВАССО, CONTRIBUTIONS, AND PERSONAL TAXES Bureau of Labor Statistics in cooperation with Works Progress Administration. (1941. 385 pp. Bulletin No. 648. Study of Consumer Purchases Urban Technical Series. Price 35 cents.) The six minor categories of family expenditure described in this report represent as a whole a fairly large proportion of total expenditure especially at the higher income classes. Emphasis in the present analysis is on differences between the expenditure patterns of families in cities of different sizes in the same region. Available from: Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C.

PRIVATE PUBLICATIONS

NOTE: The Department has no copies of private publications for distribution and cannot