Newsbriefs A Clipsheet Spring 1959 Number 35 THE TWENTIETH CENTURY FUND 41 East 70 Street, New York 21, N. Y. THE AMERICAN ECONOMY: THE Mankind may use 15-20 million tons POLITICAL INTEREST FIRST If hydroelectric plants were to be es- BITTER AMIDST THE SWEET of salt, about half the total output, in tablished at all sites of falling water food and for livestock, notes a report of IN U. S. ECONOMIC AID throughout the including the "The primacy of the American econ- the Twentieth Century Fund. The rest "The United States has vital interests powerful waterfalls in Central Africa, omy, in its productiveness which is used for industrial purposes. at stake in the course of events in those the Amazon River, the rivers of Siberia yielded a per capita income in 1949 vast areas now stirring with social un- and the Himalayas-a if the energy higher by 67 per cent than that of the In the 1890s the United Kingdom rest and resentment of their impover- produced were delivered without heavy country ranking second (Canada) and launched more than 80 per cent of ished material state. First and foremost loss to places where it is needed, the in the opportunities it affords to indi- the world's merchant shipping tonnage, in the present international scene comes Twentieth Century Fund estimates that viduals, is well recognized. Its defects- notes a Twentieth Century Fund re- its political interest. The United States it could satisfy about half the current susceptibility to business cycles, a high cannot stand idly by and witness the demand of the world. port. degree of personal insecurity, inequality recruitment of the populous countries of of wealth, concentration of economic Asia and perhaps even of Africa and power, waste of natural resources, ugly Latin America to Communism. Not that and vulgar manifestations-are linked the United States can purchase friend- with its virtues. The drive to produce ship or political allies by its loans, contributes to business cycles and often grants or technical aid; for the gratitude ignores aesthetics; individual opportu- of the recipient countries may be nity implies a risk of failure and a strongly tinged with injured pride or chance of accumulating great wealth suspicion, and at best will be only tran- and power; high wages encourage ex- sitory. Rather, the guiding fact is that a penditure (or 'waste') of materials in- country of satisfactory material well- stead of labor. Few Americans would be being is rarely, if ever, a voluntary con- willing to sacrifice the virtues of their vert to the ranks of Communism. It is economy in order to get rid of its de- vitally necessary to the United States to fects."-from the Twentieth Century offset the 'quick and easy' remedies of Fund study, "Antitrust Policies: Amer- Communism through violence and ex- ican Experience in Twenty Industries," propriation by creating the external by Simon N. Whitney. China produces more tea than any conditions under which an impover- other country-about half of all in The average person consumes ished people may, by its own efforts, the world-but consumes most of its One of the factors responsible for the raise its levels and standards of living twelve pounds of salt a year, says a growth of the hatchery industry in the crop, notes a Twentieth Century and yet maintain its political inde- study of the Twentieth Century United States was the fact that in 1918 pendence."- the Twentieth Cen- Fund. Fund study. it became possible to ship chicks by par- tury Fund study "Approaches to Eco- cel post, a Twentieth Century Fund nomic Development," by Norman S. study points out. Buchanan and Howard S. Ellis. One of the dramatic innovations in QUICK TREE GROWING IS NEW the textile industry in the eighteenth One reason why Cuba is so ideal for SECRET OF HYBRIDIZERS Cheese is made in some five hundred century in addition to the new mech- growing sugar cane is evident in the varieties, notes a Twentieth Century anization was the substitution of chlo- fact that four to eight crops a year from Technological progress in silviculture Fund report, and from the milk of many rine for sunlight as a bleaching method, the same planting are usual there, opens new horizons for the future, notes animals. The Lapps and Eskimos make with a saving of nearly six months time whereas in such sugar-producing areas a recent Twentieth Century Fund re- cheese from reindeer milk, the Arabs in the process of whitening cloth, notes as India or Indonesia only one crop can port. It is anticipated that in the not too from camels' milk; llama cheese is pop- a Twentieth Century Fund report. be obtained from one set of canes, notes distant future hybrid forest trees will ular in the Cordilleras in South Amer- a report of the Twentieth Century grow to harvest size in half or even a ica, and zebu cheese in Ceylon and The $150 million or SO the oil industry Fund. third the time required by a good non- India. is spending on research annually is re- hybrid tree. There is already a hybrid flected in such advances as the eight- pine which, at three years, is more than fold output per man-hour in a typical twice as high and three times as heavy refinery between 1901 and 1951, notes as the better type of the parent stock. a Twentieth Century Fund report. It is confidently predicted that hybrid tree strains will be as common in twenty years or SO as hybrid corn is today. The first basic patents to make "arti- When that time comes, commercial ficial leather" date back to 1855, and plantations could produce two or three "leatherette" has enjoyed a long-time times as much timber as is produced by popularity for such things as baby bug- natural growth or by planting standard gies, book bindings and inexpensive stock. handbags, notes a Twentieth Century Fund study. Lumber is actually becoming a syn- thetic product, frequently being made The antitrust policy of the United from chips and scraps pressed together, States has until recent years been al- and the now old-fashioned plywood is most unique, no country having adopted being supplanted by a wide variety of The United States is the world's so thorough a system of laws against Sunflower seed is the most impor- "densified woods" produced under great largest producer of eggs, with an combinations and restraints of trade in tant oil-bearing crop in the USSR, heat and pressure and with the use of output exceeding that of all Europe, industry, notes a Twentieth Century says a report of the Twentieth Cen- synthetic resin binders, notes a study according to a Twentieth Century Fund report. The Canadian law is per- tury Fund. of the Twentieth Century Fund. Fund report. haps the most effective foreign legisla- tion, but it lacks our prohibition of monopoly. The share of water power in the out- Asia accounts for more than 95 per put of electricity ranges from more than A single large steel mill may require cent of the world's output of tea, with 99 per cent in Switzerland, Norway and as much as 500 million gallons of water Honduras, one of the smaller nations the rest being grown in Africa and the Sweden, and almost 90 per cent in a day, enough to supply all normal daily of the world, with an area of 43,277 USSR, notes a Twentieth Century Fund Austria and Japan, to less than 3 per requirements of a city of several mil- square miles, is nevertheless the second report. cent in the United Kingdom, Denmark lion people, notes a Twentieth Century largest of the five Central American re- and Belgium, notes a report of the Fund survey. publics, ranks fourteenth in size among Twentieth Century Fund. Output of soybean oil in the United the twenty Latin American nations, and States now exceeds that of cottonseed "Naval stores" is a trade term for tur- is almost equal in extent to the com- Fresh water is our primary self- bined area of three of the more ad- oil, previously the chief vegetable oil pentine and rosin which dates from the produced in this country, notes a Twen- renewing resource, notes a Twentieth vanced European countries, the Nether- days when the ropes of wooden sailing tieth Century Fund report. Century Fund study, and our supply lands, Switzerland and Denmark, notes vessels were lubricated and the seams of it is enormous. The total quantity in a new Twentieth Century Fund report. calked with pitch and tar, notes a sur- constant circulation, measured by the vey of the Twentieth Century Fund. Although each year more than 600,000 average annual precipitation over the Tin, of which the U. S. is a major Americans alone visit Mexico as tour- United States in the form of rain and consumer, is outstanding in its high ists and more than a million tourists snow, amounts to about 4,300 billion About 740 million acres of land in 17 antifriction property, extreme malle- and other travelers move into the gallons daily. About 3,000 billion gal- western states - almost 40 per cent of ability, high resistance to corrosion, low Caribbean area, fewer than 25,000 vis- lons return to the atmosphere through the area of the continental S. melting point (a quality it imparts to itors go to Honduras in any capacity, evaporation and transpiration, and the ceive too little rainfall to ensure general alloys) and ability to adhere closely to notes a new Twentieth Century Fund rest runs off to the sea. But our use of agriculture, says a Twentieth Century metals, a quality useful in soldering, survey. fresh water is also enormous. Fund survey. notes a Twentieth Century Fund report. The items in this clipsheet are prepared primarily for the use of newspaper editors as fillers. They are taken from studies published by the Twentieth Century Fund, the names of which may be obtained by writing to the Fund. ALL OR ANY PART OF THIS MATERIAL MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT SPECIAL PERMISSION The Twentieth Century Fund, an endowed foundation for research and public education on economic and social problems, was founded in 1919 by the late Edward A. Filene. The Fund's income, administered as a public trust by a Board of Trustees, is devoted entirely to its own research and educational activities.