STRATEGIC AND CRITICAL MATERIALS [GUAYULE RUBBER] WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1941 UNITED STATES SENATE, Washington, D. C. The committee met at 2:30 p. m., pursuant to call, in the committee room, the Capitol, Senator Austin and Senator Robert R. Reynolds (chairman) presiding, to consider the rubber situation. (The bill S. 2152, subsequently introduced by Mr. Downey on December 22, 1941, follows:) [S. 2152, 77th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To provide for the planting of forty-five thousand acres of guayule in order to make available a domestic source of crude rubber for emergency and defense uses Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the Secretary of Agriculture (hereinafter called the "Secretary") is authorized (1) To acquire by purchase, license, or other agreement the right to operate under patents, now held by the Intercontinental Rubber Company or any of its subsidiaries, relating to the planting of guayule or the extraction of rubber therefrom, and to acquire such properties, processes, records, and data as are necessary to such operation; (2) To plant, or contract for the planting of, not in excess of forty-five thousand acres of guayule in areas in the United States where the best growth and yields may be expected in order to maintain a nucleus planting of guayule to serve as a domestic source of crude rubber as well as of planting material for use in further expanding guayule planting to meet emergency needs of the United States for crude rubber; to establish and maintain nurseries to provide seedlings for field plants; and to purchase necessary equipment and facilities; (3) To acquire by purchase, lease, or other agreement rights to land for the purpose of making plantings of guayule; to make surveys, directly or through appropriate Government agencies, of areas in the United States where guayule might be grown; and to establish and maintain records indicating areas to which guayule cultivation could be extended for emergency production; (4) To construct, operate, or contract for the operation of, factories for the extraction of rubber from guayule; and to purchase, operate, and maintain equipment for the harvesting, storing, transporting, and complete processing of guayule; (5) To conduct studies, in which he may cooperate with any other public or private agency, designed to increase the yield of guayule by breeding or by selection, and to improve planting methods; to make surveys of areas suitable for cultivating guayule; to make experimental plantings; and to conduct agronomic tests; (6) To conduct tests, in which he may cooperate with any other public or private agency, to determine the qualities of rubber manufactured from guayule, and to determine the most favorable methods of compounding and using guayule in rubber manufacturing processes; (7) To improve methods of processing guayule and to obtain and hold patents on such new processes; and (8) To sell guayule or rubber processed from guayule and to use funds so obtained in replanting and maintaining an area of forty-five thousand acres of guayule inside the United States. SEC. 2. (a) The Secretary may appoint such employees as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this Act, subject to the civil-service laws, and the rates of compensation of such employees shall be fixed in accordance with the Classification Act of 1923, as amended. (b) The Secretary shall determine the character and necessity for the expenditures under this Act and the manner in which they shall be incurred, allowed, and paid, without regard to the provisions of any other laws governing the expenditure of public funds, and such determinations shall be final and conclusive upon all other officers of the Government. (c) The Secretary shall at all times maintain complete and accurate books of account and shall submit, as soon as practicable after January 1 of each year, an annual report to Congress of his activities under this Act. The General Accounting Office shall audit the financial transactions of the Secretary under this Act once each year for the sole purpose of making a report to Congress, together with such recommendations as the Comptroller General of the United States may deem advisable: Provided, however, That such report shall not be made until the Secretary shall have had reasonable opportunity to examine the report, to point out errors therein, explain any criticism contained therein, and to file a statement which shall be submitted by the Comptroller General with his report; (d) All money made available to carry out this Act may be deposited with the Treasurer of the United States, in any Federal Reserve bank, or in any bank approved by the Secretary of the Treasury and shall be subject to withdrawal at any time; (e) The Secretary may delegate any of the powers and duties conferred on him by this Act to any agency or bureau of the Department of Agriculture; (f) The Secretary, with the consent of any board, commission, independent establishment, corporation, or executive department of the Government, including any field service thereof, may avail himself of the use of information, services, facilities, officers, and employees thereof in carrying out the provisions of this Act; (g) The Secretary may allot to bureaus and offices of the Department of Agriculture or transfer to such other agencies of the State and Federal Governments as may be requested by him to assist in carrying out this Act any funds made available to him under this Act. SEC. 3. There are authorized to be appropriated such amounts as may be necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act. Any such amounts appropriated and any funds received by the Secretary under this Act shall remain permanently available for the purposes of this Act without regard to any other laws concerning availability and disposition of appropriated funds and the disposition of funds collected by officers or agencies of the United States. Present: Senators Reynolds (chairman), Schwartz, Downey, Chandler, Kilgore, Austin, Bridges, Gurney, and Lodge. Also present: Hon. Jesse H. Jones, Secretary of Commerce. Senator AUSTIN. Senator Reynolds will be here presently, Senator Downey, so I would suggest that you go ahead. Senator DOWNEY. Mr. Mason, will you come forward and testify? Senator AUSTIN. Will you give your full name and address, please? STATEMENT OF WILLIAM H. MASON, GENERAL TIRE & RUBBER CO. AKRON, OHIO Mr. MASON. Wililam H. Mason, General Tire & Rubber Co., Akron, Ohio. Senator DowNEY. Your company, of course, is interested in the rubber question in the United States, Mr. Mason? Mr. MASON. That is right. Senator DOWNEY. Have you, either yourself, personally, or your company, any financial or direct interest in this guayule rubber in California? Mr. MASON. No, sir. Senator DowNEY. Just as briefly as you can, Mr. Mason, I would like to have you tell, to the members of the committee and to the Secretary, what you know about the possibility of guayule rubber. Mr. MASON. William O'Neill, president of the company whom I represent here, and I have felt that guayule was the quickest way we could get rubber Senator AUSTIN (interposing). How do you spell that? Senator AUSTIN. Thank you. Mr. MASON (continuing). I will explain that guayule is a deciduous shrub brought to this country in 1912 and is found growing in Mexico, wild. It was found previous to that time, and in the revolution of 1912 it was brought to this country. There are several hundred varieties, and they have been working on the shrub in Salinas, Calif. It is a shrub that grows in that section of the country, and, according to its age, its content of rubber increases, beginning at the end of the first year and continuing on with an increase each year. The Salinas area, in California, has been growing this shrub for 30 years and they now have some 7,000 acres growing, and have seed enough, according to Dr. W. B. McCallum, head of the rubber plantaccording to him they have enough seed to immediately plant 110,000 acres. Senator AUSTIN. Who are "they"? Mr. MASON. The Intercontinental Rubber Co., which is a company which started way back in-I cannot give you the exact date, but they produce guayule rubber, and import most of their product from Mexico and sell it to the Goodrich Rubber Co., in this country, at the rate of about 100 tons a month. Now, there is not enough grown here to get a commercial trade on it, and the reason is that, in normal times, it is not practical, inasmuch as the cost of growing it is much greater than that of tree rubber. Senator AUSTIN. Are you interested in this? Mr. MASON. Only as a means of getting rubber, not financially or any other way. In no way do we have an interest other than in getting the rubber. Senator AUSTIN. Have you a contract which authorizes you to command the output? Mr. MASON. No, sir; and it would be Mr. O'Neill's suggestion, in that regard, that the Government handle it. We do not have any possible interest except to get a rubber supply. Senator DOWNEY. Mr. Mason, will you continue and tell the chairman to what extent, if any, the shrub has been improved in rubber content through this development? Mr. MASON. Whether there is cross-breeding, or whether it is through the selection of seed, the normal rubber content of the product brought in now is about 12 percent, and guayule growing in Salinas is getting as high as 23 percent, and Dr. McCallum told me, 2 weeks ago, that he got as high as 30 percent rubber from such shrubs as these [indicating]. Senator AUSTIN. You say that is 30 percent rubber? Mr. MASON. Not quite 30 percent there; I would say 22 to 23 percent of that shrub is rubber, but he thinks it can be developed to a point where it will get to 30 percent. Senator DowNEY. What about the climatic conditions under which the shrub grows? Mr. MASON. The shrub is grown, or can be grown-and the Department of Agriculture will bear this out-in California, Texas, Arizona, and New Mexico, and they believe it may be grown in other States. It demands several things: one, a long dry spell during which time the rubber content increases. They have tried to grow it in such States as Georgia, and while they get maybe magnificent plants, nevertheless it all goes to foliage and does not have a high rubber content, and in commercial production, what is necessary is the heavy rubber content. Senator DOWNEY. What about temperature conditions? Mr. MASON. They have not grown it any place where the temperature has been lower than 5°. In the Big Bend country it got as low as 25° and did not kill the plant, but whether or not the cold would kill the plant at a temperature lower than that, we do not know; but it can be grown, as has been seen, where it does not get lower than 15° or 20°. Senator DOWNEY. It seldom goes below 22° at Salinas, is that right? Mr. MASON. That is true, sir. Senator DOWNEY. What about the amount of land adaptable to this plant culture around Salinas, is there an unlimited amount? Mr. MASON. In California, not only around Salinas, but in southern California there is any amount of land which seems to be particularly suited to guayule. Senator DOWNEY. Mr. Mason, do you know how many acres are planted down there? Mr. MASON. I understand there are 7,000 acres planted. That was about 2 weeks ago and I did not see them, but I was told they had 7,000 acres. Senator DOWNEY. That is, 4 years old? Mr. MASON. Most of them were 4 years old, although some were planted last year, and are just 1 year old. Senator DowNEY. How much rubber, per acre, would you expect to be yielded from shrubs 4 years old? Mr. MASON. That runs 2,000 and 2,500 pounds per acre, at 4 years. Senator AUSTIN. That is, taking in the whole shrub? Mr. MASON. Yes, sir; everything is taken except the foliage. The plant is chopped up and put through a milling process, a mill which costs about $250,000 for the one they have in Salinas now, and they say it can be duplicated for much less than that. Senator DOWNEY. Have they a processing mill? Mr. MASON. Yes, sir; there is one out there now. Senator DOWNEY. In your opinion, is it feasible to extract the rubber from the plant at the end of 1 year? Mr. MASON. I am not a qualified expert on that, but Dr. McCallum, who has studied the growing of guayule plants for the past 30 years, says that the most economical way to produce guayule rubber is over a period of 4 or 5 years, in a 4- or 5-year cycle. He says, however, that there is a rubber content of around 6 percent in the plant at the end of the first year which could be taken out, just as at the end of 4 or 5 years, but he believes that it would cost more. On the other hand, Dr. David Spence, of Stanford University, very highly regarded as a rubber chemist and who was head of Mr. Baruch's Rubber Research Department in the last war, under the Industrial Board, believes that the cheapest way to get guayule rubber is to harvest it at the end of the first year. Senator DOWNEY. Do you know what reason he gives? Mr. MASON. Because you can plant it broadcast, much more thickly than otherwise, and he maintains that you can get a thousand pounds of rubber per acre by planting and harvesting at the end of the first year, rather than at the end of a 5-year cycle, and according to his reasoning, that would give you 5,000 pounds per acre over a period of 5 years, instead of the 2 to 212 thousand pounds, if you let it stand for that period of 5 years. Senator DowNEY. Now, Mr. Mason, when is this shrub planted, what time of the year? Mr. MASON. Well, I understand that it can be planted in January, in order to take advantage of the winter rains. They have an irrigation system that is used, too, so that it could be planted in California at any time of the year. Senator DOWNEY. That is the preferred time? Mr. MASON. That is the time it is set out, ordinarily, as seed. Senator DOWNEY. What seeds are available for planting of a big crop? Mr. MASON. The entire supply is in the hands of Intercontinental, and they said that they had seeds for 45,000 acres, according to the report made to the Tariff Commission in September. Since that time, they have harvested their seed, harvested a new crop, and they have now seeds for 110,000 acres, according to Dr. McCallum, head of the company. Senator DowNEY. If your figures are correct, if 110,000 acres could be planted and harvested at the end of 1 year, you could expect to get 55,000 tons? Mr. MASON. If Dr. Spence's figures are right. Senator DOWNEY. And in 4 or 5 years, you could get twice that many tons? Mr. MASON. At least twice that much, at the end of 4 years. Senator DOWNEY. Now, if these seeds were planted to their full amount and you had your 110,000 acres of the shrub, then what seeds could be yielded by that? Mr. MASON. A ratio of 10 to 1. Senator DowNEY. Ten to one? Mr. MASON. Yes, sir. Senator DOWNEY. So, with your basic start of 110,000 acres planted, you would have practically unlimited seeds? Mr. MASON. That is right, sir. Senator DowNEY. And you have unlimited land available? Mr. MASON. Yes, sir; as to the land there is any amount of acreage that could be used for it. Senator DOWNEY. Under this planting that might take place in January, when would you expect to harvest your seeds? Mr. MASON. You could harvest within 8 months after the original planting. Senator DowNEY. Then, you could expect to harvest the seeds in 8 months and plant them the following January? Mr. MASON. Yes; and in 8 months you should have a big supply of rubber, and it is, of course, chemically real rubber. The tree |