National Defense: Who Fumbled Aluminum

If the U.S. by terrific effort attains an aluminum ingot capacity of 600,000 tons (up 420,000 tons from 1940) by next year, and cuts off all aluminum for civil and indirect military uses, it may have barely enough for direct military needs. Such was the consensus of testimony last week before Senator Harry Truman's committee investigating the state of U.S. defense. But what really interested the committee was why the Army, Navy, defense production agencies and the aluminum industry itself all failed to recognize that fact last fall.

One of the prize witnesses was Richard S. Reynolds, whose Reynolds Metals...

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