Foreign News: How They Did It

A report from Germany told again of the Nazis’ shrewd, methodical scheming to overcome their shortages of strategic materials—shortages which once were supposed to make “a long war” practically impossible.

Back in 1931, in the Tien Shan Mountains, a young Soviet scientist discovered a dandelion-like weed whose roots yielded a gummy juice suitable for making rubber.* Russia promoted the lowly kok-sagyz to the dignity of a cultivated crop, by 1939 her farmers had planted 62,000 acres of it.

After the invasion of Russia, the Germans formed two corporations for a continent-wide exploitation of the fast-growing herb. They transplanted kok-sagyz to Germany, Denmark, Finland, Poland, the Balkans. Best results were obtained along the Danube. Now that blockaders are sinking more & more rubber-runners from Japan, and bombers are drastically cutting buna-S production at home, kok-sagyz from Russia is paying off for the Nazis.

*Years before, Thomas Edison had concluded that at least 1,200 plants yielded substances convertible into commercially satisfactory rubber.