56 



Montana, as the Director and together we quickly- 

 assembled a staff with headquarters at Salinas. 



The project involved assembling the necessary 

 equipment, establishing nurseries in which to grow 

 the seedlings for field planting, renting land for 

 field plantings, overhauling the pebble mill, 

 recruiting labor, etc. All of these things presented 

 great difficulties under war-time conditions of short 

 ages of equipment and manpower, reluctance of landowners 

 to lease land for our plantings, and the like. We 

 had to get priority orders for scarce equipment and 

 even for airplane travel. 



We were fortunate to have the help of men in the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry who were familiar with the 

 operations of the Intercontinental Rubber Company 

 and with the technical problems in growing and 

 processing guayule. We also had help from soils 

 and agricultural engineering experts in the Depart 

 ment of Agriculture. 



Senator Downey of California and several inter 

 ested congressmen gave great assistance, particularly 

 the then-Senator Truman s war-time special committee, 

 in such matters as priorities. Both House and 



