SOUTHERN HORIZONS 



mediately the scene shifts to Washington, for the Gov- 

 ernment built and owns the excess-capacity plants and 

 is under no obligation to sell them to their wartime 

 operators. In fact, an effort is being made to encourage 

 competition. In each metal a single company, Alcoa and 

 Dow, now occupy a dominating position, won during 

 the lean years of the depression when what now seems 

 their pitiful output was much greater than the country 

 wanted. 



Though the present outlook is so cloudy, the very 

 men who ought to be lying awake nights stewing show 

 few signs of insomnia. If they do have trouble getting 

 to sleep, I suspect it is because their heads are buzzing 

 with ideas for the future. When I asked the supposedly 

 embarrassing question of my old friend, "Dutch" Beutel, 

 general manager of the Dow operations in Texas, he 

 looked out of the window at the big plant the Govern- 

 ment had erected alongside the original Dow unit and 

 shrugged his shoulders. 



"Come now, I'm only a production man," he said, 

 showing his strong white teeth in a silent laugh, "and 

 that is strictly a problem for the management and the 

 Government, chiefly for Uncle Sam, I reckon. I want 

 none of it." 



Whether that "it" referred to the problem or the plant 

 I could only guess for he tossed across his desk a three- 

 inch cube of metal and asked if I had seen this new 

 alloy of zinc and magnesium. And he was off, extolling 



216 



