EMEMBER the wonderful postwar cars the magazines used to tell us about? Engin- eers took delight in describing the performance, long life, economy and low price of those promised automobiles. Men like Ford and Kaiser and Stout were going to give us People’s Cars that would bring the pleasure of motoring within the reach of everyone. Well, you -know where those cars are now. Still in their blueprints. Still in the heads of engineers who had to for- get their happy dreams and get down to the serious busi- ness of turning out the poor- est cars the public would buy at the highest possible prices. You and I, if we're lucky enough to have a car at all, are still driving our old pre- war crocks. After the Indianapolis auto races, people began asking me Some pointed questions. Why such a poor showing this year? What's the matter with North America’s leadership in car de- signing? To come right down to the corner gas station, where are those marvelous gasoline fuels we used to read about? This touched me on a sore spot. I had told the public how every gas station in the land Would be ready to fill up our tanks with high octane fuel. Just as soon as the war was over, I said, we would have our pick of high performance gas—smooth, fast pick-up, no knocking, and easy on the poc- ket book. But I made a mistake, I for- got a little detail. I overlooked the fact that the petroleum in- dustry is one huge monopoly, made up of our biggest finance capitalists, men who don't know an octane number from a de- hydrocyclization process. These gentlemen are authorities on just one aspect of motoring: ng the public for a ride. And they've done it again. The reason why we can't buy high-performance gasoline — is simple. The petroleum trusts have decided not to sell it to us. They make more money on lower quality fuels. Now, are you satisfied? I'm not. \ e yeaa in the war years the Chemical engineers of the gasoline industry were writing all sorts of technical articles about postwar fuel. They agreed on one thing. When peace came, we'd get very much better gas than we ever had before. Not super-super fuel, perhaps, but greatly im- proved. Today our gasoline is very much worse than just before the war. Here’s what a big~ shot in Standard Oil is telling the tech- nical men today: “It is inter- esting to note that in few in- stances where individual brands have achieved octane numbers of 85 and 80, no great excite- ment was caused, nor were the complaints particularly vio- lent, when they were reauced 1.75," The petroleum bosses have figured out how to make an extra billion or so by using what the chemist calls ‘sour crude.’ Gasoline made from By DYSON CARTER Knock Standard Oil if your car knocks ‘sour’ is realy sour. It con- tains much sulfur. Smell your car’s exhaust and you get the idea. What you can’t smell or see is the effect of such fuel on your motor. It forms strongly corrosive acids that give all the working parts a chronic ailment. Gasoline is still big business. But the oil refining monopo- lists are making more and more money out of new mar- kets. Almost overnight their volume of other fuels (for heating and Diesels) has soar- ed to more than 30 percent of the gasoline business, A huge output, constantly grow- ing, goes to new chemical in- dustries. So the oil trusts aren’t worried about motorists getting ‘excited’ and com- plaining ‘violently,’ was made in Europe. It is a Mercedes-Benz. Twelve cylind- er, V-type, super-charged, five- speed transmission and a new type spring system. Most in- _ teresting detail is that this car r ) : doesn’t burn gasoline at all. IGNIFICANTLY the fast- Its fuel is alcohol. Some day est car in the world today we too will burn alcohol in Our cars. It can be made from waste products from our farm and forests. : Engineers and chemists have a lesson to learn from the workers. Giving the public bet- ter cars and fuels, like giving us a higher standard of life, is not a problem that can be solved in laboratories. It is # political fight. A hard, tough battle against the monopolists and all their servants, a Strue~ gle that is shaping up on every side. Tens of millions of US against a handful of billion- aires, fRIDAY, JUNE. 20, 1947 7. YOUTH BUILDS THROUGH FRIENDSHIP... An adventure in International friendship—that’s the best way to describe the great World Youth Festival taking place in Prague, Czechoslovakia, this summer. Nothing like it has ever happened before. 50,000 Youth from fifty-five different countries will meet together in a spirit of goodwill. Canada’s delegation will include representatives from Christian, Jewish, Student, and cultural youth groups. It will include a labor youth delegation of twenty-five, spon- sored by the National Federation of Labor Youth and drawn from trade unions, community and language youth organiza- tions, Now in the midst of hectic preparations, the labor youth dele- gation looks forward to this adventure with eager anticipation. AND THROUGH RECONSTRUCTION ... From Prague the Canadian labor youth delegation will journey to Yugoslavia, where for a month they will be part of a huge working force of Yugoslav and world youth building a vital railway link. through the Bosnia River Valley. This is a gesture of friendship to the youth and people of that heroic country who have given so much to the Allied Victory, It is also a recognition of the fact that the speedy reconstruction of war-devastated Europe is absolutely essential to World Peace. YOU CAN HELP TO SEND CANADA’S LABOUR YOUTH DELEGATION TO EUROPE SEND CONTRIBUTIONS NOW TO THE NATIONAL FEDERATION OF LABOR YOUTH 410 HOLDEN BUILDING : e VANCOUVER, B.C. Honorary Patrons of the CANADIAN LABOR YOUTH DELEGATION’ Mr. George Burt Director, Region 7, UAW.CIO Mr. Bruce Magnuson / Vice-President, Ontario Federation of Labor (TLO)- Mr. C. 8, Jackson Oanadian President, UE-CIO. Mr. Freeman Jenkins President, United Mine Workers ef Americs. District No. 26, My. Harold Pritchett, President, District 1, IWA-CIO. —— PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAGE 12 eit aurea ee >