Special Message to the Congress on Rubber.

To the Congress of the United States:

In my recent message to the Congress requesting the extension of certain titles of the Second War Powers Act for continued controls in a few specific areas, I pointed out the importance of natural and synthetic rubber to the national security. In that connection, I urged the Congress to continue allocation controls over rubber pending consideration of permanent legislation that would insure the maintenance of a minimum synthetic rubber industry in the United States.

I am sure that the Congress will wish to consider carefully all aspects of the problem before enacting permanent legislation. During the period of such consideration, however, I urge that there be no break in the continuity of policy and administrative action concerning both natural and synthetic rubber. I therefore wish to review, in somewhat fuller detail than was possible in my previous message, the character of this problem, and to suggest actions that seem desirable for the Congress to take at this time.

The problem has not been a matter of immediate concern up to the present time, because world supplies of natural rubber have been so critically short that it has been necessary for us to make fullest practicable use of our facilities for producing synthetic rubber. As I stated in my previous message, the world supply of natural rubber is still inadequate to meet world needs. We must, however, recognize that the time is rapidly approaching when this condition will no longer prevail. According to the best evidence that I have been able to obtain, it appears that perhaps in late 1947, and almost certainly by early 1948, natural rubber production will have increased to the point where it will be possible to satisfy world rubber needs largely from natural rubber. With an adequate world supply of natural rubber and a free choice of materials by industry, the use of synthetic rubber in the United States might fall substantially below the permanent production goals considered to be minimum for the needs of national security. This would be even more likely if at some time in 1948 the world supply of natural rubber should begin to exceed the total world demand for all rubber. The Congress has already made provision, by means of the Strategic and Critical Materials Stock Piling Act of 1946, for the accumulation of a stockpile of natural rubber within the borders of the United States. The physical properties of rubber, however, and the necessity of stockpile rotation, place limits which make the largest feasible Government stockpile of natural rubber inadequate in itself to meet the demands of a national emergency. The stockpile must be supplemented by an assured production of American-made rubber.

Appropriate action should be taken now to assure that adequate facilities for the production of American-made rubber of the highest quality continue to be available. Part of this productive capacity should continue in effective operation, and the techniques required for the efficient processing of synthetic rubber in the manufacture of rubber products should be maintained and improved.

The Congress will recall the extraordinary measures that had to be taken in the early days of the recent war to meet the emergency caused by the sudden unavailability of our normal supplies of rubber. At the direction of President Roosevelt a Rubber Survey Committee was created which outlined vigorous measures to be taken by both industry and Government. We were fortunate in having time to carry out the program outlined by this Committee, for the shortage of rubber could have caused the collapse of our war effort and of our domestic economy.

On another occasion we might not be so fortunate. The security of the United States and the essential needs of its citizens must never again be jeopardized by inadequate or uncertain rubber supplies.

In recognition of this fact, the Director of War Mobilization and Reconversion created an Interagency Policy Committee on Rubber in September, 1945. This committee made an exhaustive study of the problem, in cooperation with industry and the executive agencies concerned, and submitted two reports which were transmitted to the Congress on March 8 and July 22, 1946. These reports outline the dimensions of the problem and suggest various methods of meeting it.

The Congress should deal with all aspects of this matter during the present session because of its vital effect upon our national security. Meanwhile, it is imperative that the Congress extend authority to continue controls over rubber under the Second War Powers Act, as I requested in my previous message. Prompt action by the Congress will provide the basis for continuity of operation in rubber controls, and will permit their simplification and orderly relaxation or removal. It will also greatly aid the agencies concerned in planning production in Government-owned synthetic rubber plants and such action will contribute to the disposal of these plants to private industry.

The time will soon arrive when it will no longer be necessary to use these controls to insure equitable distribution of natural rubber or to produce the maximum number of commodities from synthetic rubber. When this time comes, continued controls would be used only for the purpose of insuring the maintenance of a minimum synthetic rubber industry in the United States. Controls should be used for such maintenance of a synthetic rubber industry only if specific authority is provided for that purpose.

I therefore recommend that the Senate and the House of Representatives, by Joint Resolution, make a declaration of policy to the effect that it is the firm intention of the Government to maintain a synthetic rubber industry in the United States, adequate to the minimum needs of national security.

I further recommend that the Senate and the House of Representatives act expeditiously in establishing appropriate committee arrangements to consider the problems involved in maintaining a synthetic rubber industry in the United States and to draft such legislation as is found to be necessary to accomplish this objective.

I repeat my recent recommendation that the authority to continue allocation controls on rubber be continued for one year under Title Ill of the Second War Powers Act, in order that the Congress may have an opportunity to consider this problem and to enact such permanent legislation as in its judgment is necessary and appropriate.

The program of action I have outlined has the unanimous and vigorous support of all agencies of Government concerned with this problem. I am instructing these agencies to give all possible assistance to the Congress in its consideration of the problem, and to make available, on request, the statistical material and other information which they have collected.

HARRY S. TRUMAN