Tin

Lord Askwith of St. Ives (1st Baron), tin magnate in the Straits Settlements mines, blew a double-stopped yet harmless blast of exaggeration at the Royal Colonial Institute held in London last week:

"It has been estimated that if anything happened to America's tin supplies about 25% of American husbands would go hungry, for the simple reason that tinned* food has robbed American women of their culinary art. The U. S. is effectually sealing itself in a tin can. Half the food Americans eat is tinned." That was to prove to his stockholders that their tin investments were based on a sound commodity. Then he let go with another toot: ''Americans are so busy and so imprisoned in their tinned lives that they never pause to consider what would happen if the tin supply ran out and they had to fall back on ordinary food. The U. S. consumes 50% of the world's tin."

Lord Askwith's object was, of course, to boost the price of tin by suggesting that it might soon be as rare as gold. But London tin dealers were deaf to Lord Askwith. They put down the price of tin by nearly $11 per ton and in New York tin lost 1/8-c- per pound. Guggenheim interests and the National Lead Co., largest U. S. tin producers, have frequently warned the U. S. of a world shortage of tin by 1940. U. S. prices, however, over the last four months have gone down to 50-c- a pound from 65-c-. British tin hunters in the Straits Settlements are feeling the competition of U. S. producers in Bolivia. Lord Askwith, their bugler, has too much Straits tin to sell to the U. S. and the market ceaselessly declines.

*English for "canned."