Word: symingtons
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Like two opposing field commanders discussing a truce, Bolivian Ambassador Ricardo Martinez Vargas and RFC Administrator W. Stuart Symington held an important conference in Washington last week. After four weeks of polite parleying, they came to terms: Bolivia agreed in principle to sign a 30-day contract to sell her tin to the U.S. at $1.12 a lb., subject to the approval of the big Bolivian tin producers. The terms added up to a notable victory for Symington, who has been fighting a two-front war for lower prices for tin and other raw materials. One front is against Bolivia...
...Declared. Symington declared war two months ago when he stopped buying Bolivia's tin, at $1.39 a lb., some 79% higher than pre-Korean prices. He began selling tin to U.S. consumers from the stockpile, in 18 days hammered the world price down to $1.06. Since Bolivia gets 83% of its foreign exchange from sales of tin, chiefly to the U.S., its economy began to shake. State Department officials feared that a depression might cause a revolution in Bolivia that would at least result in sweeping anti-U.S. forces into power...
...series of blunt sessions with the State Department, Symington stuck to one principle: if the State Department wanted to bolster the Bolivian economy, it should get a foreign aid appropriation from Congress. It had no right to expect him to exact an artificial subsidy from U.S. consumers...
Hazy Figures. To find a fair price, Symington and State sent a joint commission to Bolivia last month. The commission discovered that the Bolivian government had only hazy figures on tin production costs. In effect, the producers started out with a selling price, such as $1.50 a lb., then "justified" it by arbitrarily setting their costs, e.g., labor and equipment, 53?; taxes, 54? dividends, 18?. Since labor costs were only 23% of the selling price, Symington argued that the tin barons and not the workers got the benefits of high prices. (Average Bolivian income is 1/40th of average U.S. income...
...week from their price peaks. Malayan tin dropped to $1.14½ a lb.-a 41% slump in four months-because the Reconstruction Finance Corp., buyer of all U.S. tin, had stopped buying. It is selling its stockpiled tin to U.S. users at $1.06 a lb. RFC Administrator W. Stuart Symington hinted last week that world prices have dropped about enough and the U.S. might soon start buying again. This would be a big relief to some U.S. State Department officials, who are worried that Symington's tin squeeze is putting unbearable economic pressure on Bolivia where tin represents about...