Swing (Feb-Dec 1951)

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260 April, 1931 cer; back and forth went officials of the government, testing, checking. In 1941 Spencer flew over 130,000 miles. He maintained eastern offices in New York and Washington. On Monday and Tuesday he was in New York; on Wednesday he was in Washington; back at Pittsburg, Kansas, on Thursday and Friday; Kansas City on Saturday and Sunday. Then back to New York for Monday and Tuesday of the next week. He maintained this tight and exhausting schedule 50 weeks out of the 52 weeks in the year 1941! After months of waiting the plan was approved and the government ordered a chemical plant built. And insisted that Spencer construct and run the plant! At first he refused, but finally formed the Military Chemical Works, Inc., as a subsidiary of his coal company, and designed, constructed and put the plant in operation, the first ammonia plant in the U. S. to utilize the natural gas process. In rapid succession other plants were built by the government: the Sunflower Ordnance Works, a smokeless powder plant in Kansas; the Oklahoma Ordnance Works, a smokeless powder plant in Oklahoma; and the Kansas Ordnance Works, a shell loading plant in Kansas. Spencer during this period was constantly so busy that he didn't have time to meet President Roosevelt! A meeting had been scheduled for Spencer, Gov. Payne Ratner of Kansas and Bob Lemon, president of the Pittsburg Chamber of Commerce, to receive congratulations from the President. But that afternoon, Spencer was waiting for the chief of the ordnance de partment to sign the contract. The deadhne for the White House meeting found Ratner and Lemon on hand. The moment came — no Spencer! With the chemical plant in full production. Spencer offered specific plans for the plant if his company bought it after the war. He would convert 50 per cent of the plant capacity to produce ammonium nitrate farm fertilizers. The rest of the plant would be turned into the production of wood alcohol, formaldehyde, dry ice, and other basic chemicals. In 1946, the government approved the transfer, the Jayhawk Ordnance Works became the first Spencer Chemical principal producing unit of the Company on June 2, and immediately began producing ammonia and fertilizergrade ammonium nitrate. Spencer's dream had become a reality! TODAY, Kenneth Spencer is better known as a chemical man. But his background is coal, being the third generation of the family who started the Pittsburg Midway Coal Mining Company. His grandfather, John W. Spencer, was a Union cavalryman in the war between the states. In 1866 he drove cattle up from Texas, homesteaded in Kansas and became a rancher. But not for long; one day he was thrown from his horse and crippled. Unable to continue the ranch work, he turned to mining the coal under his land.