The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1917-06-21
PRIORITY BOARD
 ASKED BY STATE
 DEFENSECOUNCIL
Demanded As Expediency Measure for Production
 Of Government Orders


 cut State Council of Defense, in a resolution forwarded to President Wilson. Secretary of War Baker and Director Clifford of. the Advisory Commission of the Council of Ma tional Defense. Sets forth the essential needs of this state and respectfully and very urgently advocates the es- tablishment, as soon as possible, of a national priority board, with full power to determine and take full ac- ton for the federal government on all questions of priorities in the produc- ton and transportation required by the government in the prosecution of the war, and, so far as possi b1e, the correspo onding priorities of labor re- quirements involved in such produc- ton" The text of the resolution follows: Whereas the considerations here- with submitted are vital to the work of this council and underlie many of the most inpnrtant questions before it, to wit:
 The chief industry of Connecticut is the production of highly elaborated metal articles, implying great plant investment and peculiarly skilled la bor. Such production will be the main coptribution of Connecticut to the war. s The making of metal products of high elaboration requires in an ex- treme degree certain preliminary technical preparations absolutely un- avoidable, which involves.
 (a) Long periods of time,
 lb) Great specialized investment Production in war quantities must be by highly specialized. automatic machinery. This includes specialized tools, fixtures, gauges and equipment This special machinery, in It's turn, implies time and investment to. pro- cure., It is not standard, nor is 1t lpurchasable on the ordinary market. It must be built to order. The offer of unlimited money can reduce the time for creating such machinery, only by a small fraction of that time. There will still always remain abso- flute physical impossibilities Of further iacceleration. Furthermore, large investments of ca pital m nst be made in these pre- liminary requirements.
 One of the formeost rifle making lconcerns in the country having taken a foreign order for rifles at the begin ming of the war. and working under forced speed. CD took fourteen months before the first batch of rifles lwas delivered, and CD, invested $s50, 900 in tools, fixtures and gauges for this one job.
 To deliver to the United. States the maximum effective strength of Con- necticut in production will require a large shifting of industry here; very great and difficult re-adjustment of labor and of manufacturing and their 1 inter-relations, and considerable | disturbance of ordinary commercial activities. While recent legislation i has given to the governor, certain very drastic powers, which might be theoretically available here, the use of such powers is only in the cast ot last resort, and even then, of doubt full efficacy. Effective production o1 the highly elaborated products can not be secured by eompulsion. The only effective lever, therefore. avail able to the council. will be an appea, to the patriotism of both sides in in. | dustry, to meet definite demand o1 their country authoritatively stated. l Nothing else will serve the purpose Labor must be asked to surrender | temporarily, as a body, many of its valued positions. and individually te make great sacrifices. Manufactur- CTS must be asked to make cores. bonding concessions to labor, to intro
 duce radical changes in their plant. 1, and business, and to take large finan l cial risks. Only an authoritative de
 mand. setting forth on behalf of the
 government, specific needs and re quirements, can bring about such sac
 rifices of personal interest No gen
 eralities, or unauthorized requests, ol private prophecies of such needs vii produce any effect.
 The absolute time limitation abov,
 stated, makes it imperative that thes I necessary adjustments in industry b, begun at once, if Connecticut's pro duction. of munitions is to reach any thing like its maximum capacity il the next twelve months.
 It will be sufficiently difficult. per haps impossible, to reach that maxi mum, even under the most favorabl conditions. But to expect such pro auction without giving a chance fo the necessary preliminary prepara ton, based on definite demand, i utterly hopeless. It cannot be done