The sun., 1918-06-11
RYAN ASKS FOR
$100,O00,000
AIR COMPANY
Senate Bill Would Create
Concern Like Emergency
Fleet Corporation.
TO HASTEN PRODUCTION
Purpose Also Is to SynchrOnizc
Builders Activities Here
and Abroad.
TO HASTEN PRODUCTION
Special Despdtch TO TnE SrS.

WASHINGTON. June l0.--At the re-
quest Of John n. Ryan. director OF the
Aircraft Production Board. Chairman
Chamberlain OF the Senate Military
Committee introduced to-day in the
Senate a bill to permit the creation OF
a 100.o00.00O aircraft corporation "to
facilitate and expedite the production Of
aircraft. aircraft equipment or material
therefor
The relationship which the corporation
will bear to the Aircraft Production
Board will be similar to that borne by
the Emergency Fleet Corporation to the
United States Shipping Board The
Government will hold a majority OF the
stock.
One Of the purposes Of the corporation
will be to synchronize the activities Of
aircraf. builders here and abroad so that
the needs OF the American and foreign
builders for materials produced or parts
fabricated in the United States can be
known sufficiently in advance to insure
regularity in supply and reasonableness
In prices.
Ryan to Explain To-day.
The bill as framed by Senator Cham
berlain. at Mr.. Ryan's suggestion. was
referred TO the Committee on Military
Affairs and 1t Is expected that when The
Director OF Aircraft Production appears
tomorrow before the committee to dis
cuss in detail as well as general terms
the needs OF the air service for the en-
suing fiscal year the purposes of the
proposed corporation will be more clearly
defined
As yet no formal report by the in
vestigators OF the military committee
who were engaged last week in sur
vey Of the aircraft production plants OF
New York State and the middle West
has been prepared, The Senators who
went on the tour returned encouraged
as to the certainty OF a general develop
ment OF quantity production in the near
future. They preserved suggestive
reticence in regard to the causes of de-
lay in production. having taken a pledge
not 10 talk until their report appears.
1t was said that the trip Of inspection
did not complete by any means the in
vestigation at first hand which had been
undertaken. For example. at the Cur
tiss plant In Buffalo the investigators
passed only a day and engaged merely
In brief examination OF some OF the
departmental heads OF the enterprise.
They had no opportunity to investi-
gate conditions among workingmen In
regard to the accusations of virtual
sabotage laid against unidentified EN-
ployees there by Senator Overman
(N. c. in the Senate when he produced
a steel bracket from one OF the Bristol
fight planes which had been tampered
with SO as to render 1t unsafe for use
and charged that German agents had
been guilty OF the offence.
other Inquiries Held Back.
Neither did the committee have op-
portunity to investigate the charge
of the deliberate waste OF materials and
supplies there or elsewhere. The charge
that unusable parts OF planes had been
deliberately destroyed by order OF de-
partment heads and that thousands OF
feet of spruce plane timbers had been
burned to get rid OF them and at the
same time multiply production costs
was also not looked into.
1t was assumed that the reticence II
| the sub-committeemen was predicated in
large measure on the fact that details OF
much that they did discover in regard to
the delays were OF nature which de-
manded that the facts be revealed to
special investigator Charles E. Hughes
Of the Department Of Justice before be-
ing given publicity through newspaper
channels.
The committee regards its work Of
investigation as still in only the initia-
tory stage