Evening star., 1927-10-09

r T comes again
Hundreds of thousands of industrial plants
/ in every State in the Union, will start imme
diately when Congress rings the bell each
with contract already made out, knowing just
what quantity of which article on list of upward
of 100000 essential war materials 1t must pro-
duce with adequate plant. sufficient and proper
machinery and trained working force ready, with
raw materials guaranteed with power provided
and with transportation assured to get the war
supplies where they needed on time
Congress will get bill showing the approx
mate cost of the war-and with profiteerlng prices
conscientiously and patriotcaly deleted.
Industrial leaders, specially trained for the
wartime service. with complete knowledge OF
the requirements for the Army and for the civil
ian population familiar through personal survey
with the facilities of each plant will take charge
of the production and delivery program, leaving
Army officers free to do their own particular job
fighting.
The United States will be on self-sustaning
basis.
The Importance of all this is emphasized by
the fact that for every soldier actually on the
combat line in the World War there were Il men
supplying him to make him effective.
This is the business program worked out py
+ba War Department and American industry co.
operating with the best counsel and active assist
ance of all agencies of Government 1t is the
efficient businesslike mobilization of industry IN
times of peace to be ready for war, with con-
and lives.
For the first time in history Nation are
taking advantage of the bitter lessons taught US
during any Congress has written SAVING
clause into the new national defense act OF 1870
which Observation-Disclosures for the first time
the rghtful and all-important place OF INDUSTRY
in the program of national protection. by It's
mandate the Assistant Secretary of war mas I'M
posed as his principal duty assurance of ade.
nuate provision for the mobilization of material
and industrial organizations essential to wartime
needs
Here for the first time in the history of the
ARMY is a definite and distinct cleavage made
between the purely military affairs, under the
chief of staff. the general staff and the fighting
arms and the strictly business affairs, under the
Assistant Secretary of War, an industrial stan
and the seven supply branches.
The big lesson of the World War from the in
dustral viewpoint was this:
Industrial preparedness had been no ones busi-
ness While by the millions our selected man.
power was rushed into service under the flag just
as fast as they could hold up their arms for the
OATH we could not equip them. They fought over
seas with borrowed weapons and borrowed artil-
lery. and on the day the armistice was declared
not one American tank or one American fighting
plane had reached the battle front. We had to
improvise the complete structure from the ground
up, with consequent delay, confusion, trial and
error. clash and competition, profiteering-waste
of both treasure and mems lives.
Even though had protected start manu-
featuring munitions for the allies for three years
behind the barrcade of allied arms, even though
all the people were eager and Congress appro
priated unprecedented sums of money, 1t was i'm
possible Immediately to expand and strengthen
the industrial structure to bear the wartime load
an increase of Is per cent in coal production, an
increase of 80 per cent our gigantic steel in.
dustry and hundreds of previously unheard-of re-
quirements in mountainous quantities. In Janu-
ary 1918, there $50 ships laden with war
materials tied up in American ports for lack Of
fuel. There were traffic bockades, damming up
the flow of imperatively needed supplies at
shipping centers and critical power shortage at
Niagara Falls and Pittsburgh.
Had been able to shorten the past war but
one week by industrial preparedness the saving
would have supported peace-time Army for
an entire year. and many precious lives would
have been spared.