The Waterbury Democrat., 1931-06-12
NEA Service Writer

Washington-For the past several years the peacetime the war depart ment has been bringing to the atten- l tion of various industries their war time responsibilities and giving them estimates of the wartime demands of the army and navy on their plants pproximately "15,000 large fa- cilities" have been surveyed. accord ing to the army's war plans as sub- mitted to the war policies commis- sion. Definite tasks for emergency have been assigned to each selected plant In order not to upset national production more than necessary and to maintain normal commercial con- tacts on a reduced basis, such tasks I do not involve more than 50 per cent of plants normal capacity. Under the national defense act, the war department points out the gov ernment can place compulsory orders l with any factory and is empowered 1 to requisition such plants as may re- fuse to accept them.
 Plan Advisory Council
 The war plans call for an "Ad- visory War CounciP' to assist the president in carrying on the con- flict. Besides the secretaries of war and navy, this council would in- clude a director of selective service. director of war industry, director of public relations and administrator of labor.
 This is part of a general plan | which. according to General Doug las Macarthur, chief of staff, is 1 based on a great improvement on on our 1917 position in that besides the skeletonized framework of a citi- zen army capable of rapirly ab- sorbing the nations man power, the army now maintains intimate con- | tact with the industrial structure under a program which will enable American industry promptly to ab- sorb our ware requirements.
 | Delay in procurement of neces- | sary munitions and supplies, guess work about the amounts of supplies need which results in wasteful ever production and serious shortages, im- proper distribution of the war pro- duction load along with congestion, 1 and transportation facilities, enef- ficient use of resources, un-co-o -ordi- mated purchases and unequal distrl- buttons of war burdens are some of the things which the war department, profiting from lessons of the last war;
 will seek to avoid in any big future l conflict.
 The army's shopping list included about 100000 different items in the World war, but the so-called vitally essential list now comprises about 40o0 articles complete for issue. i Cut Down Competition
 l Instead of throwing open their procurement necessities to competit- tive bidding, the war and navy de- | partments will base their procure ment plans on allocation. Under this system plants are able to make
 some preparation for their tasks,
 prices can better be determined by negotiation and through definine as- | signments exact pre-arrangement for production of munitions can be ob- tained.
 Many articles required in war are
 not ordinarily produced in this coun- try, so the war department has as-
 sembled a great collection of com
 plete drawings and specifications for delivery to manufacturers who would
 otherwise have no prior knowledge
 of applicable production methods. To develop this form ofwar prepara-
 tion constant experimentation and
 actual production is in progress at
 gocernment arsenals laboratories.
 The war department now seeks
 money from congress for placing
 educational orders" with factories,
 use of which would hasten produc-
 ton in any later emergency.
 The army also has widespread
 plans to govern handling of raw ma
 terials in wartime. especially those
 not readily produced in this country.
 Among its designs for reduction of i wartime profiteering is an adjusted
 compensation contract. applicable
 to large construction programs and
 procurement of non.commercial
 items. Tentative cost schedules would
 be agreed upon which might be re'
 vised from time to time. The gov
 ernment would audit all accounts as
 they arose and pay all approved
 costs of performance. plus q rate oi
 six per centa year on the value oi
 the plant involved In the contract.
 Contractor Protected
 If tho company does the job Al
 less fhan the revised estimate oi
 costs the government pays him somt ladded compensation. Hence. although
 the profit would be small the con'
 tractor is guaranteed against loss if the cost exceeds the estimate tht
 contractors profit is reduced and
 there is no temptation to pad eosti
 ns there was with the old eosf.plu' EHHtEWt ..