Evening star., 1940-12-29
Industry Faces
Big Priorities
Problem
Growing Shortage
Of Important Steel
Items Reported
BY FRANK MacMILLEN,


NEW YORK, Dec 2s.-Weary
clerks were mopping up today after
the country's greatest Christmas
spending splurge since fabled 1929.
and industrial managers in thou.
sand plants were straining TO speed
the wheels to drive a $1,000 600, 900
arms rush.
Yet evidence appeared to be grow
ing that many businessmen and
trade experts had been stirred to
critical determination by charges
at Washington and elsewhere that
the problems of next years indus
trial boom still were pressing.
In steel, key sinew Of defense,
where a controversy has been rag
ing as to the capacity to meet
armament and civilian needs
smoothly, there were signs that the
ultimate decision was yet to be
reached.
The National Association of Pur-
chasing Agents, the men who buy
for the big industrial concerns of
the Nation, advised its members:
steel in mill-run form and fab
ricated items are becoming more
and more difficult of procurement in
quantities to conform with the
quickened rate Of consumption in
many lines of manufacture.
From an equally reliable trade
source it was learned that even
fabricating subsidiaries of some of
the biggest steel producers. such as
ship and construction units. were
having trouble getting some sorts
OF materials from their parent
sources.
Protest Is Planned.
How far this was the result Of
imperfect distribution and priorities
methods appeared not vet clear, but
the president of at least one stable
Independent steel producer was said
10 be planning a protest that the
facilities of the smaller concerns
were not being adequately employed.
Usually reliable Wall Street
sources heard that the steel situa-
ton was a source of concern to de-
tense authorities at the Capital,
but no steps were announced there
during the week to confirm this
That the problem of the general
course of prices was to the fore,
however, as Government officials
worried about the effects of the arms
drive hapopna ay1nara,,+ -, A. ,-..
with which the Defense Commission
began investigation of a slight rise
in fabricated brass and copper an
nounced by leading producers.
Action in, this case was being
watched by important executives
all over the country as providing a
clue TO the lengths to which the
Government was prepared to 90 to
hold imitation" influences in check.
Slow Progress Seen.
OF the whole problem of produc-
ton lying ahead TO carry out the
rearming of the United States and
the established policy of large aid
to Britain, the purchasing agents
survey offered a more conservative
estimate than some other business
and political quarters had suggested.
1t said:
1T is now quite apparent that it
will be well into l942 before Amer
ican industry is completely organ
lied and equipped to produce at
full capacity . = ~ for the defense
effort.
Businessmen had more time to
look ahead to the problems of COM
ing months as current statistics of
stores and factories lost for the
moment some of their significance
as indicators, in the usual uncertain
movements of the holiday period.
Such weathervanes as automobile
production and freight haulaec
Slumped, as they usually do at this
time, but most statisticians are in
clined to regard such movements
as random"
The Associated Press index OF in
dustrial activity, bolstered by more
than normal rises in lines like cot
ton textile and electric power out
put, was back to the fall levels Of
1929.
The stock market, which appears
to have parted company with BOOM
ing business. this week was still a
poor barometer, though 1t showed
some STRINGS of improvement as
the year-end approached.