Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-08-26
!ekes Report Urges
Far West Location
For War Industries
Use of Power From
Dams in Munitions
Manufacture Advised

Location Oh CERTAIN essential war
industries. in the Rocky Mountain
States, California and the Pacific
Northwest to give better balance
to American preparedness was urged
by Secretary of the Interior Ickes
today in a report to the National
Defense Advisory Commission.
He warned that tailur? to do this
might seriously retard both the dis
tribution and supplying of industrial
products to meet a possible military
emergency.
The three-part report was the
work of Undersecretary Alvin Writ
and Paul J. Raver, Bonneville power
administrator, who discussed the
plan evolved with Edward j. Stet-
tinius and Gano Dunn of the De-
tense Commission.
Hydro-electric power developed by
the Government projects at Bonnie
vile and Grand Coulee Dams on
the Columbia River in Washington
furnished the key to the report. 1t
OF power in the manufacturing of
aircraft, ordnance, munitions anG
ships.
Vital Aid to Defense.
With low-cost water power at
hand, mineral and other resources,
the report stressed that the location
of major war industries in the Far
Western area would be of vital aid
to the defense of the entire Pacific
area, including Alaska and Hawaii
Most of the war industries of the
Nation" it said, ARE in the North
eastern States, east of the MiSsis-
sippi River, occupying ID per cent
of the land area of the country. In
contrast the II Western States. COW
ering 40 per cent of land area, do
not have the industries either to
protect the Pacific Coast and pos
sessions or to supplement Eastern
production for Atlantic Coast de-
tense.
These circumstances do not con-
tribute to the speedy and most eff
fective defense of the United States
and its possessions.
THE products of the Western
States vital to the war industries in
the East-copper, zinc, mercury,
tungsten, molybdenum, etc.-have to
move east 1000 miles for processing
and fabrication. Part of this OBJ
viously has to return 5000 to 5000
miles in the form of materials and
supplies for the defense outposts of
the Pacific Coast, Alaska and Ha-
waii.
Burden Railways and Ships.
These movements take time and
transportation costs, and they bur-
den railroads and ships. Some OF
these movements could be elimi-
mated. Thus, copper and zinc could
be made into brass for munitions
close to the Western mines. Pig
aluminium, about to be made at the
new plant of the Aluminium Co. of
America in Washington, could be
converted into sheets and extruded
parts in Western mills to supply the
large aircraft plants of the Pacific
Coast"
The report said that water trans
pOrCdllOn was most Vulnerable TO
complete interruption in the event
OF an attempt to blockade the PAN
anna Canal or coasts. Consequently,
1t stated, the most effective de-
Tense of the Pacific area requires a
more diversified distribution of war
industries near the Pacific Coastline.
Just as important would be the role
played by Western war industries
to supplement those from the East.
The report recommended that
available Western raw materials
be utilized for defense purposes as
follows:
l, For aircraft engines, ordnance
and shipbuilding: Aluminium roll
ing mills and extrusion plants, mag
nesium plants using electric fur
mace methods, and alloy steels and
ferro-alloys.
2. Munitions: Brass for shell
castings and fuses. synthetic nitro
gen for explosives, Smoke-creating
chemical mixtures, and war gases.
3. Plast1cs for aIrplane parts.