Evening star., 1940-12-14
Lag in Rearning
Brings Pressure
For War Basis
Knudsen Says All
Is Not Well; Nelson
Asks More Speed
(Tert OF KnudSen address on
Page A.
BY JOHN C. HENRY.

Increasing pressure to place Amer
lea on wartime industrial basis as
a means of speeding our own de-
fense program and our aid to Brit
ain was seen developing today in
the wake of arresting disclosures Uf
the last 48 hours that both the pei
sonnel training and materiel pro-
duction programs are tagging well
below expectations
Most startling of the disclosures,
perhaps, was submitted last night
by William s. Knudsen, production
chief of the National Defense Com
mission, to the effect that progress
in 'the front line" of producing de-
fense equipment has not been sat
isfactory enough to warrant hopes
that everything is all we'll
Scarcely "a hours earlier Secre-
tary of War Stimson had told a
press conference that construction
delays at Is of 40 military camps
being prepared for training men will
force postponements up to 10 weeks
in induction of part Of the National
Guard. A variety of causes was
cited by the Secretary, among them
unfavorable weather conditions,
labor shortages, strikes and lack of
materials.
Nelson Asks More Speed.
And last night, too, another men,
Der of theDefense Commission, DON
aid Nelson, co-ordinator for pro-
curement, sounded a call similar to
| that of Mr.. Knudsen when he
warned the Chicago Bankers Club
that although he saw mo reason for
complaint on the basis of what has
been done so far, it may have been
mistake to attempt rearmament
through superimposing an emer-
gency schedule on the Nations nor
NAL economy.
! This is not a normal program in
any sense he reminded his listen
ers. The realities of today cry
out for speed, speed and more speed.
This means more work, more dis
turbance to normal processes. more
sacrifice on the part of everybody.
The development of bottlenecks in
national unity. in national determi-
nation, in national effort to weld the
entire strength of a free country
into cohesive force with a single
dominant goal-national defense"
Knudsen Suggests War Basis.
Speaking before the National As
sociation OF Manufacturers in New
York. Mr.. Knudsen posed the ques-
ton bluntly as to whether it is pos
sible TO put the defense job on a
war basis even if we are at peace"
THE public generally is sold on
defense. 80 But have the two most
important elements. industry and
labor, been fully sold on the serious
side of the job?
I I'VE have cut 20 per cent OF our
machine time Can we afford to
do this? Can't we stop this black
out. this lack of production from
Friday to Monday, and get more out
of the equipment? We can train the
men to operate it."
Plane Output Below Estimates.
/ Revealing that airplane produc-
ton estimates will have to be scaled
down by 80 per cent from original
hopes, the commissioner credited the
machine tool industry with work
ing hard and we'll" but added:
THE (airplane) engine companies
need equipment, in fact % per cent
of all untitled machine tool orders
are for the aviation industry.
Frankly We are not doing any,
thing compared to the forecast by
the manufacturers and the commits
sion in July and our hoped-for pro-
duction figures of January /, 1941, of
1000 planes per month, have to be
scaled down by 80 per cent.
Guns and machine guns are still
in the tooling stage except for such
capacity as was ready before we
started.
I'VE all seem to be worrying about
how We are going to divide the
profits, without giving consideration
to the fact that we ourselves have
to furnish the price to buy the ma
terials with. We hear so much about
all the things that ought to be fixed
right now. We read resolutions from
every direction"
Row Over Labor Policy.
Meanwhile, dispute was in prog
ress between commission officials
and the War Department over ap-
plication of the stated labor policy
for defense contracts. Arising out
of the placing Of a 50 900 900 order
(See DEFENSE, Page A-4)