Evening star., 1940-05-23


Agreements Obtoined
To Spread Production
Among Many Plants
BY the Associated Press.
Secretary of the Treasury Nor
genthau said today he was obtaining
agreements from the airplane in
dustry to spread the manufacture
Of favored types of warplanes and
engines among many plants.
The aim Is to standardize produc-
ton of such types, which heretofore
have been made only by the COM
panies which held exclusive rights
to them.
The Secretary, as President Roose-
velt's aide on airplanes, said he was
hiring corps of experts to select
the best types for standardized
production. Attorneys for two major
airplane engine plants were already
at the Treasury drafting contracts
authorizing the Government to give
orders for their types of engines to
other companies.
I'VE need a vast expansion Of
production" Secretary Morgenthau
said, "and the only way we can get
1t Is to concentrate our available
productive capacity on the best
types"
The experts will make their selec-
tions after consulting the Army,
Navy, Civil Aeronautics Authority
and National Advisory Council for
Aviation, he said. and some of the
selections will be made by next
week.
Secretary Morgenthau hired, at
$4,000 a year, DR.. George Jackson
Mead, vice chairman of the N. A.
@. A.. to head the experts. He
characterized Mr.. Mead as the
greatest living authority on air.
plane engines"
400 Per Cent Cooperation"
So far. the Treasury head said,
industry has "co-operated 100 per
cent" but he noted that there was
ample power to force cooperation
at hand.
A 1918 law, he said, authorizes the
Government to seize patents and
use them, leaving the original pat
ent owners to appeal to the courts
for compensation. He also disclosed
that Thurman Arnold, chief of the
Justice Departments antitrust di-
vision, had rendered his services in
persuading industry to cooperate.
There has been no occasion to
use big stick, however," Mr.. Nor
genthau commented.
Enough Business for ALL"
The manufacturers, he added,
have nothing to lose by the stand
ardization because there is enough
business for all" He said the plan
had no relation to former sugges-
ton Of the allies that American
plane factories concentrate on three
types because that plan provided
for three manufacturers dividing up
all the business, while what we are
doing now is to have the Govern
ment divide up the business"
Secretary Morgenthau said he has
invited machine tool manufacturers
the men who make lathes and
other vital implements of industry
to meet here Monday.
If they (the machine tool group
are going to take care of the busi-
ness" Secretary Morgenthau said
they will have to expand. They
have got to step on it,
" Prof. Taylor Appointed. ''T
Another of Secretary Morgenthau's
appointments was that of Prof
Edward Story Taylor, engine expert
borrowed from the Massachusetts
Institute Of Technology.
Facilities of the Massachusetts
and California Institutes of Tech
nology, the Guggenheim School
for Aviation and other scientific
agencies were being freely used, the
Secretary asserted.
WASA SAPSA 70 VIII WILL plCk LIE
standardized plane and engine
models are: DR.. Theodore Won Kar.
man, director of the Guggenheim
Laboratory at the California In
stitute of Technology, a native of
Hungary who directed an aeronaut-
lcal laboratory at Aachen, Germany
before he came to the United States
in 1926; DR.. Clark B. Millikan
professor of aeronautics at Cali
fornia Institute of Technology, and
DR.. A. E. Lombard, jr., who has
been associated with the Curtiss
Wright Corp. and its subsidiaries for
10 years.
DR.. Mead has been an expert
mental engineer for airplane engines
since World War days. He was chief
engineer of the Wright Aeronautical
Corp. in 1920 to 1925, and vice presi-
dent Of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft
Co. from 1925 to 1890. He has also
been associated in a technical ad-
visory capacity with the United Air
craft Corp.