The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-11

2 But on the all-ilnportant detail of when these arms, ships, planes, etc., will be forthcoming, there is a deep silence.
 This is not INcent develop ment. From the start of the de- fense program all public an- nouncements of Army and Navy. contracts have carefully omitted any information about delivery dates. The official explanation has been military precautiOn".
 Doubtless there are instances where secrecy is necessary. But it also is true that the great bulk of Army and Navy procure ment can be found minutely item ized in the published hearings of the congressional appropriation committees, and any foreign power that wants to find out what is what about our defense need only read these free public documents.
 In some official quarters the opinion prevails that the real req son for secrecy is not so much military precaution" as the de- sire to suppress the fact that output is dragging.
 NO MEDIUM TANKS
 Considerable color is given this view by certain production figures that have been obtained. For ex- ample:
 1. Medium-weight tanks, which are the backbone of Hitler's fa- nous panzer divisions, are at least ten months behind schedule. In fact, orders for them have just been placed. A possible explanation for this delay is laSt-minute changes ln design resulting from combat experience abroad.
 2. Airp,ane production. which certain defense chiefs optimisti- cally said would be up to around 1000 planes per month by Mo- vember, actually is some 250 ships short of that very modest mark. Moreover, considerable part of planes and unarmored bombers They are necessary, of course, but the plane situation is far from an armada of 5000 fighting ships.
 3. A serious bottleneck in range-finders and gun sights is | holding up output of light and heavy guns for the Army and Navy. This situation is expected to be eased soon, when the East man Kodak company gets into production on a S12,00O,0O0 order just signed for this equipment.
 Many of the causes for de-
 lays are we'll known, such as the resistance of certain manu-
 lecturers to accepting war or
 ders, also the opposition to
 mushrooming plants for purely
 emergency purposes, demands
 for tax concessions, and the constant changing of specified
 tiOns by the military experts.
 But there are other factors, less known but just as obstructive, in some instances far more so. NO MASS PRODUCTION
 One of the big complaints of Defense chiefs Is lack of machine tool facilities. Yet there are many small plants of this type around the country that have been liter ally beginning for orders and not getting them. One company with 150 lathes has been advertising for business in trade journals for months.
 Also there is strong evidence of a lack of vision or initiative or both in making the best use of mass production facilities. The blame for this goes right back to high Defense quarters.
 The gigantic resources of the auto industry, for example, have been practically untouched for defense output. New plants have been ordered that will take months to build, when by a CO., ordination of the great auto factories, parts of planes, tanks, gums, etc., could be turned out in carload lots daily and assembled at central points.
 William Reuther, young official of the United Auto Workers, long ago proposed such plan for a daily output of 500 all-metal pur- suit planes of the most powerful type in the world, and at one- third their present cost. But the matter is still "belng discussed'. er-,vs.t % sYss,a~a ls k,.,,@1. l,.wn .,,...ta.