Evening star., 1940-12-14

Tert OF the address by William
S. Knudsen of the National De-
tense Advisory Commission be-
fore the National Association of
Manufacturers in Ne10 York City.
last night:
Mr.. Chairman and Gentlemen:
venture to quote portion Of a
recent message of our President to
Congress: 1--WE hope that the world
situation may soon improve. But we
are bound to be prepared for long
period of possible danger Who can
say, with assurance. that we shall
not need for our defense every pos
sible resource that exists or may be
developed in our country?"
I am deeply honored by having
assigned to me by our President a
responsible part in this work Of
preparation and development.
Despotic power We abhor, but we
must recognize that it compels the
exercise of certain qualities which
We must voluntarily exercise if we
are to prevail in times OF conflict.
Among these qualities is concentra-
ton on definite objectives with sim
gleness of purpose. We are peace
full people. The ways of war are for
eign to us. Our industries are now
being organized for national defense,
which, to be effective, must be capa-
BILE OF the maximum of resistance to
attack.
The modern machinery of that
criminal violence, war, now threat
ening the very dignity Of mankind,
is enormous, complicated and swift
in its scientific development. We are
engaged in building defense which
our President has proclaimed shall
be able to prevail against any pos
sible combination and we will do 1t.
But as a producer, I say that our
speedy procurement Of the necessary
defense implements which our Presi-
dent and Congress have promised
the people demands intense con-
centration on production as an OBJ
jective in itself.
What Orders Mean.
I think with this before us we
might begin to realize that condi-
tions abroad, which change almost
from day to day, have tremendous
influence on our future course IN
arming for defense You have read
about the billions of dollars Of orders
which have been placed with thou
sands of contractors and subcontrac-
tors all over the country and per-
haps it might be we'll if I gave you
quick description of what all this
money means in units. In round
figures:
$4,000 airplanes.
10000 engines.
1900 heavy guns.
$4,000 light guns.
10000 trench mortars.
SO 900 900 shells loaded.
5000 tanks.
100000 machine guns and ammu-
milton.
100000 automatic rifles and am
munition.
100000 regular rifles and am
munition.
$50 Navy ships.
200 mercantile ships.
210 camps and contonments.
40 Government factories.
Clothing and other equipment for
100000 men.
I have included with these guam
titles such British and other foreign
material placed at the present time
The program, with all its subcon-
tract and equipment features is
large and is estimated to require
about $4,000, 100000 man hours, con-
servatively. When we consider this
addition to the regular production
in the United States and realize
that the larger percentage Of this
load lies in the heavy goods indus
tries we are confronted, due to the
time element involved, with the
greatest production problem of any
country in modern times.
Now at Second Stage.
The three factors involved in this
problem are the Government as the
customer, and industry and labor
as the sellers. Behind the Govern
ment is the all-powerful force Of
the country's will and the all-im-
portant public opinion which must
guide our actions in order to ac-
complish a successful result In my
earlier talks on the problems of de-
fense I stated that initially the de-
dense load would be superimposed
on the regular business of the coun-
try until it became necessary to
adjust. The simple reason for this
was that the contracting and tool
ing-up period would not absorb en-
ployment which might be made idle
by trying to restrict regular business
during this tooling-up period. You
are all perhaps familiar with the
initial obstacles which had to be
cleared away such as appropriations,
rapid depreciation allowances and
the plant facilities contract.
All these have been cleared away
and contracts have become much
simpler matter as far as procure
ment is concerned. I think We are
successfully meeting the demand for
spreading the Government plants to
localities where surplus labor and
skill is available. We haven't by any
means satisfied everybody, but an
honest attempt has been made to
meet this part of the problem the
best way. The orders are more than
IS per cent placed and We have Ar