The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1940-09-13
SPENDING IA BILLION DOLLARS
By J. E. Jones

Washington, D.. c., Sept. 9--Sev-
en- citizens were selected with great
care to constitute the National De-
tense Advisory Commission and
their work was divided into divi-
sions called Transportation, Agri-
cultural, Consumer Protection, Price
Sterilization, Labor Supply, Produc-
ton Division and Raw Materials
Division.
These Commissioners are respon-
sible to the President, the Army
and Navy, and other Administration
branches Of the Government. There
are close contacts between the
groups who will handle something
like IA billion dollars--which is the
biggest peace-time affair ever Gre
ated.
The present production of air.
planes is now approximately 900
planes month, and by January 1
the number of planes will be in
creased to 1900 planes monthly,
with continuation Of increased
production. The number of employ
ees in aircraft factories has risen
from $500 people to $4,000 during
recent months.
The Commission denies that there
has been any delay caused by lack
of specification for rifles. planes,
tanks, and other materials. The
latest models of heavy tanks are
being manufactured and they will
be improvements over European
war models.
There has been some clamor about
the distribution of orders and the
discrimination against manufactur-
ers in different parts of the country.
The explanation is that only the
big contracts have been featured in
newspaper articles. AS a matter OF
fact the smaller business firms OF
the country are actually getting or
ders up to their capacity, which
means that most of them are sub
contractors. More than 535 business
firms are engaged on major con-
tracts or as sub-contractors in the
building of planes.
There has been lot of wild guess
ing as to how long it will take the
facturers to reach mass production
in war materials. In reply to that
question Mr.. Knudsen told a group
of broadcasters who cover the ma
TONS four leading radio networks
chat the tooling-up process is now
proceeding at a rapid pace and that
substantial deliveries Of most OF the
materials should commence next
Spring at which time production will
be rolling along at good pace.
The Army and Navy assures the
country that construction plants
will be established over wide areas
chat will include all of the Middle
Western States where suitable
labor and materials are available.
Requirements of defense plans
cover hundreds of thousands OF
Army and Navy articles, says Com
missioner Stettinius whose job 1t is
to make sure that the raw mater
ials for the manufacture OF these
articles are available at the right
time and at the right places. He
must have chromite from Turkey;
tungsten from China, diamonds
from South Africa and thousands OF
raw materials form our own coun-
try.
A steady pace for transportation
has been arranged by Commissioner
Budd, railroad executive. Mr.. Budd
says that the War Department and
the Public Roads Administration
have already laid out networks OF
strategic highways on 80 thousand
miles of road, with 2 thousand
bridges that will be strengthened,
to carry heavy military equipment.
Great volumes of freight can be
handled by railroads, inland water
ways, and 80 million mobile units
which did not exist during the last
War.
Commissioner Hillman informs
the public that special courses are
niw being given in vocational school
throughout the country for the pur-
pose of training skilled workers in
the various industries. The United
States Employment Service is CO.
operating with the Commission.
Among other things the vocational
schools follow closely range OF de-
tense occupations that include ma
chine shop practise. welding. pat
TERMINATING and drafting. Accord
ing to Mr.. Hillman there are about
80 thousand persons now taking
training.
The shipbuilding industry today
is employing 40 thousand more peo-
pie: the machine tool industry Is
now employing Is Thousand more