Evening star., 1940-05-28
Machine Tool Firms
Fill Big Part Of
Current Needs
First Consideration
Reported Given to
u. S. Customers

By the Associated Press.
CLEVELAND, May 28.--Ihe ma
chine tool industry has succeeded
in fulfilling by far the major share"
of current requirements OF United
States aircraft engine builders, j..
E. Lovely, president of the National
Machine Builders Association, told
the organizations spring meeting
today.
Special consideration" was paid
these requirements and delivery
preferences have been given Amer
lean customers" said Lovely, vice
president of Jones & Lamson Ma
chine Co.. at Springfield, VT.
Whereas, at the end of last year
two-thirds of our production was
going abroad, today foreign ship
ments represent considerably less
than half of the output of the in
dustry +"*
New Problems Faced.
II do not mean to imply that
the machine tool industry has met
tomorrow's demands for .tomorrow's
aircraft engines or airplanes," Love-
ly continued. That whole problem
still lies before both the aircraft
and the machine tool industry. But
I do say that today the machine
tool industry has met the challenge
which has confronted it,"
ITO tighten the demand for new
machines and spread the load in our
industry over longer period, the
Government might well buy any
equipment available in private in
dustry not now virtually needed and
utilize this in plants for vital needs,
rather than demanding that all of
the equipment for any new plant
should be brand-new and made i'm
mediately by our industry"
Lovely suggested private industry
cooperate with the Government in
this manner, should the need for
equipment for national defense be-
come great enough to follow this
plan. Our own industry could then
replace this other equipment at
later date"
NEW YORK, May % (P.-A hint
of things to come in general industry
as the Government speeds its giant
national defense program has been
given in the war stimulated
machinery and machine. tool busi-
ness, where arrangements are
struggling to cope with deliveries.
Tool factories are said to have
enough orders on hand to keep them
operating at top capacity we'll into
next year, and still new contracts
pour in from both domestic and
foreign sources.
Pay rolls and hours of work have
leaped ahead as the tool business
has expanded. Latest figures show
top operations have heightened the
work week around seven hours be-
yond that in general industry.
Here are some of the results for
men with jobs:
l. Machine tool workers, skilled
and unskilled together, are working
an average of 44.8 hours week,
contrasted with an average of 377
ilouAo az hCy lAAAlCA1Idl1
tries, according to the National In
dustrial Conference Board.
q Machine tool workers, skilled
and unskilled together, are earning
an average of 772 cents an hour,
compared with an average of 73.1
cents in Is representative industries.
The trend of output, wages and
hours of work may be the same in
many industrial lines now preparing
part of their peacetime plant for
the manufacture of armaments and
other war supplies needed by the
Federal Government under its de-
fense expansion plans.
Actually, what has happened in
the machine tool business the past
year may be the pattern of defense
stimulated general American indus
try, for it was just about a year ago
that the shadows of war began max
Ing themselves sharply felt in ma
chine tools.