Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-08-26
u. 5. Contracts Boost
Building Sharply in
Defense Drive
Government Awards
Accounted for Holt
OF Recent TotuI
BY the Associated Press.

Hy the Associated PreSS.
NEW YORK, Aug. 26.-Federal
contracts for defense works have
sent building figures soaring and
given tangible form to plans for
sheltering vital arms factories be-
hind the Appalachian Mountains.
Out of a total of $687 900 900 in
construction awards complied since
July by the Engineering News
Record. trade publication, Federal
awards accounted for 1896, 600 900,
or approximately half.
Rarely has Uncle Sam in proper
ton to the whole cut such a big
figure in the construction industry,
even at the height of P. w. A. and
w. P. A. spending, building experts
said
Building circles, moreover, assume
the awards handed out from Wash
ington in recent weeks may be only
a sampler of what's ahead. consid-
ering the scale of expansion pro-
jected for war industry.
Waldo G. Bowman, editor of En-
gineering News-Record, estimates at
least $750,00O, 600 of the defense
billions will go into construction.
Engineering firms are seeing the
biggest run of business since 1929
80. The difference is that a larger
share of the awards come from
Washington and the money from the
Treasury Golfers pours mainly into
arms rather than peacetime works.
Spending Results Seen.
The Government spending has be-
gun to show in sharp increases in
construction at industrial centers,
especially in the east central re-
gion. The industrial sections from
the Great Lakes, between the Missis-
sippi and Eastern mountain ranges,
down through T. v. A. territory,
seems destined to be the heart OF
the defense productive organism.
Heavily concentrated in these Sec
tons, building sources pointed out,
are the great steel, machine tool
motor and miscellaneous machine
making industries. Machine age
war has put them in key role in
the equipping of military forces
| Spotting of war plants beyond the
seaboard industrial sections or at
logical sites in the central machine
making areas has been marked by
such recently announced projects as
these: A $20,000,000 tank factory
near Detroit, a s30,OO0,0O0 airplane
engine plant near Cincinnati, S26.-
100000 powder plant near Louis
vile, another large powder plant
near Memphis, under contract to
supply British needs.
Armament orders for tools, mo-
tors, metals-both for British and
United States account-have slim
ulated housing and private factory
construction at some centers.
Dun g. Bradstreet reported build
ing permits in July in the East CEN
trail region increased so per cent
over the same month last year,
totaling S32, 151 900, against s21,-
315 900. Industrial centers in this
area include Chicago, Cincinnati,
Detroit, Indianapolis, Milwaukee
and Cleveland.
Southern Cities Lead.
| Percentagewise the East central
area in July was topped only by
South Atlantic cities, where resi-
Dental building and new naval and
air bases have helped raise the fig
ures well above last year. T. v. A
| territory, with cheap power from
Federal-flnanced dams and generat-
ing stations, is expected to draw
more war industry, although some
industrialists contend the skilled
labor supply there is too small.
Aside from the Memphis powder
factory new airplane venture at
| Nashville has been earmarked for
expansion and aluminium capacity is
being increased.
Building gains at industrial CEN
tiers are evident in the following
comparison for the first seven
months of 1910 and 1899 from Dun
& Bradstreet figures for leading