Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-10-11

to both houses Of Congress on May
Is said:
During the past year American
production capacity for war planes,
including engines, has risen from
approximately 5000 planes a year
to more than double that number.
due in greater part to the placing
OF foreign orders"
William Knudsen. production
. member of the National Defense
Advisory Commission, states that
America is scheduled to turn out
1.133 planes during October, but he
thinks we will get around 900 to
$50. Accepting 925 as a probability
It appears that the United States
may approach 11100 capacity per
! year by end of October. Thus what
the President said was true on May
16 is not yet true exactly five
months later.
Most significant also is the an
nouncement by the War Depart
ment that three shifts or some
equivalent of overtime work" had
been ordered with respect to all
plants manufacturing airplanes. air.
plane engines and other accessories.
This action comes after The Star.
in q series of articles recently.
showed that American aircraft fac
tories have been working only ap-
proXimately 65 per cent Of the time
Campaign Seen as Factor.
IfYcf -tNyy {al-
months to speed up defense pro-
duction and why it should be neces-
sary for the American press to ex-
pose these weaknesses in the adj
ministrationS attitude toward de-
Tense to get something done will
remain mystery to persons outside
of Washington But it is apparent
here that the administration is
more interested in other things
than defense. particularly the third
term campaign, or something would
have been done sooner to get Amer
lea the airplane production canqcitv
which the President said last Nav
We a1readv had.
One of the most important rea-
dS
dents refusal to speed up the settle
r1ent Of the TANGLED question of de-
probation. He insisted that il must
await the passage of an excess
rrof7tS bill. He declined to allow
q sonarate resolution to be adoDted
e once and let the excess profits
bin come later
al ~,
question meant that manufacturers
could not calculate their costs or
beoin to build new plants or expand
old ones to take care Of new con-
tracts. As far back as April. 1893
Admiral Furlong of the Navy De-
partment warned the Secretaries of
the Navy and the Treasury in a
letter made public May. 1888 that
the amortization question had to BE-
settled or new plants could not be
built. The Roosevelt administra-
ton has had more than two years
to wrestle with the problem and has
failed to solve it till this autumn.
when a simple resolution could have
been put through Congress at any
time in the last two years to take
care of it. as it is not a political
question at all
Only Light Tanks Produced.
But the delay with respect to air.
planes is not all of the story. M
Knudsen says:
The next item is tanks and there
Is no production as yet except on
the light tank weighing about IS
tons. Here we are getting about 100
per month"
The European military minds have
for long time indicated their belief
in tanks but the President has not
taken the initiative in getting Amer
lean tank production under way be-
fore this summer. Even now tank
factories have to be built. They
would have been underway long ago
# the administration had settled the
amortization question and given out