Evening star., 1941-09-22
Defense Contractors
Told byLa Guardia
They Must Do More
Fote Of U. S. in Hands
Of Factory Owners,
OdIum Says at Clinic
By the Associated Press.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22.-Mayor
La Guardia, speaking as national
director of civilian defense, asserted
today that American defense pro-
duction is not sufficient to defeat
a Nazi plan of world conquest.
Addressing the o. P. MS first
National Defense Clinic, Mayor La
Guardia told 102 holders of prime
Government contracts and 1900
subcontractors that fulfllment Of
the original defense program will
not be enough.
IF we can not do better than
that it will be disastrous" he said.
You all know that the President
has asked for additional lease-lend
appropriations and it Is absolutely
essential that the program be
speeded"
The Mayor asked Army and Navy
procurement officers present to re-
lax the restrictions which he said
had marked buying by the armed
services.
IT appeal to the Army and Navy,
who are very rigid in their habits,
that htey must adjust themselves
to new requirements" the Mayor
said. They must adjust their con-
tract-leting so that they can utilize
all of the Nations facilities"
No Shop Too Small.
Mr.. La Guardia said that no shop
was too small to be useful in the
defense efforts and predicted that
sooner or later large assembly plants
would be constructed to put together
the product of the labors of in
Vulnerable small plants.
Earlier. Floyd B. Odlum, director
of the o. P. M. Contract Distribution
Division, told the clinic that ito no
small degree you American business
men hold the fate of this Nation
and freedom in your hands"
Its important that the big COM
panies which have already taken
orders find the way to spread the
work to the fullest extent through
subcontracting," he said. TITS i'm
portant to keep our democratic
economic structure intact, and
therefore it is highly important
for big business itself"
The clinic was closed to the pub
lie, but $500 admission cards were
sent to potential subcontractors
Representatives of more than 100
large firms were on hand to confer
with spokesmen for hundreds of
small machine shops and manu-
facturerS.
Machines Being Wasted.
Also present were officials from
the priorities division, the o. P. M,
the labor supply branch and Army
and Navy Procurement Division.
I'VE must harness all our pro-
ductive resources" Mr.. Odlum told
the meeting. Many millions of
hours of usable machines are being
wasted daily while at the same time
orders are in the hands of the ma
chine tool industry that will take
18 months to fill. We shouldn't
wait for their completion.
I'VE will need them as fast as
they can be turned out, but we
should use what we have on hand
too. Even the less efficient has its
place. An idle tool and an idle
man to operate it represent wasted
defense opportunity.
Pass on Simpler Work.
Large plants equipped to do the
more difficult work should pass on
to the smaller plants the simpler
work which they In turn are
equipped to do" Mr.. Odlum said
Thus the bottlenecks will be re-
moved and all will be kept busy"
w. o. Crabtree, district manager
of the division of contract dis
tribution, told the clinic that its
purpose was to speed defense pro-
duction and bring more firms into
the defense picture by three meth
DDS: Cd By encouraging subcon-
tracing, CD by giving qualified
small manufacturers data and sug-
gestions about direct, prime con-
tracts, and CD by making available
the fullest information about de-
fense production to large or small
businessmen.