Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-06-11
Reports Threat
To American Trade
industrial Authority Tells
Of German Competition
In Machine Tool Business
BIZ Leland StOUe,
Correspondent of The Star and chcaso
Daily News.


CLEVELAND, Ohio, June 11-How
Nazi Germany is preparing to strangle
Americas foreign trade, thereby throw
ing vast numbers of American work.
men out of jobs and drastically reduc-
ing profits for American industrialists,
was revealed here by Charles j. Stilwell,
president of Warner and Swasey Co.,
manufacturers of turret lathes which
are one of the most indispensable tools
on which our entire defense program de-
ponds.
Interviewed in this center of American
machine tool trade and speaking in an
impressively quiet-voiced manner, Mr..
Stilwell disclosed the following facts
about Nazi moves toward economic
domination in Latin America and other
parts of the world:
AS early as last November Hitler's
statesmen were promising prospective
South American clients they would
supply German machinery, as soon as
the war ended, at prices guaranteed to
be 20 per cent below any price that
American exporters offered
American machine-tool exports in 1888
totaled approximately 100000 000-or
40 per cent of all the machine tool bust
ness done in the United States in the
last peacetime year. If Britain is de-
feated and the Nazis establish forced
labor throughout all European factories,
Mr.. Stilwell admitted it would be i'm
possible for American machine tools to
compete with German dumping" prac-
tees anywhere in the world market.
The loss of this 40 per cent export
business would mean that $50 American
machine tool firms and scores of thou
sands of their employees would be thrown
back into conditions paralleling those
in the worst slump years of 1902.
1t also was learned that German Nazis
today are soliciting orders for German
steel in Latin American countries, 'pledg-
ing cut-rate price inducements and
early deliveries as soon as Germany
shares the Atlantic trade lanes with the
United States. With typical foresight
Nazi agents are laying the groundwork to
squeeze several hundreds of millions of
American products out of Latin America
Immediately after the war, but laying
this groundwork while the war is still
being fought.
Every American industrial plant which
has to cut metal in order to produce
ornaments or parts essential for defense
needs tungsten. Apropos of this fact Mr..
Stilwell remarked that virtually all of
Americas supply of tungsten is obtained
from China and without tungsten the
basic sparkplug of our entire national
defense effort machine tool produc-
tion-would be crippled. Having said
that Mr.. Stilwell warned
IF Japan came into the war and shut
off our supply of tungsten, we would
have to 60 to war in order to assure our
tungsten supply. We simply must have
tungsten in order to continue with our
national defense program"
Germany. he explained, gets its
tungsten from Balkan countries and
probably from Soviet Russia's rich de-
posts as we'll. The only tungsten ore in
the United States is limited in quantity
and of extremely poor quality, also being
very dear to mine.
A tour of machine tool firms in Cleve-
land demonstrates remarkable in
crease of production to meet defense
needs over the past year. The Warner
and Swasey Co., largest manufacturers
of turret lathes in the world, has built
three plant additions. tripled its output
and almost tripled its employment since
the war broke out. This year it will pro-
duce S35 900 900 worth of turret lathes or
nearly six times the total of its produc-
ton in the peak year of 1929. Even so
the demands for turret lathes, which are
a strategic key to all our industrial
mobilization because they supply the
cutting tools which cut and shape steel
and other metals into machine pieces, is
constantly growing Turret lathes are
one of IS Critical machines" which are
absolutely essential and serve as the
teeth for Americas gigantic industrial
defense offensive. But thousands of
other tools are also needed more than
ever now.
Mr.. Stilwel, a leading American au-
thority in his field, stated that the new
United States air program alone will re-
quire 01,000 new machine toos-or
about one-third of the annual output
from our entire machine tool industry.
In addition to the aviation program, how
ever, the machine tool industry also must
somehow supply tools for our huge Navy
building program for munitions manu-
facture, small arms and machine guns,
for anti-aircraft guns, heavier artillery
and for tanks-not to mention auto
motive and allied supporting industries
important to defense. Consequently the
industry is faced with demands for sew
eral hundreds of thousands of additional
tools, above the new air program neces-
sites and all the tools already allotted
from current production.
Our average delivery today is about
II months" Mr. Stilwe1 said in regard
to Warner and Swasey turret lathes.
1--WE can't catch up with our orders be-
panding, and new orders keep coming in.
We had hoped when the first wave of
urgent demands had passed that we
could begin to clean things up. But
the current demands keep coming, and
we have no means of telling when they
will let up. 1t looks as if we must ex-
pect an unrelaxed and persistent flood of
orders for an indefinite time-perhaps
as long as the war lasts"
This is what has happened in Ger
many and Britain. In 1885 German
machine tool demand had piled up so
far that deliveries required II to Is
months for fulfllment, while a year
lat ENGLISH deliveries Were under q