The Ypsilanti daily press. (Ypsilanti, Mich.) 1928-1962, 1941-01-03

hiiiP 'AuIIay alike are TO
blame for our defensive production
lag.
Now along comes Phil Murray,
John L. Lewis successor as head
of the Congress Of Industrial Or
CARNATIONS 1.-THE c. I. o.. as an
outstanding labor representative,
with a suggestion which automat-
ically relieves the workers OF re-
sponsibility for the lag and puts it
entirely upon the emergency gov
eminent outfit that let's contracts
for war supplies and upon the man.
ufacturers whom they're let to.
Phil doesn't specifically say that
our plane-making contracts are let
unintelligently, but that's his pro-
posars plain insinuation and pre-
sLnably it's the inference that he
intended to have drawn from 1t.
It's like this, so Phil explains the
situation. Our plar contracts
have gone mostly to concerns en-
gagged exclusively in turning out
flying machines, and they are
swamped with orders-the COM
panies productive equipments are
not nearly equal to the emer-
gencys requirements, and ditto
their craftsmen, no matter how
hard and fast they work.
Readiust Auto Plants
Rut continues Phil, our auto
mobile plants have capacities far
in excess of what's needed to meet
the demand for autos. Now, an
auto plant, he says, can produce
planes as well as 1t can produce
autos or as well as regular plane
factory can. He agrees that an
auto concerns now partly super
fuous machinery must be some
what readjusted to adapt it to
plane making, but, according to his
account, six months would suffice
to make the necessary changes.
Then, he asserts, we'd be on a
daily 50O-plane basis.
And Phil, being, by trade, an
auto maker, as well as c. L o.
head, can reasonably be assumed
to know what he's talkinC about.
If he's right 1t seems to follow
that our contract-letting authori-
ties have bungled their job of plac-
ing orders. They've swImped one
set of manufacturers while ignor-
ing another potential set.
This doesn't necessarily reflect
on the big industrialists. Those to
whom orders have been given prob
ably are hustling all they can to
I'LL them. The merely potential
aggregation, not having been given
any contracts, aren't to be blamed
for letting their factories lie partly
idle.
Another factor enters into the
question, though. Phil Murray
doesn't charge that there's been
favoritism in the task Of contract
letting, but it's gossipped in other
quarters that there has been. The
story is that the concerns that real
ly have been getting contracts want
all the contracts there are avail
able-they want EN- whether or
not they're able to fill them
promptly; because there's money
in EN- and they want to make that
money as fast as they can get
around to making deliveries. The
inference is that they exert pres
sure in their own favor.
But labor's doing its darndest.
That appears to be Phil Muir
rays thesis in connection with the
representation that he put up to
President ACCOMPLISHMENTS
procurement and our industrialists
are to blame for our defensively
productive lag; not labor
Excessive Number?
It also is pointed out that 500
planes daily would amount to 1872
500 annually, which experts speak
Of as rather excessive. They'd re-
quire, the experts remark, consid-
erably more than 100000 men, as
ground crews. just to service 'em.
Nobody questions that Phirs es-
sential motive in submitting his
plan to the White House was the
patriotic one Of helping TO solve our
plane lag problem.
Nevertheless quite a lew folk
are surmising that on the aide.