Evening star., 1941-09-14
BY FRANK MacMHLEN.

BY FRANK MacMHLEN.
NEW YORK, Sept. 13.-The out
put of small and medium sized in
dustrial plants is being increasingly
curtailed because of defense mate
rial scarcities and business men fear
the situation will get worse before
it improves.
Some plants have shut down COM
pletely.
Remedies appear in the making.
They include changed ordering poll
cies by Washington procurement
services and greater effort on the
part of business men themselves to
make the plant changes and the
sales effort necessary to get defense
work which so far has gone mostly
to big plants.
But word from most industrialiZed
sections of the country, collected
in a Nationwide survey by The
Stars special news service indicates
clearly that labor displacements al
ready are substantial and that not
all of the men and women thrown
out of work in non-defense plants
have yet been absorbed into fac
tories working for the Army, Navy
and air force.
Confusion Indicated.
The survey also indicated bewil-
derment among some business men,
especially those owning small shops
and factories, as to their destined
place in the fast moving picture Of
a Nation finally swinging into an
economy where guns mean more
than butter.
Sub-contracting, Wa h in t on
sponsored device intended TO give
the little fellow a chunk Of the big
fellows defense business, the survey
indicated, has so far been only
partly successful.
Many of the small and medium
sized factories which have been able
to supplant part of their production
of civilian goods with war-needed
items on which they can gain needed
priorities for raw materials. and so
keep their people at work and their
dividends flowing, reported they
could handle more defense orders
if they could get them.
Reports indicated that in most 10.
calities the situation had not yet be-
come acute. though business men
were said to be increasingly concern
ed about how long they might be
able to continue to make many lines
of civil-conSumption goods. at ac-
cuStomed rates or at all, unless the
materials situation improved.
This concern varied in intensity
from city to city, according TO the
type of materials primarily needed
in the region and the vigor with
which their manufacturers had
sought types of work where they
could get materials priorities.
Suspensions Expected.
To the relatively few plants closed
down for lack of whole
States reported no such shutdoWns
had yet been necessary be
added the growing list of those
whose owners said they expected
drastic curtailment or suspension at
some fairly definite date in the fu-
ture, the reports indicated.
Samplings of the survey ranged
from estimates of enforced closings
for lack of materials in 30 to go days
up to next spring" though the
majority who reported impending
difficulties seemed to measure their
headlines in weeks rather than in
months
Industrial and economic experts
here seemed to think the really Sc
we're stage of the shortage of some
kind of materials, for the man in the
street, might come sometime around
March or April of next year. though
pointing out that many individual
factories. with thousands of workers,
might feel the pinch sooner.
New York manufacturing men,
many of them connected with busi-
nesses we'll above the small and me-
dunn sized group, also pointed to the
likelihood that shutdowns of small
plants for lack of materials might
have an acute political cast before
the problem was solved.
When numerous small manufac-
turerS, with employees aggregating
hundreds of thousands. get to the
| ''howling stage" for materials, some
| observers here declared more vigor-
Gus efforts might be made in WASH
ington to give them a cut in the
| arms business or even to allocate
them more of the materials needed
to keep going.
Labor Shortages Likely.
In addition to materials short
ages, the absorption of skilled labor
in defense also may cut into smaller
producers of non-defense materials,
the survey indicated.
H G. Atkinson. Ohio unemploy-
ment compensation administrator,
| said that within four months defense
industries of his State would require
eight times the number of skilled
workmen now hired.
These skilled workers must be
recruited from non-defenSe indus
tries, and one of our big problems
will be to keep non-defense indus
| tries going" he said.
The survey gave vivid picture OF
the problems of small manufac-
turers. Here are some Of the kinds
of concerns curtailing for lack Of
essential materials (some were shut
down or reported they might close
shortly:
l. A New Jersey maker Of slide
fasteners for clothing, for lack of
metals.
2. A Rhode Island printer of silks.
for lack of a chemical needed as a
base for naval paint.
8. A manufacturer of automatic
livestock waterers and feeders in
Iowa, for want of steel.
4. A cosmetics concern, which
needed sodium chlorate-300 pounds
week.
5.A Chicago manufacturer of COIN
operated machines, lacking alumni
mum, steel and brass.
6. An Illinois freight car plant
no steel.