Evening star., 1941-08-24
A New Conception Of
Production Problem
By ODen L. Scott.


dimly aware of the size of the job cut
out for them. They are told that their
role in defeating Hitler is to serve as
the arsenal of democracy" This sounds
| easy enough, and yet safe enough, to
please everybody.
However, Lord Beaverbrook, Britain's
Minister of Supply, is reported to have
been shocked to discover the size of the
| American arsenal. He thought it was
| going to be much bigger. American de-
fense officials, on the other hand, were
| shocked to learn how large was the con-
| ception the British have of an arsenal
big enough to deal with Hitler. These
officials were doubly shocked when they
received bill of particulars concerning
Russian arms needs, II they are to be
supplied from democracys arsenal.
Nobody, except a few New Dealers,
apparently ever imagined that the task
of supplying armies to fight the Ger
mans, Italians and Japanese would be
task large enough to stagger the
imagination of American industrialists.
Yet such is the size of the job
One look around the world will show
why.
First there are the British. The Brit
ish literally need everything. They want
airplanes not only for service in England,
but in Egypt and Syria and Singapore
They need tanks for British armies at
home and in Africa and the Near East
and the Far East. They require guns
and ammunition and foodstuf1s in the
same scattered places. Britain will sup
ply the men to fight with the weapons
that are provided, but weapons must
come in vast quantities instead OF pres
ent trickles.
Next, there are the Dutch. The Dutch
in the South Pacific, who supply this
country with rubber and tin, among
other things, are talking back to the
Japanese, who want to take them over.
| Yet if the Dutch are to back up their
talk with the fighting they are prepared
! to engage in If attacked, they must have
airplanes and tanks and guns and am
munition from the United States. This
country is making only the barest be-
| ginning in meeting the Dutch needs.
Third there are the Chinese. The
Chinese have been fighting the japanese
! for four years. They have taken and
are taking terrible punishment because
they lack airplanes with which to resist
Japanese bombers, and they lack artil-
lery for every purpose. They even lack
metals for their own modest arsenals.
| China has many men ready and willing
| to use weapons if the United States can
| put those weapons in their hands. Once
supplied, they can deal with Japan, with
out any necessity for sending American
boys to fight in foreign lands
| Fourth, there are the Russians. Russia
today is occupying Hitler's armies. Yet
Russia, with millions of fighting men,
Is losing the industrial area that does
most of the supplying of those men.
Also, Russia maintains an army of
nearly 100000 men in Siberia, and this
army now is cut of from the source of
many Of its. supplies. Here again are
the men to do the fighting if only they
can be supplied with the weapons. To
supply Russia is an undertaking of vast
size in itself.
|
Itself. This country is trying to build
an Army and Air Force 1t has the men
in these forces ready to learn how to be
soldiers and flyers and to use the mod
| ern weapons, but 1t doesn't have the
weapons, except in meager quantities
| These men have been promised that
they will not have to fight in areas out
| side this hemisnhere opd tlbara ~, .I.x..
OF men elsewhere who are fighting and
ready to continue fighting But unless
American industry can supply the weap-
ons that are needed by other than Amer
lean soldiers and flyers, then the Ameri-
cans themselves might find themselves
| faced with the need to fight.
So 1t all comes down to a lob for
American industry. job of serving as
a real arsenal that turns out weapons
on scale big enough to supply forces
around the world who are fighting Hitler
ana Japan and who are willing to con-
tinue the fight If they have supplies.
What appears to have shocked Brit
aims Lord Beaverbrook is the discovery
that American industry has only the
fogglest notion of the size of the effort
| 1t must make to do what these other
nations expect it to do. Lord Beaver
brook also discovered that very manv
defense officials of the highest sort have
the same fogey idea about the size of
the Job they are supposed to perform.
AND what Is the size of that Job?
In dollar terms as informed officials
see 1t, the job is to increase the present
| Sl,0O0,000 900 month spent on defense
TO minimum Of $4,000, 900 900 a month
and probably to $4,000, 5000 a month.
This means, instead of $4,000 900. 900 a
year on arms and armies, the United
States, as quickly as possible, must strive
to turn out $4,000 900 900 year.
| That sounds fantastic, and it is. Yet
Hitler has Europe geared up to a war
production that makes an effort of this
rather fantastic magnitude necessary if
he is to be defeated by the British and
Russians and others who are trying to
90 that job. And the United States
promised to be the arsenal that would
supply the weapons if the other nations
would just do the fighting.
Now the question is whether this coun-
try is to deliver on that promise.
The answer is: Certainly not in 1e41
and probably not in 1912 1t may begin
to deliver on really impressive scale
by 1943, if the others can just hold out
until that time. The reason why delivery
dates steadily are being pushed farther