Evening star., 1941-04-13
VastAccompIishments
OF Defense Program
Hailed by Editor
Finney Declares Real
Results Will Become
Evident by Fall
FpeciaI Dispatch to The Star.

NEW YORK, April 12.-Accom-
pllShmentS since the start of the
defense program are far greater than
many people think, according to
Burnham Finney, editor of Amer
ican MachiniSt, in his new book
"Arsnel of Democracy''-wh will
be published by Whittlesey House on
Monday. He states that the program
is incomparably farther advanced
after eight months than it was an
similar period in 1917-1918.
Furthermore, he points out, in the
First World War a munitions in
dustry had been in the building for
two years. This time, by contrast, we
started from scratch.
BY the fall of 1941," says Mr..
Finney, I'VE shall see real results
quantities of tanks and planes and
guns that we can actually touch and
know they are not phantomS on
order Industry will be over the
worst hump in tooling up by May or
June. Many manufacturers expect
to deliver the first units we'll in ad-
vance of the date specified in the
contracts. Once plants get going,
production may come off the lines in
larger volumne than is now antici-
pated.'
Plane Output Scars.
Figures from the Defense Com
mission as of January 7, 1941,
showed that we we're getting each
month approximately 2,400 airplane
engines, TOO airplanes, 100 light
tanks, 10000 MI semiautomatic
rifles and. every IL days, one
fighting ship for the Navy. Dur
ing the month of January air.
plane output scared to over 1000
units. These figures will be sharply
increased by fall, and many other
items will be in quantity production.
IF there be critics who say that
this is not enough of an improve
ment over the 1917-1918 record"
Mr.. Finney says, "let them pause
to recall the increased size and
intricacies of current weapons as
compared with those of the previous
war, as we'll as the increased num-
ber Of them required now. Com
pare the simple wooden airplane
of % years ago with the giant
bombers of today, or even with the
modern training plane. Compare
the modern tank with its counter
part of the previous war. Similar
contrasts could be made all along
the line"
I'm the first phase of the defense
effort" the author states, "Ameri-
can industry went at the task Of
preparing for munitions manufac-
ture in the way that it had always
gone at the job of getting ready to
make new and unfamiliar product.
1t built new factories and bought
new machinery, wishing to do the
work in the most efficient manner.
New Phase Starts.
That phase is now being super
seded by second phase, where the
emphasis is realistically on the time
element. Cost and maximum eff
cheney must be sacrificed a little
in order to get results quickly. All
our resources, our existing machine
power as well as our man power,
must be put to useful service
promptly. The temptation to wait
for new plants and order all new
machinery must be resisted"
Mr.. Finney points out that the
farming-out plan and employment
of all the small shops available is
the only practical way of speeding
up munitions production to the
greatest possible degree. "In this
country's factories are some $780,
600 machine tools and thousands OF
other machines" he states. g" If
we should attack the job of farm
ing out aircraft and munitions or
ders among all our shops from coast
to coast and from the gulf to the
Canadian border, doing as intensive
an operation as Germany and Brit
ain. our total output should surpass
that of either country within
reasonable time"
The British government first ac-
cepted this farming-ou principle in
1888 in what was called its bits and
pieces" program. Aircraft makers
were asked to sublet minimum of
35 per cent of their work on gov
ernment orders to firms outside the
industry. This farming-out pro-
gram has expanded so that today
it is the backbone of Britain's fight
for survival. To the way 1t has been
applied, calling as it does for de-
centralization of industry, may be
traced the inability of the German
bombers to put England's war in
dutries out of commission.