Evening star., 1941-10-12

agency mainly to have this step taken.
officials feel. however, that he Is ready
to support his S. P. A. B. leaders when
they propose radical changes in the pro"
gram.
Full cooperation in the effort to fore
see the total need IS being given by the
Army and the Navy, VINO have time and
again eXasperated defense officials with
their failure to reveal what there future
requirements would be. But both Sec
retary of War Stimson and Secretary of
the Navy Knox are members of S. p.
A. B., so even the most reluctant military
men have no choice now but to speak
freely.
Prestige TO Investigators.
The fact that Vice President Wallace
is chairman of S. P. A. B. gives prestige
to the agency's Investigators Working
boss is Donald M. Nelson, executive di-
rector, Also on the boaro are William S.
Knudsen. director of o. P NJ, and Leon
Henderson, price administrator.
S. P A. B. already is getting things
done. For instance, Mr.. Nelson has been
prodding Jesse Jones, Federal loan ad-
ministrator, to get him to hurry along
two projects to increase the annual out
put of aluminium by 6OO,OO0O0O pounds
and that of magnesium by 400 100000
pounds.
Mr. Nelson also is looking into the
copper situation to see how the supply
can be increased Also S P. A. B. a few
days ago gave approval to plan for in
creaSing the steel ingot capacity by
10000 900 tons annually. This was for
mulated and presented by Mr.. Knudsen,
who still is working steadily on the
problems of production
Farming out of defense orders to
small plants by subcontracting recently
has become a major undertaking of
o. P M. as we'll as the Army and Navy.
For months the efforts to increase the
amount of Subcontracting had yielded
only meager results, but now the contract
distribution division, under new di-
rector, Floyd B. Odlum, has been made
to Mr. KnudSen, and it is setting up
vast network of Offices throughout the
Nation.
The enormous productive resources of
idle tools in small shops will be brought
into the program in this way, it is hoped.
Meanwhile, it will aid workers and small
industries who have been forced out of
production because they had no defense
contracts and were unable to obtain for
civilian production those materials which
were needed for defense.
Output Increases Slowiy.
The output of defense materials,
meanwhile, is increasing at snail's
pace. 1t has been nearly six months
since John D. Biggers, former director
of the production division of o. P. M,
told a House committee that I'VE are
within 100 days of the beginnings of real
mass production, but men who regularly
examine the statistics on production
have not detected mass production on
more than few items.
The assumption of many persons that
defense industries have about finished
the job of expanding and building new
plants and are now about to enter the
production stage is unwarranted by the
facts Actually, only a fraction of the
construction job has been completed
The program authorizes S6,0OO,0OO 900
of industrial construction, including pur-
chase of real estate, putting up buildings
and installing equipment. At the end Of
September two-thirds of this was under
contract. but only two-fifths of the money
had been spent. Since the Government
pays up as soon as work reaches various
stages of completion, this means that
only two-ffths of the defense construc-
ton work has been completed or partly
completed.
The bottleneck in defense plant con-
struction has been machine tools Build
ings could be put up quickly, but equip
ment could not be procured to start man.
ufacturing.
Big guns, particularly anti-aircraft ar
tillery, are being produced at very slow
rate. The Army has not stressed the
production of these items, feeling that
others, like airplanes, were needed more
Immediately