The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-07-31

try. There are It Eds0n 22 principal concerns in this business, and it so happens that there is a concen- tration of utcnsil towns in Wiscon- sin. Manitowoc, Two Rivers, Chii- ton, Kewaskurn, West Bend and Eau Claire have all felt this pinch. So has the Aluminium Company of Americas own plant in New Ken- sington, Pa, where 900 men were originally laid off, though several hundred are now rehired. Inde- pendents in New Washington, Ohio, Lemont,, Ill., and die casting plants in Marsl1alltown, Iowa, and Cleve- 1 land, Ohio, have also suffered shutdowns.
 NOT SOFT FOR AUTOS
 Other industries are being squeezed, too, principally rnanu- facture of civilian goods in the rubber, silverware, plated ware, and flatware industries. And heavy, heavy hangs over the head of the auto makers the threat of fur- ther cut in their production quotas for the next 12 months, with con- sequent layoffs that will tempor- arily at least be anything but pie in the sky for employer or em- ploye.
 So what's to be done about it? So defense officials are beginning to come forward with their ideas of how to make shutdowns and lay offs as painless as possible, with out resort to leaf raking.
 What all proposals boil down to is not exactly sub-contracting, but more and better spreading out of contracts to more firms. Along with that, spreading out of available material supply.
 Forced migration of labor from non defense to defense plants would do the trick, but that's gen. erally thought of as costly and unsatisfactory = costly because 1t involves moving the workers and their families, unsatisfactory pe- cause the workers transported to new surroundings aren't happy. Further, mass movements involve major economic disruptions to los- ing and gaining communities in the way of shifted housing facii- ties, schools, transportation, public health and all the other plain and fancy trimmings of modern living.
 A. J. Browning of Chicago, one of the first OPMers to diagnose and call attention to this economic ailment has so far advanced the most complete course of treatment. Browning is now an adviser to the purchasing division of the Office of Production Management, and his cure is for the Army and Navy contract and supply officers to administer course of treatments something like this:
 First, orders for important items should be placed with as many different companies as possible. This is now being done to a cer- tain extent. but the temptation is to place orders with one reliable, prime contractor, and then let him farm out the work.
 Second, when big company can make a variety of iten1s-pots, pans and airplane parts-while smaller companies can make only a few items - just the pots and pans n then all the orders for pots and pans should be given to the small CT companies, leaving orders for the more varied items = the airplane parts = to the bigger company, which can be kept busy anyway.
 Third, if the capacity of an in- dustry is less than the needS--aS for aluminium airplane parts = ef- forts should be made to place edu- cational orders with companies not now equipped, even If that means installing additional machinery with the unequipped companies, in pref erence to putting the new equip- ment with present suppliers. Next, instead of continuing the expansion of present manufactur- ing plants for any given products say aluminium airplane parts again Browning recommends that the services of additional organizations should be utilized even though, at the beginning, this new, outside OQCIdbAO1lS A1dy INV " dSs ~SS4ASAAA ical or productive. The point here is that efforts muct be made to as- sist non defense industries to be- come new sources of supply.
 SPREAD THE WORK
 Finally, when any manufactures is already assured large volume of business, then every effort should be made to avoid placing addi- tional orders with this company. It's better business for the country at large, they figure, to give the orders to other manufacturers who would otherwise probably be 1p- erating below normal during the emergency.
 Browning believes that the pos abilities of sub-contracting are lim- tied. What he's interested in par tirilarlv iS increasing the number