Evening star., 1941-03-16
Business Speeds
Plans for Aid
To Britain
Factory and Retail
Prospects Affected
By u. S. Action
By FRANK MacMILLEN,
Associated Press Business Writer.

NEW YORK, MdrCn 10.-FldIlS IOr
spending s7,000.000,00O for aid to
Britain under the lease-lend law
today sent business executives into
huddleS trying to figure out just
how fast peak" industrial activity
will be at the height of Americas
defense effort.
Already s28,500 100000 is flowing
out to industry under contracts in
connection with the national defense
program. The added $1,000 100000,
coming into the picture for the first
time this week, quickly revised all
previous conceptions of the forward
factory and retail trade outlooks.
This added $1,000 900, 900 isn't all
to 60 to the arms plants. Around
81 ,343 100000 will be spent for ord
nance and ordnance stores, supplies,
spare gun parts and materials, in
cluding armor and ammunition.
Another s2054,0O0,000 will go for
airplanes and parts. Around S362,-
100000 will be handed out for tanks,
armored cars. automobiles. trucks
and other vehicles An amount OF
S629 900, 600 is earmarked for ships.
A sum of 81, $50 900 900, however, will
be spent for agricultural, industrial
and other commodities.
Farm Products Needed.
For the first time since the de-
fense effort started, therefore. it
appears that the farmer and farm
products may be engaged to play a
key role in mobilization of materials
for shipment to Britain.
The first call of Great Britain as
a customer for war needs here was
for SteelS, brass and other raw
materials. Britain was also heavy
buyer of machine tools. The theory
of British war heads at the outset
of the war was that materials could
be purchased in the United States
and freighted to Britain where they
could be turned into airplanes, war
ships, guns and ammunition on
imported United StateS-made ma
chinery on United Kingdom soil.
AS the war increased in its in
tensity, however. with air raids on
shipping and factory cities becoming
more frequent, the call came here
for airplanes in increasing numbers.
Close observers say the minds
directing mobilization Of material
needs for England figured that
foreign dollar exchange should be
conserved for purchase here of the
industrial products the empire could
not produce, and that foodStuff5
should be acquired from Canadian,
Australian and other allied empire
! sources.
The intense submarine warfare,
/ many experts think, now has forced
| the home island to look more realis-
tically for food supplies in the West
ern Hemisphere, with the posi-
bility that in the not distant future
foods from the United States as
we'll as Canada, the bread basket
of the empire" will be required in
| increasing quantities.
Would Boost Incomes.
From our own domestic viewpoint,
shipments of agricultural products
| to Britain would be welcomed in
many quarters, for it would enable
| the American farmer to share to a
| greater degree in the rising mobility
Of money pouring out of the Treas
ury for our own and England's de-
fense material needs.
/ Close to capacity steel mill opera
/ tionS for some time to come was
| held probable in most all quarters
as the s7,000,0000 900 for British aid
is poured out. Already steel plants
have huge blacklogs of untitled
orders, and this past week the
industry turned out l,594,500 tons
of ingots, the biggest tonnage for
any week in history.
Auto plants, too, should be busy
straight through 1941. At the
moment they are rushing assemblies
of new passenger cars in the hope
of building up stocks large enough
to care for domestic consumer de-
mand this summer and early fall.
Shortly after the second half of
| the year arrives, some auto concerns
want to take workers off the as
sembly lines and set them to work
in new plants for the production of
tanks, armored automobiles, other
mechanical units, airplane engines,
and aircraft parts.
The railroads, too, appear to have
busy year ahead. Loadings cur
rently are running around 1875 per
cent above year ago, and If this
breadth of gain continues to hold
into the fall, almost every available
freight car will be required to
handle the traffic.
Aircraft and machine tool plants,
hiking along at full capacity, will
add new plants and continue at top
speed well into next year, leaders
in both fields say.
Retail Trade Brisk.
Meantime, retail trade continues
to steam along at brisk levels. espe-
cially at defense centers where EN-.
ployment is expanding and pay
envelopes are becoming fatter.
Even heavy snowstorms in many
parts of the country the past week
failed to keep shoppers at home.
There was some letdown at
heaviest snowbound points in
(See BUSINESS, Page ED