Evening star., 1941-04-17
$1,000 Plants Report
BiIIion-DoIIar Plans
To Expand Defense
Knudsen to Receive
Manufacturer Survey
On Production Facilities

Manufacturers Survey
On Production Facilities
By the Associated Press.
NEW YORK. April 17.-Nearly
| 1900 manufacturers have reported.
in a survey completed today, that
they are prepared to expand the
Nations defense production by sew
eral billion dollars annually over
anything previously predicted.
The survey, made by the National
Industrial Council of the National
Association of Manufacturers, shows
that the Nations factories have
ready for this expansion the ma
chinery and the floor space; that
they will need thousands of new
employees; that they are seeking
| and getting-Government orders
with which to put their facilities to
complete use.
Further, they are expected to
employ mass productive methods
| through a revolutionary plan OF
communal pooling already embrac-
ing 1874 communities and predicted
for operation in more than 1000
communities within the year.
Farming Out Procedure.
These facts, still in process of de-
tailed compilation. will be presented
next week to William S. Knudsen,
head of the ONCE Of Production
| Management, as a contribution to-
ward speeding defense industries to
an efficiency level unequalled in his
tory.
They are the outstanding conclu-
sions drawn by officials of the Ma
| tional Association OF Manufacturers
| from a three months census of fac
tory facilities.
Walter B. Weisenburger, executive
vice president of the N. A. M. COM
have indicated they expect to place
in excess of SIS 900 900, 900 worth of
defense orders during 1941.
Defense contract service officials
as well as o. p. M. executives are
aiming at stimulating the farming
out subcontracting procedure to the
extent that so per cent Of these
orders will reach the contributory
small manufacturer.
Complete Inventory Made.
Reports from 1851 manufac-
turers point to the possibility Of
achieving this aim. Thousands of
potential defense producers have
been located, identified and made
known through this self-census of
industry.
ut now Is safe to say that several
billion dollars worth of defense
orders will reach small subcon-
tractors as the direct result of in
dustrys own inventory of its facil-
tiles. the final tabulated results
of which will be placed in Mr.
Knudsen's hands within few days"
What Mr.. Knudsen will be given
will be a report of:
/. The number of plants report
ing in each State. segregated ac-
cording to industry.
2. An inventory Of productive
machines showing their number and
kind and the hours they are idle
each day.
g. The number of plants ham
ding prime defense contracts, sub
contracts and both types of orders.
4. The number Of plants not ham
ding defense orders but interested
and able.
S. Available plant areas.
g. Number of plants willing to in
stall defense production machinery.
7. Employees working, those needed
and their training under expanded
operations.
Cooperative Production.
All 48 States will be covered by
the report, although industries al
ready working at capacity on direct
Government contracts will not be
included since the purpose OF the
big survey is to show defense poten-
tialities.
The officials who conducted the
census foresee the probable results
of the present emergency operations
as of great social and economic
significance.
The N. A. M. is sponsoring
program of operating these newly
discovered plant facilities on
cooperative basis, with small fac
tories turning out munitions to the
limit of their capabilities without
direct orders from Washington, but
on behalf of prime contractors who
rely on their neighbors to help them
meet their contracts.
The N. A. M has records of 1874
such communities already in opera
ton with such efficiency that many
plants too small even to be con-
sidered for the big Government
orders are working night and day
on subcontract bases, turning out
rifle barrels, gun mountings, car
fridge cases, airplane manifolds,
tank treads and thousands of other
necessities of the modern war ma
chine.
Communal Objectivcs.
These communities are able to
place bulk orders for raw materials,
receive shipments and make de-
liveries in bulk quantities, cooper
ate in the use of railroad and other
shipping facilities. build their own
airports for speed transportation
needs and underwrite joint housing
projects for their communities
labor.
Three objectives of the communal
industrial plan on the side of So
cial significance were represented
as being:
/. The prevention of unnecessary
n1iorationS of labor