Evening star., 1941-06-18

theoretical de- Dand Lawrence.
feat not to anybody in the Govern
ment, of course, but to one indus
trial company. Here are the Secre-
tary's exact words as testified to
under oath before Senate COM
mittee:
"Well, when the story of this war
comes to be written, it may have to
be written that it was lost because
of the recalcitrance of the Aluminium
Company of America. 1t is just as
serious as that, and they are just as
helpful and cooperative as that,
too"
This is strange thing for men,
Der of the Presidents cabinet to say,
for If the public mind is now to be
concentrated on who is responsible
for the failure of the United States
to be better prepared for war than
It is at present, it may well be that
the people will begin asking peril
nent questions as to what the Presi-
dent and the Secretary of War and
the Secretary of the Navy and Con-
eress itself were doing month by
month from September, 1899, to the
spring of 1941, when the first really
comprehensive military defense pro-
gram was launched by the admins
ration.
Plane Quota Up TO u. s.
II wasn't the business of the
president of the aluminium COM
pany to decide how many airplanes
should be built for the Army or
Navy and hence to estimate how
much aluminium was to be needed.
That was the business of the Pres
ident of the United States or his
assistants.
The Aluminium Co. of America
happens to be the principal source
Of supply for aluminium in this
country. Instead of cooperating
with the Aluminium Co. these last
three years, the Roosevelt admins
tration started campaign of per-
eecution in their courts and did
everything it could to break up the
company at the very time when it
should have been doing everything
h could to stimulate production.
Even now the members of the
Roosevelt administration have con-
nived TO bring a competitor to the
Aluminium Co. into the field, fur
xishing Government funds and car
xytng on a smear campaign with the
idea Of discrediting the Aluminium
60. before the public.
$500, ,oo0, 900 More Invested.
The latter corporation invested
t20o 900 900 of new capital last year
IN expanding plants, notwithstand-
ing the persecution of its executives
by the Justice Department and the
interior Department.
Mr.. Ickes seems much more in
terested in the charge that the Alu-
ninum Co. is supposed to be a
monopoly than he is in getting ma
donal defense requirements fulfilled.
He admits in his testimony before
the Senate committee that when
the Aluminium Co., last February 4,
asked for more electric power from
the Bonneville Dam, the Secretary
refused it. His excuse was that the
hw forbade him to give too much
electricity to monopoly"
Mr.. Ickes seems disturbed because
the o. p. M. in November 1910
issued q statement saying there was
enough aluminium for defense needs
and that an official of the Aluminium
%. testified last May Is that there
vas enough for national defense.
Mr.. Ickes insists that this is inaccu-
rate, but he is not fair enough to
tell the public that military require
ments as of those dates were the
only ones on which the Aluminium
Co. could base its estimates.
The records of the War Depart
nnent will show what aluminium the
Government itself thought it needed
for airplanes in each month of 1941.
The records also will show that the
Aluminium Co. doubled those esti-
mates last January in figuring out
what it could supply for defense
and that it was not until the Presi-
dent few weeks ago decided on
the large bomber program that the
new estimates of 1,400, 900 900 pounds
Of aluminium came into the picture.
The Nazis have way of picking
scapegoats to blame when things go
wrong. In America the New Dealers
already have picked out American
industry. If the war is lost-so the
ahbi now resds-it will not be the
sault OF the administration in power,