Evening star., 1941-04-01

dUSul ully.
Forty years ago great orator
loved to talk about million embat-
tied farmers springing to arms, seiz-
ing their Shotguns and squirrel rifles
and driving any invaders into the
Atlantic Ocean. That may have
been real threat then, but it Isl
joke now. One tank division with
squadron of our fighter planes and
of bombers, could annihilate mil
lion men, so armed, in an afternoonl
Factory Failure Conquered France.
When shotguns and squirrel rifles
were weapons of war, quick arming
was feasible. But few homesteads
have an airplane or tank in the
garagel So preparation for modern
warfare is lengthy operation. 1t
takes years. Four years are required
as e minimum to produce one bat
tleShip. 1t is a race not only against
time but also against the same effort
of other nations. 1t took Hitler four
years to attain mass production of
airplaneS. France and England
could have retained their dominance
in the air by competing then. But
they did not. They did not appre-
ciate the fact that modern war is
won by doing better job in the
factories producing war materiel. So
when Chamberlain went to Munich,
he had nothing but an umbrella! !
France was not conquered in 1910
nor on the field of battle in the spec
tacular sweep of Hitlers air corps
and tanks. She was conquered by
the failure of her factories to func-
ton efficiently during the seven
years preceding 1t was not her
Maginot Line that failed but her
production and assembly linesl
Ambassador Bullitt testified as an
eyewitness. He says that after
France was partially overrun, with
many of her airplane factories in
German hands, she produced with
what she had left, two and a half
times as many airplanes in one
month as she had ever produced in
any month Of her history when she
had all of her facilities supposedly
on the job
No one disputes these facts and
they should encourage us. The Bat
tie of Waterloo may have been won
on the cricket fields at Eton. But
the battles of Poland, of Holland,
Belgium and France were won in
the factories of Germany Hitler's
fifth column was powerful. But
his sixth column-his factories
were omnipotent.
Nowadays wars do not come to
nations who are prepared to defend
themselves. Aggressors simply count
the navies, the supply ships and
transports, the supplies of oil, am
munition, food, and the number of
aircraft and tanks and if these equal
or exceed their own, there is no war.
Not a Day to Spare.
This should be right down our
alley" We have practically every
thing-surplus food, clothing, trans
portation, ingenuity, energy, expe-
rience, men, skill, money, plants, raw
materials and, thanks to some re-
manning isolation and the British
fleet, enough time! But not a day
to spare! Our experts have on paper
an adequate defense program. Total
defense, which would if realized,
guarantee the peace Of our hemiS-
phere.
We have drafted $4,000 600, 900
and there has been no strike of q
single dollar!
We have drafted 100000 men,
plus the National Guard. And there
has been no strike!
American farmers work 80 hours
a week at Is cents an hour. AS a
result, our national pantry is full
and overfowing. And there has
been no strikeI
The United States is the paradise
for both capital and labor. There
are more millionaires in America
than in the rest of the world. The
salaries of management are the
highest ever known. Here, labor
enjoys the highest wages, as short
hours, as ideal conditions, and is
provided with as good housing, as
much leisure, as good recreational
facilities and as good health and
hospital care as the world has ever
known. The cost Of living has not
risen materially in this emergency.
No wages have declined. No right
of labor has been denied or with
drawn. Yet, in the face Of these
facts and the challenge to the pro-
digious effort flung by our able
leaders, selfishness stalks abroad in
the land - and time-the most
priceless resource at our command
is wasted! While the time worked
compared to the time lost makes
the loss seem small, yet who can
say that we can afford to lose even
one day? The summarized history
of the defense effort Of IA nations
has already been written in two
words: "Too late!"
Waste Adds Up to Years.
Yet, in spite of this repeated
handwriting on the wall of recent
history, strikes in the United States
have caused the loss Of more than
million man-days of work In jan
uary and February Of 1941-625, 900
man-days lost in 220 strikes in jan
uary, 1,000, 900 man-days lost in 240
strikes in February, 1925 900 man
days of idleness in January and Feb
ruary, 1941! And the record of
March will be worse! In February
alone-a 28-day month-we lost the
equivalent of 1000 men working
1000 days-more than three years.
In these two months strikes sub
tracted from our defense effort the
work time necessary to produce SAL
modern bombers, or more than
thousand fighting airplanes! In 127
plants listed by the Navy Depart
ment, the output of which affected
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