Evening star., 1941-01-01
CBy Cambridge AssociatesN

Progress of the national defense
drive has not kept pace with original
forecasts for several reasons, but the
all-embracing one is that we are
not at war and the American peo-
pie are not ready yet to suffer a
war economy.
Rightly or wrongly. the opinion
prevails that We are still in
period where we can afford to en-
JOY both butter and guns. There
has been no effort 10 curtail the
rights and privileges of labor. and
normal business practices have
been little disturbed. Priorities have
not been exercised, and to speed
production of essential materials. to
control prices and intensity effort
the Government has relied mainly
upon consultation and cooperation.
The purchase of the vast quantity
of implements and supplies required
by the defense program is being
carried on with great care to avoid
the wastes that attended the World
War scramble to arm. The objeC-
tive is to avoid needleSsly over
whelming demands upon industry
that might set off an unWanted Sc
rieS of price jumps and block the
flow of normal business.
Price Disturbances Avoided.
With the guidance of the National
Advisory Defense Commission CO.
ordinator of purchases, Donald Nell
son, the Government has contracted
for a gigantic quantity Of material
with amazingly little interference
with normal price and trade trends.
Perhaps this careful procedure has
tended to obtain greater speed and
efficiency; certainly this is true in
many lines. 1t has not. however,
produced the immediate results that
a frenzied, hang -the-cost attack
might have done.
Another point is the probability
that last springs predictions were
based more on hopes than genuine
potentialities. American industry
was not set up to produce war ma
terialS, and much of the machinery
of durable goods production had
grown exceedingly rusty during
decade of restricted demand.
There was. and is, a shortage of
competent engineers. technicians
and skilled workers in many lines.
While many older men are being
called back to jobs for which there
has been a hundred applicants for
every opening in recent years, an
intensive program to train new men
has been launched by Government,
industry and labor unions. But this
process takes time-and creates the
paradox of a labor shortage that
troubles us simultaneously with an
unemployment problem.
Tool Production Doubled.
Mass production means machines,
too: machines for making the
things we actually need. Once the
machines are ready and the op-
eratives are there to control them,
goods can flow out at a miraculous
speed. But it takes time to build
the first machines.
The machine tool industry is
working hard to meet the unique
problems which the defense pro-
gram has posed. The 1910 output
was an all-time high. twice as great
as the 1899 total. New equipment
promises one-third increase over
the 1910 gross production during
the coming year And it is needed
Nearly 95 per cent of the industry's
huge backlog of untitled orders is |
for our defense requirements and |
the war needs of Britain and Can
ada.
The Airplane Problem.
Aircraft manufacture is another
well-publicized bottleneck, of course. /
In comparison with German meth /
DDS. the aircraft industry has never
attained the mass-production class.
The industry has been able to
make American commercial planes
the best In the world and in the !