Evening star., 1942-06-14

bSoe cAAnt iAioACy Sdll Ouy dllu hllCI lCdIl
ingenuity can devise. Such is the con-
cluSior. to be drawn from a recent tour
of armament factories, the most compre-
hensive since the emergency. which was
made by a group of correspondents un-
der arrangement with the National Asso-
citation Of Manufacturers in cooperation
with the Navy and War Departments.
The trip of "a days began in Washing
ton May and ended May % in New
London. 1t embraced So plants in 21
cities and IA States. The tour extended
from Connecticut to Kansas and from
Virginia and Tennessee to Michigan.
Wisconsin and Lake Ontario. Outside
its scope, however, are great aircraft and
shipping enterprises on the Pacific Coast
and Gulf of Mexico.
On last February 81 Treasury expendi-
lures for war stood at half a billion dol
lars a week. In less than four months
the outlay has doubled, to more than
billion a week On the former date
"a per cent of the national endeavor
went into war production and rs per cent
was for civilian consumption. Today,
according to Department of Commerce
estimates, military manufactures and
mining absorb SIS to SO per cent and the
figure should mount to IS or 10 by the
end of the year.
If graph were drawn showing COM
parative war production, experts say. the
line for Germany would be descending
one, owing to depletion of materials and
manpower in the Russian adventure: that
of the United Kingdom would be level,
since its maximum has been attained;
while the tracing for the United States.
having passed both Germany and Brit
, ain. would still be soaring steeply up
ward. British experts made elaborate
calculations of the date on which Amer
ican war output would pass that of the
United Kingdom. The line was crossed
so days ahead of schedule.
New Type Of Tanks. .
With the exception Of destroyers. light
tanks, attack bombers, semi automatic
rifles. shells, explosives and field guns,
the tour sampled manufactures of near.
ly every important implement of war.
Processes were exhibited for fashioning
essential materials like steel. aluminium,
chemicals and synthetic rubber.
On the list of items inspected in the
making were battleships, cruisers, air
craft carriers. submarines, merchant
vessels and tankers; Diesel engines and
turbo-electric motors to drive them; four
engine and medium bombers, Including
the North American B-25 that raided
Toxic: the Armys most famous pursuit
planes Airacobra and Curtiss P-40, which
were shown in flight: mammoth cargo
planes, trainers of all classes and air.
craft propellers and motors, air and
liquid cooled.
There were also machine tools of every
size, for hundreds of military fabrica-
tions; light and heavy armor plate, scout
cars, giant trucks known as prime mov-
| ers; pistols and automatic rifles cart
| ridges, armor- piercing cores and time
| fuses for shells; machine guns, mortars,
Bofors anti-aircraft cannon and Oerlikon
rapidfire pompoms: searchlights of 300
million candlepower: Army and Navy
gun mounts; and medium tanks build
ing in several factories, both the M-3
which is active today on more than one
foreign front and an improved model
that is to succeed it.
Assurance may be given that Amer
ican inventive genius and capacity for
plant expansion will not be lacking to
achieve President Roosevelt's immense
production schedules for 1923 Judg-
ing by all visible signs, industry has &C
cepted the war as challenge to its skill
and energy. Very properly, censorship
wells some of the more spectacular sur
prises for the Axis which are being pre-
pared by executives engineers. designers,
metallurgists, chemists and electrical
scientists Many of these new devices
recall the proud truth that American
brains originated the leading imple-
ments Of modern warfare-instrumenta
flight, the caterpillar tread and high
speed tank, the dive bomber and aerial
torpedo, the machine gun, submarine
and airplane.