The Butler County press. [volume] (Hamilton, Ohio) 1900-1946, 1942-08-28
FACING
THE
FACTS
With PHILIP PEARL

The entire nation is thoroughly dis
turbed over the suddenly discovered
shortage of vital materials which is
blocking full war production.
| 1t begins to look as though there
was something to the rumors current
year or so ago that the steel barons
and other monopolistic metal fabri-
Gators lulled America into a false
sense of security because they feared
expansion might bring them danger
Gus postwar competition.
Do you remember when the steel
and aluminium industries were pooh
hooing warnings of coming shortages?
Do you remember when they conf
IDENTIFY boasted America would have
more than enough metal to meet the
war and peace-time needs?
Look what's happening now! We
don't know the full story yet, but
enough has leaked out to cause serious
alarm. The Higgins Industries, Inc,
which introduced high-speed methods
that revolutionized the ship building
industry, is stopped in its tracks by
cancellation of it's contract for 200
Liberty cargo ships because, the Mari
time Commission says, there is a
shortage of steel
h
building pioneer, gets all set for the
construction of 400 giant airships to
circumvent the submarine menace and
then the Navy tells him there is no
steel.
Boeing Aircraft expands it's facili-
ties for building the deadly Flying
Fortresses, but has to cut down pro-
duction due to lack of materials.
Who Is Responsible?
This is not merely disgraceful sit
uation-it's criminal. 1t is treason
able sabotage of the war effort. The
nations most vital war needs today
are for cargo ships, cargo planes and
bombers. Yet we can't produce them
in the necessary quantities because of
shortages of materials.
Who is responsible for these short
ages? Was it just bad planning or
deliberate selfshness? How can we
most quickly remedy these shortages? (?
These are the questions that must
be answered without delay. Our boys
in uniform may be slaughtered on the
battlefronts because they lack guns
and tanks and planes. And this lack
will be directly traceable to those re-
sponsible for the present shortages in
materials.
Until now all the emphasis has been
placed on labor. We've heard plenty
of talk of labor shortages, of strikes
delaying production, of the need of
labor morale programs to stimulate
production.
But labor is on the job and sticking
to the job. 1t can't produce unless it
has the materials to produce with.
Take the Higgins case for example.
The Metal Trades Department of the
A. F. of L. secured the country for
skilled mechanics and rushed them to
that job because the government was
yelling for more and more ships. Now
lots of these men are out of work and
their skill and productive genius are
being wasted.
We Want to Know the Answers
Let's have no doubt on this point
labor is not going to stand for being
made the goat for any production lag
for which labor is not to blame.
We're going to shout from the
housetops and we won't be silenced
until the responsible parties are put
on the spot and the situation is cor
rected
Rumors are not our dish. We don't
care to spread them nor to give them
when there is no founda-
tion in fact for the charges made.
But the ugly talk that still persists
about the activities of corporation Of
ficials now serving in key office spots
in the Army and Navy must be inves-
tigated. 1t cannot be stilled until the
facts are established, one way or the
other.
A horrible suspicion is growing in
the minds of the American people that
some government officials are serving
the interests of the corporations with
which they were identified before the