Evening star., 1942-04-11


Speaker Ray David Lawrence.
burn made a speech to his constit-
uents in his. home town in Texas
and gave out this long guarded in
formation.
More than $500 planes are pour
ing out Of our factories monthly,
well ahead of schedule; tank pro-
duction is ahead of schedule, with
one company alone turning out an
entire trainload daily, and anti
aircraft production is in advance
Of schedules.
II the Axis engineers know how
big an American trainload is, they
can figure out approximately how
many tanks a day or week or month
are being produced by one COM
pany.
Many a good newspaper article
has been ruined by the Office of
Facts and Figures, which makes
the policy for the Government
agencies on what shall or shall not
be given out. And if any CORE
spondent had dared to print the
monthly production of airplanes, he
would have been accused of violat-
ing the censorship or being a sixth
columnist or something worse.
Fact Widely Known.
But evidently the Office of Facts
snd Figures either hasn't anything
to say about what a Representative
or Senator tells his constituents in
the way Of military data or else
Speaker Rayburn cleared his figures
through the Office of Facts and
Figures. That would mean that
members of Congress on. the stump
will hereafter disclose data that it
Ia forbidden the newspapermen in
Washington to publish.
1t seems hardly likely that the
Once of Facts and Figures knew
anything about it. The probabili-
ties are that the Speaker learned in
Washington about the airplane
production-it is widely known. in
deed-a1ld that he decided there
wasn't much military disadvantage
in telling the people these things,
and he is right about it. In fact,
he may have read the speech which
Majority Leader Barley, Demo-
crat, made in the United States
Senate only last Monday on that
subject. He said, in part:
'I think If the American people
knew month. by month the number
Of airplanes being produced. they
would be very we'll satisfied with the
result, but that raises this question:
We all know that airplanes are di-
vided into categofieS. There are
bombers, there are fighters, there are
pursuit planes, and there are train
ing planes, and there are also other
categories of planes. OF course, in
the production of planes, we have
to consider the total I have in
modest way inquired why it would
not be advisable to let the people
know month by month the number
OF planes we are producing but I
have been met with the statement
that if the total number is an
nounced the impression might be
created, in the first place. that they
were all fighters and all bombers
whereas they are not, and cannot be.
IF information is given out with
breakdown as to the number of
bombers and the number of fighters
snd the number of training planes,
Of course, that information reaches
the enemy. 1t presents difficult
situation as to how far in detail the
Government can 60 in informing its
own people"
BOttlenecks Cited.
During the same discussion Sena-
tor Bali of Minnesota said:
The War Production Board and
other agencies have been asking the
public on the radio and through the
press day after day to work harder
and increase production. 1t is gen.
eralized demand. We found in every
plant we visited that management
and labor are willing and anxious
to do everything they can to increase
production but that all too often a
shortage in some critical part or ma
terial is preventing them from doing
1t. That certainly was true in the
aircraft industry.
Instead of making generalized
pleas for more production which
tend to upset the public but do not
direct the enthusiasm and energy
which is aroused into any specific
channel, perhaps it would be better
for our Government agencies to
concentrate on increasing produc-
tion in those bottlenecks- are
not so very many of them-which
are really holding up top-speed pro-
duction on the big assembly lines"
These comments are but few
which illustrate the bungling job
which is being done in Withholding
fnfornTa ton which, If published,
could be of more value to our own
morale than it could be helpful to
the enemy. Speaker Rayburn per-
formed real service in telling the
American people about the monthly
production of planes-for it is phe-
pomenal, and Germany and Japan
will get scant comfort out of know
ing what they may expect soon from
our air power.
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