Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-04-03


news of the first importance to find
that a Senate subcommittee has
just made report surveying West
Coast plants and that it has pub
Nshed its results. The report re-
veals the fact that production Of
sirplanes recently has been slowed
down by lack Of overall planning
"a year or more ago" and that
the War Production Board has not
as yet remedied the defect. The
subcommittee says:
"a poor job Of overall planning,
from aluminium ingots to finished
aircraft, by the armed services and
the old o. P. M. must be blamed for
the present situation. The usual
red tape and delays in making con-
tracts also were responsible. The
subcommittee recommends:
"(a) That the War Production
Board set up section charged with
overall planning for aircraft pro-
duction, such section to be headed
by a trained aircraft production
executive drafted from the industry.
The subcommittee has been told
that the War Production Board still
does not have a single topnotch
aircraft production man in its or
ganization.
Urges Action on Bottlenecks.
"Ob) That instead OF wasting its
energies on a generalized plea for
'all-out production, which has con-
fused management, labor and the
public, the War Production Board
concentrate its efforts on breaking
those bottlenecks which are, in the
aircraft industry to the subcom-
mittee's certain knowledge and
probably in other fields, really hold
ing up peak production"
That's an amazing statement.
For weeks the radio has been filled
with imprisoned appeals from
Government propaganda agencies
about all-out production and the
administration has been issuing
propaganda statements about how
If only management-labor commit
tees were organized, production
could be Increased and so on. And
here Is q subcommittee Of Senators
who, after frst-hand survey from
March 8 to March Is, say that
the War Production Board isn't
doing the primary task Of selecting
competent persons to head UP such
an important section Of its work as
aircraft production.
1t may be, Of course, that there has
been hesitancy about selecting man
from the aircraft industry because
he would be attacked as a dollar
a-year" man, with divided loyalty.
So many Senators have smeared
management men that the latter
hesitate to come to Washington to
be made the victims of much polit-
ical shipping.
Apparently there are no college
professors or academicians available
who know anything about aircraft,
or at least in wartime there is a
hesitation to appoint them. So the
Government must turn to the in
dustry which knows what it is that
must be produced. And even If such
o man sewers all relations with his
former employers and takes a Gov
eminent salary, this does not pre-
vent, apparently, such accusations
as have recently been heard to the
effect that these executives still are
loyal to their businesses and not
to their country.
Might Look Into Strikes.
The subcommittee report is blunt
In It's appraisal Of what has hap
pened to retard production. 1t says:
When the big expansion of air
craft plants was undertaken a
year or more ago, no attention was
paid to the necessity of expanding
professors or academicians available
at the same time the facilities of the
thousands of subcontractors who
supply parts and subassemblies. AS
q result, in some vital airplane parts,
production Is not up to the capacity
Of the big assembly plants to absorb
them. These shortages in critical