The Skyland post. [volume] (West Jefferson, N.C.) 193?-1988, 1942-10-15

dents recent censored" trip a.
round the United States to visit
war plants, one fact stands out:
the fact that President Roosevelt
says our war production is within
6 per cent of the goals which he
set for 1912 at the beginning of
the year.
When those goals were set Adolf
Hitler laughed at them and the
whole Axis-controlled press said
they were ridiculous and impos-
sible of attainment. Now, with
only a 6 per cent lag and still
over three months to go, it is quite
possible that they will be reached.
The most cheerful part of this
is that if Hitler considered those
goals impossible, he must have
based his conclusion on the fact
that such production would be
impossible in Germany so we
can assume that our present pro-
duction is we'll ahead of the Ger
mans.
Ever since the President return
ed to the White House, discussion
has continued as to whether he
was right in ordering the press
not to publish anything about his
trip until it was completed,
whether the trip was taken for
political reasons, and whether he
should have taken time off from
his arduous duties here to inspect
plants.
The whole discussion has again
thrown the limelight on the in
tense political rivalry which still
continues in Washington, for, in
general, the criticism of his trip
has been made mostly by Repub-
licans and the Democrats have
steadfastly defended him.
Although the President was
critical of congress - particularly
over the time they wasted in
putting through the measure to
control wages and farm prices
it is believed he is considerably
relieved over the fact that the
open break between himself and
congress, which was threatened
over farm price, didn't come to
a head.
Many congressman are believed
to have welcomed the delay over
enactment of the farm-Wage meas
ure because it offered them an
excuse to postpone further, posi-
bly, until after election, enactment
of the new tax measure which
they fear will be used against
them at the polls. There is no
doubt that the tax measure could
have been put through months
ago and that congress has deliber-
ately avoided facing this issue as
long as possible. AS far back as
last June news analysts were pre-
dieting that the tax bill would be
postponed until it hardly seemed
possible that enough reasons for
delay could be found to postpone
it for that long.
Although, the President said
production was within per cent
of the goals he set, his figure did
not jibe entirely with the recent
report of Donald Nelson, chair
man of the War Production board,
who said that production for the
month of August Jagged IA per
cent behind the goal set for that
month.
Mr.. Nelson said that, according
to estimates, our war production
for 1912 will undoubtedly equal
that of Germany and German
dominated Europe and will ex-
coed it if new military construc-
ton is considered. But he said
this production isn't impressive
enough when we consider the
headstart which Germany has.
Stressing this same subject the
Importance of greater production
Maj. Gen. Lewis B. Hershey,
director of the selective service,
severely criticized both employers
and civilian workers for failing
to realize the need for more hours
of production. He said that it soon
may be necessary to ask school
children, after spending part of
the day in school, to spend four
or five hours day doing war
work, including work on tn e
farms.
Stating that "our civilian popu-
lation has not gone to war yet"
General Hershey explained: "Our
people are still governed by
philosophy of abundance. We
don't understand that there can
be scarcity of anything. We
don't know how many men we'll
have to mobilize to lick Germany
and Japan. The fighting and pro-
ducing groups must be reinforce
ed in every way possible to get