Evening star., 1942-12-04
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
One year after Pearl Harbo
America is As per cent at war il
terms of production. More impor
| tant, the arsenal of democracy ha!
| passed in the u months from max.
ing tools and plants to making
things that shoot
The fact that munitions outpu
has nearly auadrupled since thu
Japanese assault in the Pacific i!
one measure of success in arms pro.
duction, but the fact that the Unitec
States can land an expeditionar,
! force on foreign shores. American
armed and American equipped, il
a better measure.
1t means, in the words of one o1
/ the War Production Boards tor
officials, that "the Sunday punch is
coming and it's not far away"
To Climb Toward 60fs.
BY next years anniversary ol
Pearl Harbor nearly so per cent O
the country's entire outlay for goods
and services will be going for wal
purposes. by latest WPB estimate
as compared with today's 45 per
cent
But in terms Of military impact
on the enemy, the difference Will
be tremendously greater, Tor a
swiftly increasing share of war eX-
penditures will be going into war
planes, artillery, ships, tanks and
ammunition: less and less OF the wal
effort will be devoted to machine
tools, plants, cantonments and the
other shooting stuff which had
to be produced before mass produc-
ton of arms could take place.
Under the whip Of WPB Chair
man Donald M. Nelson, the PROP
lem of converting civilian factories
into arsenals has been licked. In
dustrv has been converted or is
we'll on the way.
This revolution Of industry was
equivalent to a major military VIC
tory. In "a classes Of metal-work-
ing industries. more than 81 per
cent Of all untitled orders this au-
tumn were for war goods.
Exceeds Peacetime Output.
In manv cases, OF course, this
didn't mean a change OF product,
but change OF customer--the
Army and Navy became the buyers
Motorcycle makers, for instance
still are making motorcycles. but
they have had to double tneir cut
put. ,
Even in the great industries which
actually had to retool and convert
automobiles, vacuum cleaners, ra-
dos. washing machines and others
which contributed s6000.000 900
worth OF standard of living goods
to peacetime America-the rate OF
war production now is higher gem
orally than the peacetime peak
After the initial wrench, employ
ment in most cases is back to nor
NAL or higher.
The big Job ahead is to md ma
terial to feed into the auto plants
that are making planes, the loco
motive works that make tanks. the
lingerie factories making MOSQUITO
nets, the spark plug Arms which
make bayonets, the typewriter
nlants that make machine guns,
the toy train producers who turn
out run mounts. p
Forecast for 1943.
Aside from the problem OF man
power, the coming production de-
velopments will revolve around that
task: Feeding the war machine
Therefore, these are the emerging
trends of 1913:
/, Skimping the ciyilian-Belt-
Tightening for the civilian to a point
previously unknown in this land OF
abundance is inevitable. just how
lean the civilian economy can be-
come WPB does not know exactly
but means to find out.
2. Standardizing goods-To make
every pound of metal and every
ward of fabric go As far as possible
WPB will lay down wartime stand
ards Of design.
This means more than cutting
two inches off the end of shirt tails
ordered last month. 1t means slow
moving lines and models will dis
appear, so as not to tie up ma
terials; that odd styles and un-
usual sizes will be eliminated in
fields ranging from railroad wheels
to apparel.
But Mr.. Nelson says civilian
clothes won't degenerate into uni
forms.
3. Choking off construction-We
now are building storage space and
similar buildings equivalent in space
to 35 Empire State buildings a
month. We are building airhelds
complete with paving, buildings and
utilities, at a rate equivalent tc
building an airdrome the size oi
Rhode Island in year.
Must Construction.
In sum, construction is A vast
drain on manpower and materials
Only the must" jobs--such as ex-
pansion of synthetic rubber. higf
octane gasoline, steel and some
other plants-will continue.
The goal is to eliminate all con-
struction that can't be completed
next year. The viewpoint Of the
war planners may be summarized
as: "It isn't essential unless 1t car
be thrown at the Axis
4. Scheduling production: Prop
err scheduling of arms output mean
/ that plants must be slowed down
speeded up, or closed entirely from
/ time to time, according to th'
master plans for balanced mum
tions output. Employment and pay
rolls in hundreds Of towns are a
/ the mercy Of the schedulers.
Because some facilities are over
built and some manufacturers arr
unexpectedly efficient is no excus'
! for overproducing some types o.
ammunition, WPB feels; nor shoule
{ tanks be produced in vaster quanti
ties than can be shipped to battl,
zones. Other war plants need tina
metal.
Some Miscalculations.
( Absence of one or two parts ha.
delayed delivery Of bomhers in GER.
! tain plants in 1942; on the othel