Evening star., 1942-02-02
Navy Having Trouble
Keeping Shipyards
Going 24Hours a Day
Senate Nay Act Today
On SIG, ,000, 600, 900
Appropriation Bill
BY J. A. O'LEARY.

oy . IA " ALAn1
The Navy is having great diff
Guilty finding enough mechanics
to man the night shifts in ship
yards building warships, Secre-
tary Knox told the Senate Ap-
preparations Committee in hear
ings made public today on the
,500,0OO,000 naval supply bill.
The Secretary called this the
greatest naval war any nation ever
faced" and described what the de-
partment is doing to speed compile
ton OF two-ocean navy.
The testimony was made public as
the Senate prepared to act this
afternoon on the bill, the largest in
history. The Senate Committee has
added $500, 100000 since the House
passed 1t. In its present form 1t
contains s8,0O0,000,O00 for naval
aviation and an equal amount for
continuing work on surface vessels.
S944, ,00O. 900 to Repair British Ships.
A 1914 100000 item was asked by
the Navy, it was disclosed, to cover
requests of the British Repair Mis-
sion.
Admiral Alexander H. Van Keu-
rem of the Bureau Of Ships testified
that big item" in American naval
yards was the repair of British
ships, an expense covered in the
past under leaSe-lend authorization.
That item is the most appre-
ciated act that this Government
has done for Great Britain" Ad-
miral Van Keuren said.
The admiral said the Navy had
investigated the sources of supply
and found it could supply British
needs without dislocations of its
own ship program.
Although the Navy is. trying to
keep the work shops going "a hours
q day, Mr.. Knox testified, the
available force of workers is dis
tributed as follows: go per cent ON
the day shift, 80 per cent on the
evening shift. and 10 per cent on
the late night force.
Third Shift Is the Thorn.
There is great difficulty in get
ting men to work on that third
shift" said the Secretary, "and we
are racking our brains for methods
and possible plans under which we
can enlarge the second and third
shifts so as to make for a 24-hour
use Of all machine tools and facili-
ties. 1t is not an easy thing to do.
It is particularly difficult because
of lack of supervisory force fore-
men If experience) for the third
shift"
In explaining how the manpower
supply is spread out, he said If a
plant has 1000 men available, 800
are on the day force. 300 on the early
night crew and 100 on the remaining
shift.
The Secretary said the Navy is
more or less freezing" ship designs
to avoid any delay due to expert
mentation.
After describing how the Navy
must protect shipment of supplies
across the Atlantic and the Pacific,
guard the Panama Canal and patrol
the coasts of North and South
America, Mr.. Knox observed:
Navy Has "Stupendous Task"
so that when you come to di-
vide UP this one-ocean Navy over
all Of the oceans of the earth and
with all of these problems of ade-
quate protection, you can under
stand the stupendous size Of our
task"
Admiral j. H. Towers, chief of
the Bureau Of Aeronautics, told of
the Navy's goal of producing $4,000
planes this year.
For the calendar year 1943," he
said, "the Presidents program calls
for a total of 10000 planes, 81. 900
of which are scheduled to be Navy
types"
While Secretary Knox was pic
turing the problems Of getting fight
ing equipment to the distant war
theaters, he said the difficult prob
lem is to transport the fighter planes
that protect the bombers. Large
aircraft can be flown to any thea
ter, he said, but fighters cannot be
flown land you cannot convey them,
set up, except very extravagantly."
The only practical way to ship them
IN adequate quantities is to ship
them knocked down, he said.