The potters herald. [volume] (East Liverpool, Ohio) 1899-1982, 1942-06-11
Economic
@MhA9hA
National and International Problems
Inseparable from Local Welfare

| Lie Ddllle ol pTONuCJloH HIS Deel
won," wrote Paul Nj lon recently.
american industry went over the top
in April, out of the preparatory organ
izing phase, and into the great Ameri-
jcan stride of mass production which no
one can equal anywhere. From now on
the production line on our charts will
90 nearly straight up"
That is an incredible achievement,
and it takes incredible statistics to de-
scribe it. In April, our war production
was at the rate of $4,000, 100000 Il
lyear The June rate will be about %
per cent greater. And by the end of
this year, the economists confidently
predict we will be producing ut the
rate of $7O,OOO,OOO,OOO a year.
In time to come, many a learned
book will be written telling just how
|private industry did This job-a job
(which is unprecedented in world his
tory. Two years ago we were totally
lunprepared for war. Today we are out
producing nations which devoted most
of their resources to getting ready for
war, for Il decade or more. In NIein
Kampf, Hitler says time and time
|again that the demOcracieS are weak,
SpineleSS, unwilling and unable to fight
The Japanese also pinned abundant
faith on that SuppOsiton. This coun-
TRY, along with the other United Ma
tions, is showing Hitler how tremen-
douSly wrong he was.
American industry has done far
more than turn it's plants from the pro-
lduction of the necessities and luXurieS
Iof peace to the production of the in
struments of war. 1t has boldly pion-
eercd new techniqueS. 1t has thrown
old production Drejudices to the four
winds. 1t has worked on the basis that
nothing is impossible. The SkepicS
said, for instance, that the assembly
line principle could never he success
fully applied to the manufacture Of
fighting airplanes. Ford, Boeing, Con
solidated and other plants have proved
otherWiSe-in Seattle, San Diego, viii
low Run and elsewhere some of the
finest military airplancS the world has
ever seen are being made almost as
lSWiftly as automobiles were made in
the old days. SkepticS We're certain
forecasts of tank production were fan
taStically high. Chrysler and other
makers, to the contrary, are today well
farther steadily.
All over the country plants, little as
we'll as biz, are setting new production
records in Il hundred warmaterial
fields. Delays still occasionally occur
because of lack of materials, labor
difficulties, etc. But those delays grow
fewer.
There is only one dark spot-mer
have done IN excellent job in the face
of staggering technical difficulties, but
1.-THE fact remains That United Nations
| losses are somewhat ahead of replace
mentS. For some time delivery Of steel
plate was behind schedule. However,
"Nisting yards are steadily upping
their output, and some gigantic new
yards, ON both the Atlantic and Pacific
SeaSboardS, will shortly go into opera
| ton. In this as in other war fields, il
took close to Il year to make the $500
ton Liberty ships we used then. A
Portland, Oregon, yard recently pro-
duccd Il 1O,SOO ION freightcr of the
standard type we are building now in
| GO days. And ii is believed certain that
still faster production will soon be
come commonplace.
The WarShip building program is re
ported ahead of schedule. Special en-
phaSiS is laid on the production of the
deStroyerS which are needed for con
the line in naval Squadrons And the
L. 5. fleet is growing satisfactorily.
Not until the war is over and the in
formation is of no use 10 the enemy
story of Americas production effort
What can be said now is that no ration
|or group of nations ever did 80 much
in 50 short Il period Of time. At the end
of the last year, Won Ludendorif wrote,
| in bitter admiration, that the United
Estates understood how to wage war.
IThe cold production figures show thai
the United States understands it better
still today.
X + X
| The President, Secretary Hull, Vice
President Wallace and other top-ilight
ollicialS have warned the people not to
|bccnmc too optiml>tic-and 60 diSre-
|gard the current crop of rumOrS to the
lcIlrct that the Axis is on the verge of
IcollapSc, There is sound reason behind
that warning. Nothing suits the Hitler
llirohitO combine better than uniuSti-
fled optimism on the part of their
encmicS. Nothing is so fatal to Il nation
III modern war as complacency.
The newsmcn who were recently re
leased from lltrr's Europe brought