Evening star., 1942-07-13
Shortages Dictate
New Phase Of War
Production Drive
ALLEGATIONS Replace
Priorities as Key
To Vast Problems
BY JAMES MARROW and
WILLIAM PINKERTON,

BY JAMES MARROW and
WILLIAM PINkERTON,
Wide World Business writers.
Rub out conversion" and writ
In shortages.
That's the key to the new phas'
of America S war production drive
which was marked formally by
Donald M. Nelson's "realignment
of the War Production Board.
Big Job of the new phase, says MI
Nelson, is ito try to fit our cloth tx
the pattern; to readjust to pro.
gram involving scarce materials.
Mr.. Nelson indicates that even thu
demands of the Army and Nav,
may have to be modified to ge
maximum use out of short supplies
of raw goods.
The Army and Navy will continue
to tell the War Production Boare
what they need-but, says Mr.
Nelson. 1T is our responsibility tt
tell them when shortage de-
velops."
Sums Up Situation.
In brief, Mr.. Nelson sums up the
present stage of the War Produc-
ton drive this way:
The job of curtailing peacetime in
dustries is just about over.
The job of converting to wartime
production is about completed.
What remains is to direct produc-
ton to maximum war ends through
control of the flow of materials.
The one big conversion job re-
naming, he says. is Ito change over
a number of these smaller plants
to war production"
In the polysyllabic mumbo- jumbo
that always surrounds big opera
tions, the major items on the new
agenda are: ALLEGATION, simpliflca-
ton. concentration and decentral-
ization.
Now" says the boss of all In
dustry, we're thinking more IN
terms OF allocations than in terms
of priorities."
Priorities had full meaning, he
explains, when there was enough
or almost enough-raw materials
to 90 around. Then, prioritles deter
mined who got what flrst-and who
sat at the second table. A man
with a low priority rating might
have to wait for his materials, but
he usually got them.
Now, if the first to be fed eat their
fill theren be no second table. To-
cay, even fairly high priorities may
fail to bring in such precious stuff
as steel, copper, rubber. There
isn't enough to go around for all
qualified purchasers. Even lumber
supplies are short OF demand.
Priorities will continue to function
I'm limited way but more and more,
apparently, the real guide for the
flow Of raw materials will be al
location orders.
Steel Is Alocated.
Thus, so percent of the Nations
steel already is strictly allocated to
special uses. 1t would seem, how
ever, that the demands for ships,
tanks, planes, guns and other arms
is outrunning the supply Of steel.
Strategic decisions may have to be
made, on the basis of military and
naval planning, as to which weapons
shall get the bulk of the steel at a
given time.
WPB also must At other vital
factors into the decisions of strictly
military strategy. 1t must decide,
for instance, how much steel must
be set aside for building synthetic
rubber plants, for railroad replace
ments and mine repairs to keep
the Nations about war economy
functioning sound and healthy"
behind the lines.
PRP, the Production Requirments
Plan, has prepared for allocations.
It grants, in effect. single priority
rating for all needed materials on
q given job. On the basis of what it
makes, company will be allotted
a single rating for all necessary raw
materials. The PRP rating runs
for a ee-month period.
In the field of high strategy, the
scarce materials must be allotted,
or parcelled out, to the various
needs of the war machine and the
war economy Through PRP, WPB
can carry this ALLEGATION of mater
ials, in effect, right down to the in
dividual plant.
Mr.. Nelson admits the possibility
that, In this scarcity" phase of the
war effort. some swar plants con-
ceivably might 60 on part time for
q while.
Drive to Cut Corners.
Second effect of the new scarcity
economics" of war production is a
growing drive to cut corners wfer-
ever possible. Substitution of less
scarce materials for more-scarce
materials is part of the answer, but
where the substitutes also become
scarce new answers must be sought.
Ultimately, specifications will be
revised, at least in some fields, to cut
down the lump of scarce materials
going into each item of production.
This trend already is far advanced
in the field of war housing, for in
stance, where duration dormitories'
have taken the play away from
separate family dwellings. The vir-
tue of these projects is that, by pro-
viding common bathrooms, dining
halls and recreation rooms, they
cut down the amount of scarce
metals consumed per dwelling unit.
If the pressure of materials short
ages becomes great, even the blue
prints of weapons may be searched
for ways of cutting down the in-put
Of scarce goods.
Concentration Pushed.
In many industries now, plants
devote q part of their work to the
new jobs of war production, part
of it to the old jobs they did in
peace. In one or two industries, the
old job has been assigned to a few
plants and all other plants have
been turned whole-hog to war work
Concentration of production viii
go on" Mr.. Nelson says.
Since the big war job began, the
gradual trend has been to put more