Evening star., 1942-05-16


reasons why the material hitherto
prohibited from publication should
now be disclosed.
Censorship restrictions on with
holding specific information are
necessarily rigid. Independent news
gatherers cannot make surveys Of
the progress of our war effort with
out running into prohibitions by the
censorship ofncials. This has been
justified on the ground that it will
reveal to the enemy important in
formation.
But there comes a time when the
disclosure of data which might give
comfort to the enemy has to be
weighed In comparison to the pos
sible advantage in stimulating pro-
duction at home. There was doubt
less no eagerness on the part of
Rear Admiral ]. w. GreenSlade to
disclose what he did about the pill
ing up Of war materials for lack of
ships. He did so reluctantly and to
bring home to shipyard workers
that they must redouble their ef-
forts to build ships and build them
quickly.
$4,000 at One Plant.
Admiral Greenslade mentioned
that at one inland plant there were
10000 combat vehicles ready to be
shipped but apparently no ocean,
going shipping to transport them.
He added that thousands of trucks
intended for American forces in
Australia and Ireland and other
points have had to be stored for lack
of shipping. Then the blunt ad-
mission:
I'VE lost the Philippines and
Singapore because we did not have
enough ships Of both types. COM
batant and commercial. We may
lose Australia and perhaps Alaska
IOr tne same reason.
Here is a respected Admiral in
the Navy-until last year a member
OF the General Board here-telling
the shipyard workers and at the
same time the American people
what newspaper reporters have
known for months but which they
have not been permitted to print
that production in the shipyards is
disappointing and that aid to our
forces is being handicapped by that
failure.
Congress, of course, through its
committees, has plenty of time to
delve into technical matters and
hypothetical questions affecting the
defense program extending back 10
years or more, but it never seems
to have gone into the things that
happened in 1910 and 1941 which
are responsible for the debacle being
faced today in the shortage of ship
ping.
There is plenty of time to snipe
at big businesses and to put the
blame on them for alleged failure
to convert their plants in time,
plenty of attacks, too, on dollar
a-year men, but not a word about
the delays in American shipbuilding
industries and especially the strikes
and closed shop controversies that
slowed up production on the West
and East Coasts last year.
Shy at Labor Issue.
The whole story of the problems
Of the United States Maritime Com
mission with labor has not been
thoroughly explored by any con-
gressional committee. The moment
the labor question is approached
members of Congress shy away,
doubtless because this is election
year.
The House Naval Affairs Commit
tee was supposed to make an in
quiry into the reasons for showdown
of production due to labor friction
last year, but administration inf1u-
ence is reported to have been re-
sponsible for suuelching the inves-
tigation. The Senate investigating
committees have only incidentally
touched the labor problem. No
committee has gone back into what
happened before Pearl Harbor, and
yet the failures of last year are
now showing up and blocking the
transportation to our armed forces
Of the materials so vitality needed
to save the lives of troops in pre-
carious outlying bases.
The tendency of the labor leaders
has been to gloss over what hap
pened before Pearl Harbu. The
argument is that there is no need to
20 back into the record because
labor now has given assurance it
will not strike-though every week
several strikes are officially dis
closed.
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