Evening star., 1942-08-12
A Second Look

IntlmdClOnS tndt at least some or
the officials connected with the war
program have taken a second look
at the cargo plane proposal advanced
by Henry J. Kaiser and are not too
well satisfied with what they saw are
to be found in several developments
of the past few days.
One of these is the disclosure that
War Production Chief Donald Nelson
has not given Mr.. Kaiser letters of
intent" to award him contracts to
build cargo planes, but a letter ask
ing the shipbuilder to submit detailed
plans and estimates covering his
proposal to build 500 Mars flying
boats, together with estimates and
specifications for the 200-ton cargo
planes-three times as big as the
Mars-which he has said that he can
produce. In other words Mr.. Kaiser,
while not being turned aside, is being
asked to make detailed showing
that he can do the things he says he
can do. This is not too much to ask
of Mr.. Kaiser, considering the fact
that he has never built plane, and
it should not cause him any difficulty
If his plan rests on a sound founda-
ton.
In this connection, it has been
suggested that it is officials of the
Navy, and not Mr.. Nelson, who are
hesitant to give the "go" sign to Mr..
Kaiser. This is suggestion, how
ever, which probably does an injus-
tice to the production chief, for he
has never-publicly at least-com-
mitted himself to the Kaiser plan to
the extent that has been implied in
some reports. In fact, Mr.. Nelson
has consistently taken the position,
although he might have given it
greater emphasis, that he would not
favor any cargo plane proposal which
would cut into the limited supply of
critical materials already allocated
to bomber and fighter planes, or
which in other ways would cripple
the overall military program as
presently laid out.
Much the same point Of view was
expressed Monday night in a radio
forum talk by Undersecretary of War
Patterson, who discussed the ques-
ton Of cargo planes with Senator Lee
Of Oklahoma. Mr.. Patterson, whose
experience qualities him to speak
with authority. warned against the
danger of leading the people to be-
lieve that the war can be won pain
lessly and easily by the simple ex-
pedient of concentrating our produc-
ton effort on a vast fleet OF cargo
planes. These planes, which the
Army calls transports, are necessary,
he said, and the Army and Navy both
would like more of them. But the
known sources Of materials are lin
tied. Those presently available have
been allocated to balanced pro-
gram of transports, bombers and
fighters. If more transports were to
be built from these resources the
program which the military high
command believes is best suited for
carrying on the war would be thrown
out of balance. There would be
fewer bombers to carry the fight to
our enemies and fewer fighters to
insure safe passage for the trans
ports.
The net result OF this is that both
the Army and the Navy would like to
have the transports that Mr.. Kaiser
says he can build, but they want to
be sure that he actually can build
them from materials not already ear
marked for other purposes. If he
can show that he is able to meet this
I condition, there is no doubt that he
will be given all of the contracts
that he can handle.