The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-12-07
NATION SETS UP.
 PROUD RECORD. IN ARMS OUTPUT.
Ny ARTHUR r. DE0REvE tunlled Press stan Correspondent

making America the arsenal ot democracy" during tho year since the Japanese attack on Pearl liar. Dor, but the nation today still ts struggling to win the battle Of pro. duetion,
 Most oifiolals agree that the pro. duotion battle will not he regarded as won until the Axis powers have been crushed and peace comes again Co the world.
 Soon after the Japs delivered their sneak punch, the President called on American industry to produce eo,ooo planes, 2o,00o anti. aircraft guns, 4S,000 tanks and B00o,000 tons Of deadwelght mer. chant shipping in iD42. For fo4S, he asked t9b,000 planes, S5,000 anti. aircraft guns, 75,oo0 tanks and io,O00,o00 tons of shipping,
 rndustrlalists gaSpce at the im~ nienstty Of the program, rolled up their sleeves and went Co work, The le42 ohjeetives revised In the clos. ing months of the year, were not met In their entirety - alrplane production for the year is estimated around 45000--but the years rec. ord set up by industry is Q proud one,
 Years Hlghlights
 The years production highlights, as compiled by the oftiee of War Information:
 cmfwypyh
 overall munitions more than four times in excess Of i94l pro~ auction.
 Military airplanes more than three and one-half times that of lg4i.
 Naval vessels--morc than three and one.half times that of ie4i
 Merchant ships--more than i've times that of lo4l,
 War Production Director Donald M. Nelson expects to hang up an even more impressive record for i94S. He points out that the na- ton had to start from scratch to combat the dream of world con. quest held by dermany's fuehrer, Adolf Hitler Before June 1, l94o, American plane plants were turn ing out a leisurely 500 craft month. ly and the army and navy had some 5,200 planes in service.
 The rc-armament program began in earnest after the fall of France in i94o. It started out slowly, be. cause of the many problems con- fronting industry as 1t converted 1 from peace to war production. stocks of raw materials had to he built up. An adequate labor supply had to be mustered. Skilled work CTS had to be trained, New plar,ts had to be constructed, others ex- banded,
 War Broke Lethargy
 Strikes tied up vital plants. h. dustry was slow in converting to arms production. There was a "business as usual" attitude in many places,
 During this period, the president and other high government officials sought repeatedly to awaken the nation to the dangers 1t faced as the result of the German conquest of Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bel- gium, Norway and France.
 But the explosion of the first Japanese bomb on Pearl Harbor blasted the complacency that may have existed in the United States. An aroused nation demanded more guns, more planes. more ships and the president moved to meet this demand.
 He created the War Production Board to replace both the OPM and the supply priorities and allo. cations board which had been placed in charge of allocating es- sential raw materials. The presi- dents executive order invest ed in Nelson broad authority over all phases of the production effort and ordered all other federal agencies and departments to CO., operate and comply with his poli- cies.
 i3 Billion for Plants
 At the same time, the govern ment launched a vast plant expan- sion program. Between June. ls4o, and November 30. 1e4i. commit ments had been made for 66o prof. ects costing s5,o67. 100000. By August, is42, authority had been given for construction of 2.664 projects costing $l3,377 coo, 900, Many of these plants will reach full production early next year.
 Many industrialists who came to WIPE in its formative stages have disappeared from its rolls during stream lining operations. The lat est of these realignments has made Ferdinand Eberstadt, former New York investment banker, and Charles E. Wilson. previously pres ident of General Electric Co.,, Nell sons chief aids.
 Eberstadt is the No. authority over raw materials and admins trator of the materials allocation plan which has replaced the orig inal priorities system. Wilson is responsible for seeing to 1t that plants turn out weapons for which materials have been made avail able. and is in command of air craft production.
 Nelson, as overSeer of the entire program, appears to have emerged victorious over repeated efforts of the armed services to extend their control over war production. He said from the outset that a sound civilian economy must be preserved on the home front. and he con sistenlty resisted attempts by the services to sacrifice civilian needs completely to war output.
 At the same time. however, he Is driving steadily to bring the ci- vilian economy to bedrock basis. Whatever luxury items remain on the nations shelves will not be re- placed snd he has warned the peo- pie that they must pull their belts tighter because new sacrifices will