The Waterbury Democrat., 1942-08-04

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 ENsOm he had everyone
 convi need h, could build ladder to the moon He had everyone agreeing witt everything he said, eating out 0. his hand, nominating him unoft1' cially to be war production boss. Tt sultry, befuddled, politico and bur eaucrat-ridden Washington, ht brought a fresh breath of assurance America could win this war.
 What is the secret of Pap Kaiser's successP He denies he is a genius He disclaims being miracle man He isn't much to look at. He says he can't make a speech. Yet he has more personality than movie stal and he could probably talk a light ming rod salesman into buying snake oil. He has even talked the boiler makers into believing it will be all right if he builds planes, though tha tmeans the boilermakers lose their jobs. He is enthusiasm personi- fled. He says constantly, T an thrilled!" He is terrific.
 Build cargo planes? There's mo- thing to that!" he says easily, and somehow you believe him. AN OPEN
 SECRET
 If he has any secret, 1t is that he can make people do things for him. Take Bonneville dam. Army engineers weren't sure it could be built. Kaiser tackled the project His associates sat up with him till 4 a. m. to talk him out of taking the job. But he put a couple of kids in charge-one was his son and they built the dam. "The kids of this country will never be licked" insists Kaiser, and some how you get to believing the war will not be lost, after all.
 Kaiser's other secret seems to be in reducing every problem to its lowest common denominator
 He asks what shipyards have that apply to airplane building and he answers that they have area. They have terminal facili- ties to handle 150 carload of ma terials- day and they don't have to come in on rubber. They have water and housing and labor sup ply, and an orderly flow of mate rials and parts.
 Forty per cent of the cost of a ship, he says, Is in auditing, serv- icing, checking. Another 9 per cent is in outside purchase of parts and materials. That leaves only 35 per cent of the job to do in his yards and he ends up with an assembly line operation.
 Simple, isn't it.
 He expects bottlenecks, but when you're short of something and can't buy it," he says, you build it. That's the way to break a bottleneck."
 Shortage of aluminium? Rev. holds Metal told him they'd fur nish him with all he wanted. He was thrilled by that.
 Shortage of engines? Depend on the automobile industry.
 Shortage of labor? Train men train women for that.
 Shortage of machines? Thirty per cent of the machines in the shipyards could be used in air. craft manufacture. For the rest, we'll, the machinery for his first shipyard was improvised, second handed, used, picked up every where.
 MAKING
 MIRACLES
 Half of America, he says, lis do- ing things it never did before, and the other half is waiting to be told to do things it never did before. ' That thrills him.
 When Kaiser started out tc build ships, he had never seen g launching. Today he is turning out Liberty ships in 46 days and says he will get 1t down to 2s days.
 When he started out to make cement, they said, "Only God anc few manufacturers can make cement" Yet he built the worlds largest cement plant, making ce ment so cheaply that 1t can com pete with Japanese cement 1T Hawaii.
 He is building a steel plant. HI started April l and will be mak' ing pig iron in December.
 He is making magnesium at tht Permanente plant in California 99. 1897 per cent pure, he says, though the plant has been reported fail. ure. That thrills him.
 He has been awarded Navy ! for making torpedo tubes. In another month he will b. building steam turbines.
 He is building reduction gears He got the gear cutters from Eng land.
 Thirty days ago the steel in dustry told him there was short age of chrome. He has brough to Washington plan for its pro duction. Its just an excavation job"
 Henry J. Kaiser hadn't seen thu 7O-ton Martin Mars bomber un til he stopped oil in Baltimor' the day before he came to Wash tngton. But he says he can built the first one in 10 months. or he'll build a 200 tonner in I months.
 T have a chief engineer whom love-" says Kaiser, because he always telling me can't d things. He keeps my feet on tn