Evening star., 1942-03-29
Shows
Rising. Tempo
OF War Drive
Arms Outlay Already
Much More Than
Treble Year Aqo
BY FRANK MacNfILLEN,
Wide World Business Writer.


NEW YORK, March 28.-It Is
the custom to measure the state Of
the Nations business by quarterly
periods, and now the first calendar
quarter Of America at war is draw
ing to q close.
The former method Of measuring
these three months periods In terms
Of relative prosperity and profitable
ness is out. War measures progress
by what we produce with which
to fight, and the basic key to how
things are going is the rate at which
the Government is able to spend for
war.
Last March the cash spent for
arms was under 100000. Last No
vember, the last full month be-
fore Pearl Harbor. the monthly
outgo had somewhat less than
doubled. This March, the outgo is
considerably more than three times
what 1t was this month last year.
And the rate is rapidly increasing.
Some estimate the rate for next
March as high as s6,000,00O, 900.
fAo tlllo C44O4 oONC1C4 q
tighter controls, more definite and
rigid procedures, become necessary.
improvisation and experimentation
gives way to fixed, necessarily ruth
less, policy.
Price Controls frightened.
The mounting expenditures, pour
ing spendable funds into payrolls,
brings increasingly drastic steps to
control prices. The Office of Price
Administration estimates that in
l94l about 74.0OO,00O000 worth OF
goods were produced, and consumers
had about that much income to
spend. so things were more or less
in balance. This year. it is CAL
culated, consumers will have about
$50, ,000, ,000, 900 to spend, but there
will be only about s65 000, 900 900
worth of goods to buy, leaving a
surplus of spendable money OF some
SIS 900, ,OOO,O 900.
Ideally, the Government should
devise q system of taking back this
5000 y00O, 900 by taxes and sales OF
war bonds and stamps, but the prac-
tical obstacles to such an UNDER
taking are enormous. So price con-
troll, limited at first raw materials,
Is now penetrating down to the
retail field.
Here again, the obstacles, the
enormous setup that would be re-
quired to control retail prices gen.
orally, prompts the Office Of Price
Administration to 60 slowly, but go
1t must.
Raw materials grow increasingly
scarce. Before the situation became
so urgent, the old Office OF Produc-
ton Management set up a system
of priorities, so producers would get
materials in the order of their rela-
tive Importance to the defense effort
and maintenance Of essential civilian
supply.
ALLEGATIONS Develop.
It was found that a system OF
priorities became meaningless, when
more priorities were issued than
there were materials available. so
the War Production Board Is now
moving toward direct ALLEGATIONS.
It is developing the procedure OF
saying there is so much OF this or
that important material. and 1t will
be apportioned in just this or that
way.
Says the magazine Business
Week:
Men in key positions and their
subordinates have begun to assinai-
late the problems of war economy.
Seemingly. the Nation is learning
how to make war"
Many of the policies implicit IN
q war economy have yet to crystal
lie. Labor policy materializes slowly
out of the noisy controversy over the
4O-hour week and payment OF over
time. Congress is just beginning
to tussle with new tax bill, and
final enactment seems months away.
AS war production expands. and
armed forces increase, q serious
shortage of man power looms IN
months to come. Meanwhile, the
drastic changes have created con-
siderable unemployment. and men
who have spent a lifetime selling
automobiles, or wholesaling some
thing which Is now going direct
from the producer to the Govern
ment, are at their wits end to know
what to do 1t appears there can
be no painless way into a war