The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-02-05
OF EUMBLlNG AND PICKERING

OF FUMBLlNG AND BiCkERlN0
The Office of War information hos rebuked Rub
Der Director LETTERS for his charges made before
Council Of Stote Governments at Baltimore, that the
vitolv necessary production Of synthetic rubber 100
octone gasoline and escort vessels is being held up
bv Army and Navy "so-coIled expediters in war pro-
duction plants.
Mr.. LETTERS declared that IF can keep the
Arnny and Navy and these loofers CexPedters' out
and let the men in charge into the plants, wei ger
the production we need out Of them, and we will be
able to keep the country on rubber" Whether or not
these choroes are true, there has been on alarming
amount of confusion and delay in getting production
under way on all three Of these critical war necess'-
ties. And whether or not the owl objects to mr..
LETTERS public admission Of this confusion, it is
situation with which the public should be acquainted
and concerned.
The whole trouble lies in the fight for Priorties
on certain types of machinery needed in the manu-.
focture of all three Of these apparently dissimor
products The machinery hos not been put into mass
production; possibly it cannot be produced on that
scale Meanwhile the production heads Of synthetic
rubber, OO-octone gas and escort ships, convinced
Of the prime importance Of their product seem to be
pulling and hauling in maze OF conflicting demands
with little discernbIe progress.
Take the case of the Nays convoy vessels
Although construction Of SO Of them was authorized
in November, l94l, not one is yet in service. sim
gle vessel Of this type launched lost April, but
remains unfinished because it lacks certain noeohon-
icol requirements ~
And apparently these escort ships the best
weapon in our losing war against the U-boot. They
ore said to be sturdy enough for tronsoceonc service
(which corvettes are not) fost enough to outrun q
surfaced submarine, and adequately armed to de-
stroy it, 1t is pointed out that escort ships could
change convoy service from defensive operation to
an active submarine hunt and that they could free
for aggressive action destroyers and larger war;
croft now on convoy duty.
Something more constructive than funobline bick-
erine and nonoeoo|ne needs to be done about SUBJ
marine ottocks, and it needs doing quickly 1t is true
that, thanks to magnificent production effort,
launching Of merchant ships exceeded snkin9s in the
closing months Of lost year. But the Nozs, in one
of those closing months, built more than IS times
as many submarines as we we're able to sink
We can't beat the oxis until we stop the U-boots
And we can't stop the U-boots without effective
means than now have. Certainly the Army and
the Navy and the WPB know this better than the
civilian, and taking steps to remedy the situation
The most recent Of these steps is the WPB proposal
to material for escort vessels by limiting
construction Of synthetic rubber factories to S. per
cent Of the pIon
Mr.. LETTERS, Of the urgent need Of rubber,
doesn't like this S. per cent cut He told the Boti-
more forum thot there was Perfectly simple" an
swer to the probIem Lets have little more proctcol
thinking"
Well, thot ought to help even if it isn't the whole
answer. At eost it should ovod repetitions Of the
recent incident in Cory. Ind, where according to q
War Department spokesman, q synthetic rubber plant
Wos cancelled otter So 900 600 had been spent on it
beeouse its construction involved excessive cost Of
EtSrif3col n1oteriol"