Evening star., 1943-04-18
Jesse Jones
Succeeds
By ODen L. Scott.

as war needs are concerned, is just about
solved. There is assurance of a supply
of rubber far above probable military
demand.
At the same time, most other war pro-
duction problems are we'll in hand. Out
put of munitions, in very many cases, is
running far ahead of the ability to trans
port those munitions to the battlefronts.
1t even is proving necessary to cut back
the production of some munitions.
These two developments are testi-
monial to the effective operation OF Jesse
Jones' Defense Plant Corp. Mr.. Jones
rot so long ago was being criticized on
the ground that he was not putting
enough drive back of his job of war plant
building. There were charges that he
was failing to get going on an adequate
rubber program and that he did not put
enough drive back of this or that ex-
pansion plan.
Results now are speaking for them
selves. Those results are beginning to
be startling.
Most of the criticism of Jesse Jones
lldu COllCCl llCO lllS Sy ylllllClAC luUUCI pOs
gram. There were alarmed cries that
the country would run out of rubber be-
fore his plants could get going. Yet, to-
day, synthetic rubber is being turned out
in Government-oWned plants; and that
production, in individual plants, is run
ming about Is per cent above estimates
of what the plants would produce BY
tl,;e or;c ~f
official estimates, synthetic rubber out
put will be running at rate of above
1000 tons a year.
Actual wartime consumption of rub
ber, including lease-lend exports, is run
ming at not much more than 400 900 tons
year. There is supply of crude rub
ber on hand of about that much. The
result is that, with large-scale synthetic
rubber production coming up, automo-
bile owners will be assured of some new
tires in 1914. The program that will
produce the rubber for those tires is the
program that Mr.. Jones laid down and
stuck to through all of the criticism.
1t is much the same story with other
war plants.
The amount of aluminium turned out
by Government-owned plants, privately
operated, is several times the prewar
production of aluminium. In the case
of magnesium this production is very
many times that of preWar. The giant
new aircraft industry was financed by
Mr.. Jones and that industry is turning
out planes far faster than they can be
transported, serviced and supplied with
gasoline by the Army.
In fact, the Defense Plant Corp of
which Mr.. Jones is chairman and of
which Sam H. Husbands is president,
owns $4,000 100000 worth of plants and
| machinery. 1t has built and equipped
| 1922 plants in 43 States and is
building 457 more. Its possessions in
| clude 395 aircraft plants, 10 arms plants,
54 radio and communications plants, 161
| machine tool factories. AZ shipyards, ST
iron and steel plants, 43 aluminium
| plants, "a magnesium plants and 10
! plants connected with synthetic rubber
| production
| Because real political and economic
problems of much importance in the
| postwar period concern the aluminium,
rubber and magnesium plants. the Gov
ernment itself is operating % of these
| plants. Other plants are Government
owned but leased to private operators.
There are beginning to be questions
about the postwar use of these plants.
Some commentators are suggesting that
the way may be opened to large-scale
gifts OF plants to private industry and
to whole series of Muscle Shoals.
Mr.. Jones is not concerning himself
about the politics involved in these and
other issues. Instead, in the contracts
he has made and is making, he makes
sure that the Government interest is
protected. Private industry has an op-
ton to buy most of the plants that it
now is operating on lease But under
the terms that Jesse Jones has exacted
they must pay the full costs plus 4
per cent interest, after deducting rental
payments or cost less depreciation in
order to acquire the plants.
In the case of Government -owned
and operated plants in rubber, alumni
mum, magnesium, oil pipelines and tin
smelling, there are no options given to
private industry to purchase. Congress
will have to decide what the country
wants to do with these properties after
the war
The big point is that Jesse Jones' with
his Defense Plant Corp, has financed
creation, OF vast war industry within
a brief span of months This new war
industry is turning out an avalanche
OF war materials. 1t is turning out these
materials, in most instances, faster than
they can be transported to the scenes
| of war action.
Probably the most notable record of
all Will be made in synthetic rubber
where an industry will have been created
from scratch, within little more than a
years time, that can produce as much
rubber as this country formerly used in
peacetime and much more rubber than
required for war purposes alone.
| 1t turns out that Mr.. Jones refusal
to run off on all kinds of tangents, as
one interest after another came up with
pet rubber-making ideas, is paying out
now in dividends. The types of rubber
the country now is to get are the types
about which most is known and which
are most tried in actual use.
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