Evening star., 1943-05-13
Job|ess Threat Seen
As WpB Shuts Off
Building Of Factories
Thousands Of Workers
In Construction Field
Affected by New Order
BY the Associated Press.

In CONSTRUCTION F1el0
Affected by New Order
BY the Associated Press.
News that the United States "at
last has the machine tools and the
capital equipment it needs to build
production to defeat the Axis" was
/ tempered today by a threat of un-
employment in munitions centers.
War Production Board officials de-
clared, however, that every worker
released from ordnance or munitions
plants could be absorbed quickly by
shipbuilding, aircraft and other in
dustries still clamorlng for help.
In the process, there undoubtedly
will be some labor migration" they
added.
Thousands of construction work.
ers will be affected by WPB's de-
cision, announced yesterday, to halt
virtually all plant projects which
cannot be completed by October, and
many thousands more will be left
idle during production switch-overs
in munitions and machine tool
plants.
Unemployment Temporary"
A WPB spokesman said cases of
unemployment arising from the re-
conversion program would be "tem-
porary" and we'll scattered, so that
there would be few instances of
severe labor dislocations.
Neither WPB nor the War Man.
power Commission would venture to
estimate the number of workers
likely to be affected, but the WPB
spokesman said he disagreed vio-
lently with the recent assertion of
CIO President Philip Murray that
65O,OOO war workers would be left
jobless in the next few months. In
a speech on April 10 Mr.. Murray
said this country had produced six
times as many bombs as the United
Nations could put in existing planes,
and that munitions and steel pro-
duction were "tapering off,
11OWcfCl, WIo SdAu
There has been no reduction in
the overall war program. There
is on the horizon no indication
whatever of lessening in the de-
mand for labor Any slack will be
absorbed speedily by the need to
keep the total war program up to
schedule
Some Items Overproduced.
Some officials admitted that the
country has actually overproduced
some war items. Specific items were
not named, but one source predicted
the curtailment would be felt in
some ammunition and ordnance
categories, certain chemical war
fare supplies and some types Of
motor transport.
Construction of new plants esti-
mated at between s5O0,0O0,0OO and
81 100000 will be halted, even if
it is necessary to dismantle partly
completed ones. the WPB spokes-
man said. Many machine tool
orders will be Cancelled, and tool
plants will be converted to produc-
ton of things that shoot"
In the several arms catagories
where supply now exceeds military
demand, plants will be curtailed,
closed, or converted to more urgent
ly needed weapons, to lease-lend
goods, or-in some minor degree-to
essential civilian goods.
The WPB's shoot the works"
order was like heavyweight fighter
telling his manager in the third
frame of a 10-round title bout:
Lego my arms so I can slug with
the guy"
Reasons for Action Cited.
This country was really at its
peak, but war production was lag
ging, this WPB spokesman said, be-
cause it was getting weighted down
with war plants.
He explained as follows some of
the reasons why WPB decided to go
to town with all-out war production
by drastically curtailing new-plant
construction
l. We had kept putting into end
less new factories precious materials.
2. If those same materials had
been put into munitions we would
have had more munitions.
3. This country now for the first
time has about all the plant equip
ment it needs for turning out NUM-
tions.
4. WPB's production program is
still going up and must if 1943 goals
are to be met
Chairman Donald Nelson recently
pointed out that war production in
the first quarter of 1943 was only 18
per cent of the years goal, therefore
production had to be stepped up.
Because the emphasis will be on
ever more production, the spokes-
man said, little benefit from the
construction curtailment can be eX-
pected in the field of civilian sup
plies.
80 Billion for Factories.
He gave this example of the ire
mendous job accomplished in build
ing war plants and machine tools
that make the equipment which
makes the war tools like guns and
torpedoes:
From 194O-When this country
was unprepared for war-through
1912, expenditures on war plant con-
struction totaled 80 billion dollars,
or close to the 43 billion spent on
munitions themselves in the same
period.
There we were" he said, "rac-
ing neck and neck, new plants
keeping pace with munitions out
put. 1t was necessary once, not