Evening star., 1944-12-03
Faster Pacific
War 10 Delay
Reconversion
Krug Reveals Army
Will Reduce Cutbocks
Set for We Day
By JAMES Y. NEWTON

The speeding up of the war
in the Pacific" will delay any
large-scale reconversion of Amer
lean industry to peacetime man.
ufacture until we'll after the war
in Europe has been won, Chair
man j. A. Krug of the War Pro-
duction Board said yesterday.
Mr.. krug revealed that the Army
is working on plan to reduce sub
stantially' the size of the previously
announced We Day cutback in arms
contracts. The plan will be submitted
to the Joint (Army and Navy Chiefs
of Staff for decision soon. In Sep
tember the Army had stated that its
gigantic procurement program would
be cut IS per cent following We
Day.
A huge expansion of war plant
facilities also was announced by the
WPB chairman. He said that to OBJ
tain the increased production of in
fantry mortar shells called for by
the Army, it will be necessary to
construct new plants costing $780,
100000.
! To Retain Controls.
The Army plan will result in
sizeable reduction in the overall
cutback in military procurement
which earlier had been placed at 40
per cent. The latter figure included
modest reductions in procurement by
the Navy and Maritime Commission
which Mr.. krug said the two serv-
ices did not plan to change.
| Provided the military high COM
mand indorseS the new Army pro-
graam, it will be necessary to retain
a number of Government controls
over materials and manpoWer per-
haps until the time of Japan's de-
feat. Mr.. Krug mentioned the con-
struction of new facilities for peace
time manufacture as one phase of
reconversior that especially would
! be hard hit by the change in plan.
! Mr.. Krugs observations limited
strongly that a decision has been
made to hit the Japs hard while the
war in Europe still is on,
/ Flexible Plan Seen
/ Mr.. Krug remarked that the war
/ production situation likely would be-
come even more demanding. He
added the official policy toward re-
conversion had not changed at all.
out that the circumstances of war
have changed"
u The Government. Mr. Krug said,
must develop a flexible reconver-
sion plan" one that can be changed
from month to month as situations
on the battle fronts change. He
said WPB probably would be able to
give an indication late this month
or next" as to about what wartime
industrial controls must be kept
after We Day.
Mr.. Krug reported that the eff
forts to bring production up to
schedule were showing excellent
results in several classifcations.
He said new workers were entering
war plants in encouraging" num-
bers. Particularly bright reports
have been received from Detroit.
Cleveland, Chicago and Philadel-
phia, where machine tools, foundry
products and other urgently needed
war goods are made.
/ The WPB chairman announced
that the aircraft program last
month was behind schedule. Slight
ly less than $500 planes were made
compared with a schedule of over
1000 He said the lag was caused
by changes in design.
WPB attention last week, Mr..
Krug continued, was given to drives
to boost output of military tires and
cotton duck. Industry heads now
believe they will be able to produce
in the first three months of next
year about $4,000 more military
castings than they had calculated
| earlier.