The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-09-13

AAOWSNGAH hAotob bAAAo 70 S ASV SA NaAAtNe Congress refused to believe 1t in considering its reconversion bill, consistently voting against unem. ployment insurance benefits beyond state limitations. And among the business men now in government service, particularly those in the War Department procurement and purchases, the belief is prevalent that reconverslon won't be such o terrible problem after all. These civ- ilians in uniform have been reluct- ant to speak out on their ideas for fear their expressions will be mis- interpreted aS an effort to sidetrack the movement to start reconVersion right now. But all of these men will take off their uniforms after the war is over and go back to private business, so 1t would seem foolish for them to do anything that would spoil their own future,
 WHERE LABOR IS NEEDED
 Here is the way the situation spells out to them;
 Munitions industries will be shut down, yes. Shell-loading and eX- plosive plants will be closed up, but mostly they are in out-of-the-way places which have no industrial fu- ture anyway. Only about per cent of the present aircraft production capacity can be used and the ship yards will, in the main, go out of business.
 Estimates of the number of jobs which will disappear in the above industries vary from i,500,000. That is the negative and bad side of the picture.
 Now look at the other industries.
 Tn the first place, the Navy will not stop Its present building pro- gram, which is planned to run be- yond l945,
 Next is a big group of industries which have no reconversion problem at all Steel mills can go right on making steel, Sizes and shapes may change, but 1t will still be steel, The same thing goes for all metals pro- duction-aluminum, copper or what have you.
 Food production and processing will likewise continue. Sizes of cans and packaging may be changed for peace-time trade, but there Is no reconversion problem.
 The textile industry could use 100000 more employees right now, If 1t could get them, and 1t has no re- conversion problem. Looms now making duck will go back to.making carpet and the threads may be changed for consumers goods weaves, but that's all.
 Building material, furniture and glass industries can keep right on going without reconversion.
 Service ndustries-hotels, restau- rants, laundry and dry cleaning es- tablishments and so on-could all use more help than they can get now,
 IT MAY NOT BE so TOUGH
 Transportation industries can also use more labor and have a big ac- emulation of maintenance and re- pair work to do. Locomotive and AuAtSpN GHuAliuiSHb HAaLluAuSLuAGIo, which made tanks at the outset of the war, have already been largely converted back, though they are still on war orders
 Electrical goods makers will simply make different electrical goods,
 Problems of the automobile have been considered serious, but have been greatly exaggerated. Truck makers, now turning out 60,000 vehicles Q month, can go right on making trucks for civilian use. Tire makers will go right on making tires, Only the passenger car rnanu- facturers have a problem, but as 1t took them only six weeks to convert from peace to war, 1t should not take them more than two months to reconvert. Refrigerator, washing machine and vacuum cleaner mak- CTS face about the same thing,
 Adding all these things and sub- tracing this sub-total from the to- tai employment and productive cap- acity of the country, you come up with a rough figure of 20 per cent Of American industry faced with prob- lems of reconversion.
 Which doesn't sound too tough.