Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1944-04-15

r,.
RetooIing Of Auto
Plants Held Likely
Advance retooling Of the au-
tomobile industry so that it will
be in position to make new pas
senger cars as soon as war orders
slackent was held likely today,
following Chairman Donald M.
Nelson's appointment of an "Ad-
viSory Committee for Civilian
Policy" to counsel the War Pro-
duction Board on the transition
from war to peace.
The new Automobile Industry
Advisory Committee will meet with
WPB ofacials Monday and among:
the proposals to be discussed is one.
to permit motor car makers to start
placing orders within a short time
for new machine tools needed for
building postwar cars. An official
said he believed the industry would
be able to retool shortly without
interfering with war production.
Mr.. Nelson's plan to set up a
committee representative Of all sec
tons Of the economy to help set
top policy for reconversion got of
to q bad start with the refusal of
the National Association of Manu-
facturers to participate. Robert M.
Gaylord, NAM president. refused
to serve on the group because he
believed this type Of committee
defeats its own purpose. He wrote
Mr.. Nelson that his experience in
recent years has shown that COM
mittees Of this nature are ineffec-
tive"
Good News Predicted.
With reference to the discussion
Of retooling on the agenda of the
meeting Of the automobile manu-
facturers' committee, an industry
spokesman said, I'VE don't think
WPB officials would have put the
proposal on the ,agenda unless they
had some good news for us.
TITS logical step, because the
machine tool industry is slowing
down. It's backlog of orders is only
one-eighteenth as large as the early
war peak"
Both the military high command
and the WPB have rejected any
expansion of civilian goods output
until the European invasion is an
assured success, but officials ex-
pressed the belief that a retooling
program might be acceptable if the
new tools were merely stored until
the go-ahead signal on motor car
production was flashed to Detroit.
Advance acquisition Of tools, it
was believed, might help to reduce
the time lapse between the cancel
lation Of war contracts and the date
when postwar cars would reach the
market. Some officials have esti-
mated this gap at six months under
the best conditions.
Procedure Outlined.
Under the new policy of postwar
planning outlined by Mr.. Nelson,
any recommendation growing out of
the automobile meeting would be
submitted to the new civilian COM
mittee and, simultaneously, to the
press.
The committee is intended to rep
resent cross-section of the Ameri-
can economy, having members rep
resenting labor, public opinion, man
agement, finance, farming, the con-
Stunning public and the distribution
trades aa 79ltn
Only after the committee has had
its say on the reconversion plans
submitted by the automobile, re-
frigerator, washing machine and
other consumer industries, would
WPB make its final decisions on the
major policies governing the return
to peacetime production.
In MIR. Gaylord's stead, Mr.. Mel
son chose, as one representative of
industry, William J. Kelly, presi-
dent Of the Kelly OLeary Steel
Works, Chicago, and president Of
the Machinery and Allied Products
Institute. II
Planning Emphasized.
Mr.. Nelson emphasized that the
Nation is not ready for reconver-
sion, but must plan for 1t to avoid
plant shutdowns and unemployment
when the transition comes. Quot
ing from his invitation to sit on
the committee, Mr.. Nelson declared:
1.-THE experience now being gained
by the WPB In keeping the economy
In balance can be of value to the
country when we enter the next
phase Of production, which will fol-
low the collapse of Germany. That
welcome event may not occur for
considerable time, but whenever it
occurs 1t will release q substantial
of the Nations produc-
tive capacity for civilian output and
will demand the immediate applica-
ton Of sound policies to guide the
economy through the period Of re-
without serious disturb
ance. These policies must be de-
veloped beforehand"
Besides Mr.. Kelly, the committee
Eric Johnston, president of
the United States Chamber of Com
merce; William Green and Philip
Murray, presidents of the AFL and
CLIO, respectively; Eugene Meyer,
editor and publisher of the WASH
ington Post, representing public
opinion; Gordon Rentschler, board
National City Bank, New
York, representing finance; and Miss
Ruth O'Brien, Bureau of Human