The Waterbury Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1917-1946, 1944-04-03

| E4ACN IAACAA POSoO
war market for decade or more,
they should be allowed greater pro-
fit margins to build up postwar re-
serves. BY and large, this argument
has fallen on deaf ears in Wash
ington.
Also, new note of optimism is
beginning to be heard, like the first
robin of spring on the grass plots
i around the offices of the machine
tool builders. Pencils have been
sharpened to record those notes and
the result is something of a song
! that maybe there aren't 10 years of
! continuous winter ahead. And since
the prosperity of the machine tool
industry is basic to general Amer
lean well-being, it's worth listening
to.
At the end of 1899, U. S. industry
| had about a million machine tools
in operation. Sixty per cent of these
tools are over 10 years old and could
stand replacement. AS of today, ap-
proximately 100000 new tools will
have been built for war industries.
| About 100000 of these have been
built for private industry, leaving
100000 government owned.
The 100000 privately-owned tools
are no particular worry. They're
going to be put to use, replacing
| older and less efficient tools, for in
the competition for postwar mar
kets, with higher labor production
costs, manufacturers with the most
efficient tools will have the advan-
tage.
THE SPECIALS WILL GO
Concerning the 100000 govern
ment-owned tools, estimates vary
From per cent to perhaps 20 per
cent, or approximately from $4,000
to 100000, are special purpose tools
for war industries and manufacture
of munitions. These tools offer no
postwar competition to civilian
industry.
How many government war
plants the Army and Navy will
want to keep in a standby" con-
dition, ready for any possible emer-
gency resumption Of hoStilities, is
an unknown factor. One thing that
is counted on is the desire of Army
Navy to retool all their Navy yards
and arSenals, replacing older mach
inery with newer and more eff
Gent models which they already
own. Estimates of the number of
new tools that will go "in grease"
for standby plants and to retool
government shops range from TO-
600 to 10000 units.
Postwar domestic demand Is an
other indeterminate market, but it
is pointed out that many old
machine tools have been worked
during the war far beyond normal
life. Also, these tools have been
worked on a two-or three-shift ba-
sis. Getting all American industry
back to a one-shift basis and re-
placing obsolete tools might dis
pose of 100000. A minor market to
be developed is retooling of the
$4,000 machine shops in technical
and vocational schools, which might
take 5000 to 10000 of the newer
model, simpler machine tools.
EXPORT, THE UNKNOWN
QUALITY
There remains the export market
as the greatest uncomfortable of all.
Soviet Russia has shown a great
liking for American machinery and
has her entire western industrial
plant to rebuild. How many
machines it will take to retool
bombed factories in Germany,
france and Italy is anybody's guess.
How much of an industrial nation
China, Australia, India or any of
the Latin American republics will
become is pure speculation.
For all these markets, the U. S.
will of course be competing with
Great Britain. But from the above
point of view the machine tool glut
does not look hopeless, and it fur
Their outlines an opportunity for
the postwar employment of many
forgetting American gunshoe sales
men, to whom there Is no superior.