The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-08

le United States could never become emergency federal agencies were created.
 There were industrial bottle necks. It wasn't just matter of rearranging assembly lines to &C., commodate planes in place of auto- mobiles. New machines and tools had to be made and installed
 BOttlenecks Appeared
 There were material and man. power bottlenecks; the worlds rich est nation was not as rich in all respects as it had thought.
 There was the inefficiency which Hitler had said was the fatal weak ness of democracies.
 But the bottlenecks were reamed out, the inefficiency overcome, and the arsenal of democracy went into high gear. In the one month of June, 1924, the dollar value of mu- nitions produced was $5 ,38O ,OOO, ,00O- more than three times total defense spending in 1920.
 Because of the wars global scope and its tremendous appetite, and because new weapons were con- stantly being devised and old ones refined, there never came 8 time when the arsenal of democracy was producing enough of everything the armed forces needed. Because war had cut off the sources of natural rubber, brand new synthetic rub Der industry had to be built at cost, counting expansion of exist ing plants of $8O0,0O0, ,O0O. Because the Germans invented the Tiger tank, Americans had to invent the Tiger tank buster. And so it went.
 Factories Came Through
 But the arsenal was equal to the task. At the start of the defense program the Army and Navy be- tween them had 4,533 planes. From Dec. ', 1941, to July 1, 1944, Amer ican aircraft factories rolled out 179,306 airplanes-everything from the worlds best fighter planes to bombers-and had achieved a stable production rate of almost 100000 year. This was four times better than Germany's best effort.
 Aircraft set the pace, but other war production also reached un- precedented proportions. In June 1940, the Army had just 542 tanks. By July l, 1944, tank production had passed 75,OO0. In June, 194O the Army had 340,OO0 rifles. By July l, 1914, well over 1O,O00,OOO small arms had been manufactur- ed, along with 40,O00,00O 900 rounds of ammunition for them. Truck production was recorded in seven figures and artillery in five.
 Needed Transports
 To get it's fighting men and fight ing tools to fronts and bases on all the continents, the United States had to have ships. On July l, 1889. the U. s. merchant marine marine totaled 1,50O ships of 11,470O0O tons. In that year, American yards built only 28 new ships.
 Since then, however, in a con- struction program which did not hit its stride until 1942. this country through Aug. l, 1914, built 3,8l4 merchant ships aggregating 39,349,- 780 tons.
 These ships played the major role in the movement since Pearl Harbor of 63,00O, 900 ship-tons of sup plies through 127 foreign ports for troops overseas.
 But ships were not enough. Ships are slow. So the Army air forces created the Air Transport Com mand-three years old on May 29, 1914 - to ly military planes and critical supplies throughout the world
 ATC Invaluable
 The ATC and it's Ferrying Divi- sion now fly regularly over routes extending 125,000 miles to all con- tinents. The Ferying Division in de- livering military aircraft flies up- wards of 12,0OO,000 miles month and flies another 100O0,0OO miles in transport operations.
 Tn 1943 alone, the Ferrying Divi- sion delivered s4,000,000, worth of aircraft to bases all over the planet and expected to better that record by 20 per cent through 1914.
 The Ferrying Division was in- valuable to the China Burma India theater, for it was Ferrying Division planes which carried crit ical munitions, materials and men from this country across Africa, the Middle East and India to the fight ing men on the other side of the Himalayan hump.
 Without the Ferrying Division, Gen. Joseph w. Stilwell's victories in Upper Burma and the B-29 at tacks on Japan would have been impossible.
 First Contribution
 In the realm of aid to other en- emies of the Axis, the United States on June 6, 1940, made it's first di- rect contribution to the Anglo French allies by providing for the sale to llltul Ol OO 1ldFdA tSSSAsS planes.
 Even that small star tcould not have been made had not the neu- trality act been repealed. On June 20, 1940, this country sold 20 naval torpedo boats to Britain and France. There followed the destroyers-for- bases deal, and then initiation of the lend-lease program in March 1941.
 In that first month of lend- lease, the United States contrib uted $1O,OO0,00O to the Allied cause "a mere droy of the $30,O00, 900 900 or more that followed. Included in lend-lease shipments to the Allies have been more than 28,000 combat planes and multiple thousands of tanks, guns and trucks.
 Farms Kept Pace
 While American industry was making its tremendous effort, American farms were keeping pace,
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