Evening star., 1945-01-26
Armed Forces Asked
By WPB 10 Place All
Orders for 1945 Now
BY the Associated Press.

% LAC AeoOCidteA FIesS. ~
To cure production lags caused
by tardy delivery Of parts to war
plants, the War Production Board
has asked the armed services to
make contracts at once for the full
year ahead.
The move reflects Chairman j. A.
Krug's belief that armament policy
should figure on European HOSTILE
ties running into 1916.
Some serious delays" have
threatened, according to tits mem
orandum to the Army, Navy and
Maritime Commission, because the
Government and prime contractors,
in recent months of military op-
timism, failed to order far enough
ahead.
New Rules Announced.
This development came to light
shortly after Mr.. Krug disclosed a
series of new steps-aimed at both
military and civilian activity - to
limit manufacturing and construc-
ton in tight labor areas. The pro-
gram, made public last night, re-
quires:
l. That no new spot" authoriza-
tions for civilian goods manufacture
be granted in any Group g." or
potentially serious, labor shortage
area after about February.
This would affect some II cities in
addition to the 125 industrial areas
where the suspension already is In
effect.
2. That building projects already
approved be reviewed and, if they
are using construction labor needed
to build critical new war plants,
halted for the time being.
8. That WPB approval be OBJ
tanned before the placement of new
war contracts of 100000 or more
in acute shortage areas-the "a
cities classed in Group i" by the
War Manpower Commissioner the
contract would mean new hiring.
Will Prevent PiIe-ups.
This last encroachment on the
procurement power of the armed
services ordered effective February
is intended to prevent the piling
up of new war contracts in cities
where manpower resources already
are strained.
Both prime contractors and SUBJ
contractors are required to report
contracts for war goods to WIPE.
which will pass them on to local
production urgency committees for
flnal recommendation. If new man.
power stringency would result the
committees will try to steer the
contracts elsewhere unless this
would delay the delivery of weapons.
Such procedure is mandatory
now in only handful of cities and
its extension was resisted by mill
tarv officials.
The latter were reported wholly
in agreement, however, with the
Krug memorandum asking place
ment as soon as possible of contracts
for the rest of 1945.
officials predicted that the bulk Of
these would be in the hands of war
contractors within three or four
weeks, permitting them to- schedule
production and recruit labor well
ahead.
Feared Large Surpluses.
Fearful of being caught with large
surptuses, the procurement agencies
A last fall began to give themselves
less leeway in ordering. Contractors,
similarly apprehensive of investing
heavily in parts and supplies, be-
Ecame equally cautious in placing
subcontracts and so on down the
line.
AS result, some were caught
with short supplies when war pro-
lduction was suddenly speeded up
latter the military stalemate at the
German frontier. Deliveries of need
ed engines, axles, aircraft parts and
other components fell behind and
have threatened to delay final as
Isembly work in some cases.
Accepting the risk of surpluses
in event of sudden German collapse,
Mr.. Krug and the armed forces re-
portedly agreed on the new step as
means of encouraging full-volume
production backed up by firm Or
IderS we'll into the future