The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1945-05-07
Hitler; Contemptuous in 40
Learned Grim Power of U.S..


war years which followed, the
! United States expended It's
treasure and brains and muscle
at rate unequaled in all its
history before.
On March %, 1899, when the
clouds were gathering over Eur
ope, an anxious Congress took
what it considered a drastic
step-it passed S358,000,00C
emergency defense bill" which
would give the army 5000
planes and make it 1.-The mos,
potent aerial force in the ma
tons history"
A year later, with Europe
ablaze, the government was set
ting out TO spend $4,000, 100000
for defense, and from that time
on expenditures pyramided an
nually. Treasury records of de-
Tense and war spending give
this picture Of a nation becom-
ing in truth the arsenal Of demo
cracy:
194O-S1,5 $50, 100000;
1941-S6,3 01 100000;
l942-S26,O1l 900, 900;
l943-S72, 1O9, 100000;
1944-S87, 039, 100000.
TAXES SCARED
In the face of such expendi-
lures, Americans gave their tax
dollars and bought war bonds
by the billions. Treasury net
receipts records tell this story
of rising taxes:
194O-S5, 924 $4,000;
1941-$7, 607, 900;
l942-S12, 799, 062,0 900;
l943-S22, 281 $4,000;
1944-$44,148,9 27, 900;
l945-$45, 700, 100000 (esti-
mated.
In addition to these tax pay
ments, Americans in five huge
war loan drives through mid
l944 bought S87,700, 900, 900
worth of war bonds, exceeding
the goals set by S20,70O,000,0OO.
Even so, expenditures climbed
faster and faster until the ma
tional debt in August, 1914, had
passed the astronomical figure,
meaningless TO the average clti-
zen, of S21O,0OO,000,00
These expenditures caused
vast plants TO spring up where
only open spaces had been. They
turned small familysize factor
les into great SPRAYING indus
tries employing thousands of
men and women. They converted
existing industrial giants into
industrial mammothS. They UNI
leashed all the productive force
Of the worlds richest nation.
BY mid-1944, the Nays per-
sonnet strength was 1852, 38l,
including 475,835 Marines and a
Coast Guard which had grown
from 1902 on Dec. Z, l94l, to
1925.
BUILT GIANT FLEETS
BY mid-l944, the Navy had
nearly $4,000 surface craft, in
GLIDING 1900 warships, and in
addition had acquired $4,000
landing craft with nearly as
many more building.
And from 1,744 planes, the
Nays air arm had leaped TO
$4,000 planes. From seven be-
fore the war its all-type aircraft
carrier strength had grown to
nearly 100. With this comblna-
ton of aircraft and carriers, the
Navy could muster 1000 plane
attacks against any target.
On the production side, the ar
senal of democracy did not
spring into being overnight or
without labor pains. There were
administrative bottleneckS, and
many emergency federal agen-
cies were created.
There were industrial bottle
necks. 1t wasn't just a matter OF
rearranging assembly lines to
accommodate planes IN place of
automobiles. New machines and
tools had 10 be made and in
stalled.
BOTTLENECkS APPEARED
There were material and man.
power bottlenecks; the world 5
richest nation was not as rich IN
all respects as IL had thought.
There was the lneiilclency
which Hitler had said was the
fatal weakness of democracieS.
But the bottlenecks were
reamed out, the inefficiency ov-
ercome, and the arsenal of
democracy went into high gear.
In the one month of June, 1914,
the dollar value of munitions
produced was $3.50, 100000 -