Evening star., 1946-07-03
Moy-CornpbeN Phone Talk

/ FOllo,Ding is the tert OF a letter
4 containing purported telephone
conversation betWeen Chairman
May OF the House Military Affairs
! Committee and Maj. Gen. LeUin
| II. Campbell ,Dhich Was read into
the record OF the Senate War In
| Uesttgating Committee yesterday:
May /, 1943.
Gen. Thomas S. Hammond,
Chief, Chicago Ordnance District,
First National Bank Bldg,
Chicago, Ill
Dear Gen. Hammond:
Herewith is a transcript Of a
telephone conversation with Con-
gresham May. Will you please give
me another memorandum on this
Carson situation with his two
plants?
L. H. CAMPBELL, Jr.,
/ Major general chief of ord.
| Telephone conversation:
M--You very kindly gave Mr..
Carson a letter and he hasn't been
able to get anywhere on a lot of
things that's bothering him up
there. They've got plenty of Ca
pacity up there and on that shell
| contract fuse cap is kind of bot
tleneck. They can make about
100000 Of them month and they
are getting to make only about
1000 a day. That would be about
$4,000. Now then another thing,
they had some machinery up there
somewhere and some of your boys
in the Chicago Office took it away
from them and gave it to some
body else In the field there They
needed it badly, but they didn't kick
hard about it because they. thought
maybe the other fellows knew where
it was needed the worst, but they
didn't. in fact. know it. What can
you do about Strengthening that
thing out for me?
C.-Well, had heard that it was
Strengthened out. I gave Mr.. Cars
son a letter to Gen. Hammond, who
is the chief of the district, and I
asked Gen. Hammond especially TO
handle the thing. 1t seems that Mr.
! Carson has been around there
many times before, you know. They
know him, he knows them and I
thought the relations were very
friendly and pleasant and every
thing else. OF course, If you have
seen in the paper, there has been a
readjustment OF our Army supply
program, and maybe he, like the
rest of them, has been more or less
hit.
Emphasis Shifted Between Items.
M-Well, now what is that read
juStment? I haven't seen it. I'm
SO darn busy don't get time to see.
and then I was gone three days
last week.
C.-Well. it's about shifting the
emphasis from one item to another.
As always happens in every war,
you know, weapons change and the
tide of war changes. etc We're
heavy on one today and light tomor-
row. That's always been the history
of every war the world over and so
he may well have been in that
M.-Yes. Well, now, general,
these people have two companies.
Batavia Metal Products and the
Erie Base & Metal Products Co. at
Elgin have done an awful good job. l
was out there one day and saw the
Elgin plant and they had a lot of
women working. That attracted my
attention. I've been studying about
that, you know. It looked to me
like they had an awfully pretty
setup and are doing an awful pretty
job and I wish when you communi-
cate with your man, Gen. Ham,
mond. ..
C.-Yes. I'll see him next week
as matter of fact
M,-Well, will you jump on him
for me?
Sought TO Spread Work.
CT certainly will. He's one
of the best manufacturers we have
in the whole business incidentally.
You know we've been trying to
spread this work among little manu-
facturers. too, among the small
plants. That's also hit some of the
bigger fellows like Mr.. Carson you
know.
M,-Yes. they're not so big, but
they are old
C-We've been taking stuff away
from our larger ones and giving it
to the smaller ones.
M-Well. now. that's a good plan
because that will suit Congress you
know. Well, now. general, l think
these people have got some holdup
some way about some advancement