Evening star., 1951-09-05
Progress Report

Americas industrial mobilization program is
rolling along today at pace rather substantially
better than that during the comparable pre-
Pearl Harbor period. In terms both of plant
expansion and preparation and of production OF
end items the record for the past nine months
is approximately equal to that of the full calen-
dar year Immediately preceding our involvement
In war with the Axis.
To be valid such comparisons must give due
weight of course to the vastly higher dollar cost
of today's production on per unit basis and to
the fact that most Of the end items and COM
ponent parts for todays requirements are more
complex and more demanding in workmanship.
1t is proper also in such comparison to bear in
mind that from the outbreak of war in Europe
in 1889 American industry had the benefit Of
gearing itself through the production Of materiel
for foreign orders. Current mobilization had
hardly started by the first of this year although
the outbreak of Korean hostilitieS served as
signal of what was to come. 1t is after making
these allowances that the encouraging picture
develops.
After diSposing of this brighter side, however,
1t is obvious that the toughest part of the job
is yet to be done Turning an economy fashioned
for peace into one that must devote nearly
quarter of its energy into preparations for war,
or defense, is not simple matter
For example, when the present mobilization
began one of the vital segmentS of our industry
the machine tool segment-was in a relatively
bad state. 1t had produced heavily in World
War II, inventories were high, conversion
to peacetme requirements costly and time
consuming, prices were soft and the attendant
economic effects deprived it of the residence
needed for quick reconversion. The long process
required for designing the weapons of tomorrow
meant further delay in designing the tools needed
Ox.1.,
the most recent months has this chain process
reached point where tomorrows tools are being
produced in volume today.
The mounting demands resulting from the
Korean fighting and the alarming urgency posed
by threatening Russian behavior in other parts
of the world imposed double requirement upon
our mobilization efforts. One requirement was
to step up production of end items-guns, planes
and munitions. The second requirement was the
rebuilding and expansion OF our industrial ma
chine for the long-term rearming Of ourselves
and most of the free world. At the same time
serious effort has been made, and thus far
successfully, to maintain a more or less normal
production for civilian peacetime needs.
Certain bottlenecks not unexpected, have
developed in the face of this multiSided demand
One of the most constructing has been that in
steel vital to each one of the above efforts. The
revision announced on Monday of structural steel
ALLEGATIONS for the last quarter Of this year is
a reflection of this bottleneck, forcing a cut
back on plant expansions not directly tied to
military uses. At the same time, ALLEGATIONS OF
structural steel for increasing aluminium produc
ton were left at 100 per cent of stated require
ments in an effort to combat the bottleneck in
aluminium.
Disruption of copper production through the
strike in the four major copper companies has
created another shortage, already forcing re-
moval of $4,000 tons of copper from the emer-
gency stock pile. One of the big four, Kennecott,
returned to operation last Friday, but three others
were still strike-bound today with the cases
starting through the Taft-Hartley law process.
Rubber production and stock-piling came in
for critical comment yesterday from the Senate
Preparedness Subcommittee. Defense mobiiza-