Evening star., 1951-11-29

Asked as sSenafe Group
Cites War Goods Lag
Declaring that unfortunately
butter-even fortified butter" is
not enough to stop Communist
armies, a Senate subcommittee
called today for faster mobiliza-
ton to meet defense goals or
schedule.
Deliveries of defense hare
goods-planes. tanks, ships ano
gms-have fallen dangerously be-
hind schedule" declared the Sen
ate Preparedness Subcommittee
To-day mobilization cannot await
the over act of war.
Unfortunately there is no easy
road to preparedness"
Chairman Johnson, Democrat
Of Texas, commenting that the
results of the mobilization effort
so far had been excellent in terms
Of civilian goods, said that under
any circumstances, we will have
to have both guns and butter"
But somebody is going to have
to decide how much butter and
how many guns" he added. Fur
thermore. that decision will have
to be made in terms of the ma
tional defense instead of the ma
tional appetite"
The report noted lags in de-
liveries to the military of aircraft,
guided missiles, tanks and elec-
tronics equipment.
Priority Assignments Blamed.
It said that many reasons were
given for these delays but that
the basic reason is the failure to
assign a top priority to produc-
ton for immediate military needs.
The report added that there had
been an effort on the part of both
those responsible for procurement
and the o-ordinators of available
materials to blame each other for
shortages.
The fact is that the blame is
undoubtedly attributable to both
and there is plenty to go around" ;"
declared the report. There has
been too much bureaucratic pull
ing and hauling. too much inter-
service rivalry, too much interde-
partmental sparring. At times it
has given the impression of being
a free-for-all at Donnybrook
rather than a cooperative effort.
In the common defense"
Program Recommended.
The Senators recommended:
l. Draw upon all industrial re-
sources ''to the extent necessary" u
Allocate materials for industrial
base expansion, stockpiling and
current consumption only after
requirements for minimum mobil-
ization is met.
2. Appointment of a procure
ment czar to expedite purchasing
and adjudicate conflicts between
the, services with responsibility
only to the Secretary of Defense.
8. Instead of a downward re-
vision of schedules for the manu-
facture of military hard goods in
the light of unsatisfactory produc- |
ton experiences, the production
bottleneck must be broken at all
times"
In connection with that point.
Senator johnson asserted that sit
may be that some general with
two stars on each shoulder i
will suddenly decide to declassify
carefully selected facts bearing in
this report to prove every
thing is going we'll"
The reference was to Maj. Gen.
George H. Olmsted, the Defense
Department military assistance
director, who. the Senator has
charged, declaSsifled certain sta
tistics on arms aid shipments toI
France. which misled the Ameri-
can public on the progress Of
that program and failed to give a
true picture as given to the sub
committee in secret.
I'VE. have not studied just few
selected facts" declared the Sena-
tor.
4. Give all machine tool pro-
duction exclusively to the military
and require that each branch of
the armed services make their
machine tool reserves available to-
the others.
Would Use Small Business.
+, 5. Use more small business in
military goods production.
6. American business should
not and must not place the desire
for excessive profits before the
defense requirements"
Z. The Defense Department re-
move all causes for delay in pro-
duction and furnish the subcom-
mittee with an analysis of the
causes for such delays.
The subcommittee. in an i'm
portant note to the reader" +"
warned that the report should not
be taken to mean the Nation would
be unable to resist successfully If
an enemy should attack us to-
morrow"
''On the contrary. we are con-
fident that our existing military