Evening star., 1952-07-04
Steel Tieup Threatens
Weapons Production,
Canned Food Losses i.

President Truman was told
yesterday that the 32-day steel
shutdown has cut production Of
tanks, shells and other munitions,
and soon will cause vast food
losses for lack of cans.
Plans to decontrol steel at the
year-end must. be abandoned.
John r. Steelman announced in
his quarterly report as acting di-
rector Of the Once Of Defense
Mobilization.
Mr.. Steelman notified Mr.. Tru-
man that all tonnage gains
achieved by steel industry expan-
sion since Korea have been wiped
out already. and he said that by
last Tuesday 'lack Of steel had
stopped or slowed down the pro-
duction of ammunition, tanks.
Army trucks, Bailey bridges. mine
detectors and aircraft landing
gear"
Serious Loss Of Food.
Each weeks further stoppage.
Mr.. Steelman said, will mean the
loss of 20 million cases of canned
food for want of tinplate.
There is no way to salvage any
significant quantity Of this food
except by home canning" he
added.
Mr.. Steelman reported 1ay-offs
spreading through the auto. farm
equipment and other steel-using
industries and said it all added up|
to severe setback to the
mobilization program"
He said the bugs have been
worked out of many new model
weapons, and deliveries of all mill
tary goods and construction rose
to So billion in the three monthsI
just ended.
2O% Increase.
He said the So billion figure
represented a 20 per cent increase
over deliveries for the January
April period. That percentage,
however, resulted from q scaling
down Of the original production
figure for the first quarter.
That total was given in the first
quarters report as 500 billion. It
has since been corrected to $6.6I
billion. The So billion figure was
described as conservative.
The report said the value of de-
liveries Of a list of 100 major items
rose nearly so per cent between
February and May. This list. he
reported, included items which
presented the greatest design and
production difficulties.
Cited as an example was the
new MAT medium tank. This was
the tank on which it was difficult
to get the turrets to perform with
precision.
Continued Production.
The report said the Army took
a chance and continued produc-
ton, while engineers worked toI
correct defects. Since the probe
lem is now overcome, Mr.. Steel
man said, the Army is now getting
tanks both from the production
lines and the pool Of tanks which
were awaiting modification.
Even newer tanks, the M-48s,
will be rolling of the production
lines by the end Of the year, the
report said.
A history similar to that Of the
MAT was presented by the produc-
ton of the Air Forces BAT
Stratojet bomber. Mr.. Steelman
said substantial number of these
planes now are being turned out
each month. ..t
800 Planes a Month.
Deliveries of military airplanes
now exceed 800 a month, the re-
port said. or about two-thirds Of
the peak delivery rate to be
reached in mid-1953. The report
added:
Superior new planes will soon
be on the assembly lines to make
up the production pattern of
tomorrow. Others are now under
going intensive tests before being
ordered into quantity production. ~
The report said the machine
tool bottleneck is being eased
with tool shipments for the first
time exceeding new orders. Cur
rent production is about 500 mil
lion a month. But although the
backlog is being worked off, the
report said the nrod1lction is Ia