Most Critical Occurrence

With pardonable pride, WPB announced that the U.S. had produced more than 7,000 military aircraft in May, would beat that total in June. With something less than pardonable reticence, it was mum about the rest of the military production program. It was not so bright a picture as WPB's announcement of aircraft production indicated it might be.

One day after the plane announcement, blunt Robert Porter Patterson, War Under Secretary, told the unpretty rest. In May, production of materiel for the Army Ground Forces had declined 3 1/2% from the output of April. Actually, it had been scheduled to rise 2%. So it was a 5 1/2% failure in production.

Said Bob Patterson: "This means that troops in training must be deprived of critical equipment. ... If this situation continues even our overseas troops will suffer. ... I ... attribute the letdown . . . to overconfidence. . . .

"Failure to appreciate the gravity of our situation ... is evidenced by the coal strike, the Akron strikes and other stoppages . . . and by the tendency of certain manufacturers to divert too much time, thought and energy to the design and development of competitive civilian nonessentials. . . . The failure of May production is the most critical single occurrence in the Army Supply Program. . . . Failures to meet production in one month cannot be readily made up. . . ."

Only by aircraft's showing was the War Department pleased. Of the plus-7,000 planes delivered in May, around 5,000 were tactical types. The total number produced was up 40% from January, the weight (more bombers) up 63%. Barring failures, the U.S. was going to meet and pass its goal of 60,000 for this calendar year.

Bob Patterson's unspoken point was that wars are not fought by aircraft alone. Before Congress last week was the vastest military appropriation bill in history: a $71 1/2-billion program for everything the Army will need in fiscal 1944, from dog food ($3 1/2 million) to ammunition ($8 billion), guns, tanks, etc. ($6 1/4 billion) and aircraft ($23 1/2 billion--the largest single item). With such a job ahead, neither labor nor industry could loaf for a minute.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.