For Babies Only

CIVILIAN SUPPLY

For the nation's bumper crop of babies, the wise men of WPB had good tidings. Since last April, when a limitation was placed on the use of steel in infant vehicles, most babies have had to bump along in rickety wooden carriages, strollers, walkers and pushcarts. Last week, lifting this particular restriction, WPB hoped to allot enough metal to permit the manufacture of some 700,000 prewar model carriages this year. (Anticipated births: 2,700,000.)

But this boon to babies did not mean that their parents would shortly be wallowing in bobby pins, pot scourers and can openers. WPB flatly refused to relax metal restrictions on 646 other civilian items, despite the ample steel supply. A few weeks ago WPB's Office of Civilian Requirements was talking hopefully of supplying pent-up demands for many a much-missed article of everyday life. It still plans soon to increase the manufacture of alarm clocks, let a score of other minor items dribble out. But for the most part, OCR has now decided to keep the lid on tight until it becomes certain that renewed civilian manufactures will not interfere with the invasion of Europe.

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