The Gypping of the West?

SPOKESMEN

Big, red-faced Dan O. Druge, 42, stood up before an employers' manpower conference in San Francisco. Dan, who owns and operates the Druge Brothers Manufacturing Co. (automatic tire gauges) with his brother, likes to speak his mind. And on his mind last week was a subject that has become more & more pressing to many a Western businessman: the place of the West in the U.S. economy.

Druge, like many another Westerner, believes that there exists a vast conspiracy in the East to keep the West Coast an undernourished industrial stepchild. The onset of World War II gave the West basic industries on a scale that it never had before, notably steel and aluminum. Then Westerners began to dream that the West was finally going to grow up industrially. But as the end of the war draws near with no definite plans announced to utilize fully those industries, many a Westerner has grown bitter and disillusioned. Last week Druge summed up that disillusionment and, in so doing, spoke for most Westerners.

Said he: "The West is going to take the worst gypping in its history. When the war first started we were declared a combat area. ... So all the contracts went East. When they had all the work they could handle, contracts were passed around out here. We did a hell of a job, too, and began to tell everybody we were growing up. . . .

"Then people back East began to get nervous about us. ... War contracts were withdrawn. . . . Now all this is changed. Manufacturers back East see the end of the war in sight. Now they say: Let the contracts go West. ... So we're going to keep in war production, while the Eastern boys quickly convert to peace production. By the time we get finished with the war, they'll be fully geared to peace jobs. And what's more, they'll have gained time to step in and capture our Western markets."

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