Show G E JERAL HUGH S JOHNSON 0 washington D 0 ARRIS ARNIS production our snails pace arms production need tiny any declaration of an all emergency or new legislation to speed it up it needs just one thing authorized and responsible management and leadership in the government itself that seems so plain us as not to need argument even a very small email industrial effort needs that th nobody would dream of starting one without that mr knudson says that the public Is sold to the necessity for speed and production but that industry and labor ore are asleep almost at the moment he was saying that another member of the rearmament advisory overhead mr nelson was telling us that the trouble Is that the public Is apathetic asleep this Is not to criticize these gentlemen they have done marvelous marv clous jobs of making without straw such bricks as we have manufactured the straw that management of a great effort needs Is authority they got it but did anybody ever hear of any determined effort on their part to get it it Is well known that there has been none in the absence of such tin an effort perhaps we should look twice at these indictments of the public of labor and of industry espee especially I 1 ally when one of these authorities says that the public Is to blame while the other feels that the public attitude Is satisfactory but that industry and labor are the goats whenever a man or a group of men step into the drivers sent seal there Is only one goat when the bus run it Is the man at the controls if he get the right gasoline or has accepted a faulty accelerator it lie in his mouth to blame either cither the passengers or the rest of the crew mr knudsen Is right about the public attitude the public has been far ahead of government tor for defense from the very start ahead of both congress and the executive department it balked at nothing it Is ready for any sacrifice As tor for labor and industry they are the public their response at such a time depends entirely upon government leadership of them they are the lead swing and heel horses of this team they can haul the load and put every ounce of their weight on the traces but they cant set the pace and direction without a guiding intelligence and inspiration to spark the effort there Is no hanging back on the industrial side it has never been more willing and eager since world war 1 I the solution of our problem reside in words and gestures and laws and new wange strange and un american devices it resides in work and common sense and competent leadership TERRIBLE URGENCY just now in the highly successful sheep herding process of forming more or less leis panicky public ion there are three principal shibboleths or sloganeer ed conclusions floating about washington the first Is a sort of hushed whisper that the next days will decide the fate of the world including ours this is the terrible urgency I mystery and out of it grows a second that we should begin financing the british empire over this short crisis by gift or loan secured or otherwise to the extent of about A third somewhat inconsistently Is that this Is a struggle to an absolute knockout between hitlerism and democracy that we must get into it with force of arms and that it must go on until one or the other is wiped completely off the slate no matter which of these conclusions 8 or any variation or opposition of them Is held there seems to be no difference of opinion whatever that we must get our industry into an all out high speed war production immediately and that we are not doing it so lets skip that we ought to take a long look however at this proposal to finance the british empire we cant reach a decision on the basis of any day crisis or any estimate britain has plenty of resources here to get all that we shall have to give for many times days it if this is to be a long war to the destruction of hitler on the continent and we now concede the amount of interest or obligation necessary to warrant financing this phase of it up to we are hooked inextricably involved there Is and there can be no limit on the billions we must spend when you get into a war you dont count costs that all helping by supplies to enable england to resist invasion to maintain the british fleet and shut hitler up on the continent of europe as napoleon was blockaded is one thing largely a matter of maintaining naval and air supremacy invading europe and destroying hitler Is quite another thing ile he has a superior army with all the equipment accumulated during years of european rearmament napoleon blew up through interior revolt but cam compared pared with the grip that hitler has taken on his conquests napo icon was a |