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Show Our dealers join us in making this frank report to THE FARMERS OF AMERICA International Harvester is getting get-ting back into production with all possible speed. Extra shifts are being employed wherever conditions con-ditions permit, to try to overcome the production losses of the recent re-cent strike. Everything is being done to get parts and machines to you While we and our dealers would like to tell you that this means an immediate end to the shortage of service parts and machines, it is more accurate to say that it means the beginning of the end of it. If illness or bad weather delays de-lays you seriously in the Spring, you know how much it throws you off your schedule. The strike has thrown our schedules off balance, bal-ance, too. There are many "chores" we must do before new machines reach you. Material shortages The preliminary 1 chores of getting 11:1 js our plants back in-Ill in-Ill to shape for full ' I production are finished fin-ished But dis turbances in other industries and resulting material shortages may affect our plans. Light gauge steel sheets, brass and copper, fractional horse power motors, and many other items are all very short. The coal situation may also prove serious we hope not. Refilling the well jTs. Both our dealers and our branches JlLgL have run dry on j parts and new ma- chines. So the biggest big-gest chore is to get their working stocks back to normal. It will take time to fill the pipeline to dealers just as it takes time for you to refill a well or cistern after it has run dry. Stock and display rooms of our dealers represent not one, but ten thousand reservoirs which must be refilled The most heroic pro duction efforts will mean that your local dealer can expect only a small number of parts and machines ma-chines at a time. Since we must play fair with all our customers, there will be a sprinkle of parts and machines all over the country coun-try not a downpour in any one section. You will be glad to know that all repair parts production schedules sched-ules are far beyond normal. No hoarding foXWl ou may ke sure cSy that every ma- ClEjS chine will be ship- V ped to dealers as fa I soon as completed. We do not and will not hold machines off the market. At the start of the strike we had on hand at all our factories and branches just 837 tractors of all kinds less than two days' production and 405 of these were not completed. Many of those on hand had one or more important impor-tant parts missing principally radiator cores. Most of the rest represented the normal daily "float" between the end of the assembly line and the shipping platform. Naturally no tractors were made during the strike. What dealers may have for you TJ 1 We can report -e g jjhrssi to vou that SS? our current production on TRACTORS TRAC-TORS is gbod and we are shipping ship-ping at a normal rate. Even so, there will not be enough to go around. The situation on PLOWS and DISK HARROWS is reasonably reason-ably good. On COMBINES, MOWERS, HAY RAKES, ONE -MAN HAY BALERS, CORN PICKERS and many other items, our schedules have been seriously disrupted. We must in fairness say that many of our customers are likely to be disappointed on delivery of these machines. On MILKING MACHINES, STA TIONARY ENGINES, and some other small units we are hopeful of making practically normal delivery de-livery We know you will understand the reasons why your dealer can not fill your orders overnight. He would like to give you the kind of delivery on machines you would like to get, but his situation is a difficult one and not of his own making. He is doing the best he can. No cutting corners on quality f!$ There is one fH--- thing you can be absolutely cer- WSi tain about: We QUALITY wil1 N0T cu: corners on quality qual-ity in order to in crease production in this emergency emer-gency For years we have said: "QUALITY IS THE FOUNDATION FOUNDA-TION OF OUR BUSINESS." Today we say it and mean it as much as ever We know you need new ma-chines'-and need them badly But we believe it will pay you to wait just a little while longer if you cannot get all you want immediately im-mediately By waiting vou can be sure your new equipment will have the quality so rightly associated asso-ciated with INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER for so many years. |