Show to ECONOMIC highlights h industrial news review rd hn tt r the nation is embarking on a dot doin 14 anse he dm in unprecedented in its ny c ce history aut r it as tha corn con are PO priming irions out nut there isa more to national defense than imy apar appropriating mony mon y for ta ps and planes blanc s and ana tanks ank and ajl lol 44 aers no matter mattee how great a nat p on r P at sources an ade adequate quata desi a Bense rise canant be created overnight over night and dehen wha a nation has long ng been k customer cus tomed to the ways of peace it kt is an a extremely difficult thins to ta apt it to the ways of war it the defense program involves ite many any questions some as yet unanswered I 1 ard first and by far the most it question is simply this 5 ahat it are we going goin to defend A M gitary establishment sufficient to guard ard our territorial borders is one haing inga ing a military establishment ad quate aate to guard the philippines i jor northern thern south america green land the british west indies and lt ather far flung places is obviously another that question cannot be fully answered until t becomes corn com irtely clear who is going to be ahr J 5 w e inner in the european war tf ifa the allies win we will have little 1 0 to o fear if germany wins and it is apparent that our whole pending defense plan is based upon that grim possibility the fate of the great british fleet will be the thing 1 in which the united states has the t most vital interest should t tit lit it fleet fall into the hands of the dictators our position will be dangerous ou indeed for we do not posses a j two ocean navy ours say the experts is good enough to protect us 1 4 s in either the pacific or the atlantic tut but not in both and it would take many years to build a two ocean beet leet that explains the widespread hope bope that if the allies lose the beritich fleet will be either scuttled or better yet sent to canada where it could work in cooperation with ours another question involves the role t of labor in national defense the col 1 have been almost anani in saying that labor can no L longer be pampered and that of pinion is shared in some quarters aters strikes and similar difficulties run this argument cannot be al 21 lowed to throw the proverbial mon I kep ep wrench into the defense ma chine there is a strong movement to revise present laws governing the number ol 01 of bours s a man can work it takes skilled and willing hands bands to make the many things a i modem army must have and mn ma ny believe that we have none too many of them most of he be unemployed are in the un rate ati boxy in some fields no tully inra bif n tool work there is a definite shortage of good men how can industry be geared to arms production certainly our factories are not ready for that they have been built to make the instruments of peace not the weapons of destruction tremendous readjust ments in methods will be necessary there must be flawless coordination in production transport and assembly industrial leaders are working overtime now to bring this about but it cannot be done in a hurry finally the commentators say there must be better coordination in government we can no longer afford to have overlapping bureaus divided responsibility bickering and jealousy between officials there can be no unnecessary waste of time and resources the bloody events of the past two months curiously enough seem to have reduced almost to the vanishing point the chance of our going to war in europe there are too many dangers confronting us here to take a chance on sending cur warships and men abroad the republican party is in a difficult position politically speaking with national attention focused on foreign affairs and foreign policy its leaders feel that a campaign waged on domestic issues aou would id produce little but yawns from the electorate on top of that the leaders seem to have been unable to find any important bones to pick with the administrations present foreign and defense policies most of the leading republicans including mr hoover have endorsed mr roose alts plaris plans in toto there are mi minor n differences of opinion but so far nothing big enough seems to have been produced on which to wage a national campaign of course some sudden change in the situation between now and election could give background for a real issue ana change comes with terrifying speed these days |