Show ECONOMIC highlights industrial news review this country is just beginning to encounter counter in some of the biggest and most difficult problems that a military economy makes unavoidable the arms program is getting into 1 stride our aircraft production is at a rate of about planes a year production oi of tanks machine guns army trucks and other vital necessities is increasing fast the two tv ocean navy will be completed far F ar ahead of the original schedule in III the he next two years unless some hing unexpected occurs to change hc picture we should become the foremost ore most military power on earth barth this mean that we are do ing our theoretical utmost we are arc not labor troubles continue to mount and undermine production governmental red tape delay and indecision decision ri still hamper industry A segment of industry yb has nat not been able to get away from the business a as S U usual point of view there Js is p plenty I 1 enty of politics in the the defense setup set up and there is too much divided responsibility which makes for or passing the buck and general disorder even so the gigantic american production machine is moving forward and it is successfully making the immense change from a peacetime peace time to a wartime war time economy to borne some this change means profits and expanded opportunity T to a others the change means possible ruin in that sorry category fall thousands of businesses which have not bien been given a place in the defense picture and which a are re no now unable to continue their norm norin r peacetime peace pace time ways these are the businesses chic ii are caught by priorities no one without a high priority rat rating ing can now obtain th the e basic metals no one can build a home costing more than there are shortages of paper cloth rubber chemicals cleaning fluids c commodities which in in normal periods are excessively abundant and legions of businesses employing millions of people depend on cucil sucil awl commodities as these hase for their very life pessimists believe iha t this defense program may mean the virtual death of little business in t this hi IS nation that may be an excessive excess excessively iv ely dark forecast but the hard fact remains that no one has yet been able to formulate a program under which we may obtain maximum military production and at the same time preserve our business system more or less intact washington of course has given attention to this small business problem there has been an effort to farn farm ailt out contracts under a subcontracting system so ithac small end middle s sized iz ed concerns may obtain a fair share of odthe the orders so 80 far however tittle progress has been made the aulk b ot of small businesses the equipment or the personnel which are needed when you want vant a tremendous job done you naturally turn to the g great mass production industries whichard chare ird geared to ta kiriake the largest possible quantities of goods 1 in I the shortest possible period of tim time e the douar a year beir awn in the defense bense bureaus are taken from b big g industries and so small m all business usines s finds finas it more and more difficult to obtain the supplies it must have if this trend continues it is apparent that a revolutionary change chan afe will take place in the american c conomy whether that th at change wil wi 11 be for the better or worse is a matter of argument in the meantime it is an ironical fact that hundreds of thousands of men are being thrown out of jobs during a time when there is a shortage of suitable babot and thousands of businesses are in danger of being shut down during a time when consumer demand and consumer purchasing power p for all manner ot of commodities c les is extremely high the figures figur es indicate in that there simply isn t sufficient supply of many basic materials to meet the war demand and the normal demand at the some time and the smaller enterprises of the country which aren arent I 1 able to produce the tools 0 of f war are arc taking the eating beating b the army is gradually weeding out the incompetents among amo ng its corp cortie corte viv tie te rd blos blos va a b pvn when a dign ranking general was summarily retired after the army he commanded did badly in in war games between world war I 1 and IT II the army was given little attention little money little equipment offic officers ers advanced when and only when their superiors died or reached retirement ti rement age this made for a bureaucratic eau cratic sort of officer who simply bided his time played internal politics and learned nothing the american america army now seems to be taking a page age out u of athe the book of the german army nazi commanders are mainly young promotion is made on merit riot not seniority daring and resourcefulness are rewarded in our army men with the right stuff on the ball are today being jumped in rank over the heads of their elders |