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Show fc. U'"': '" . ii '.V" 1 ! ' v::';liiijii lv : ' 7' '! C? j snm' uniimhid j . ; t Jtv ICric Johns ion 1 j Our llonlrilMilion to iclory (,r.:r.'r'x .V.'ff: r .t i v airt. !r is ,'ne it xfiww ivm; ivi iik ni' .liiirrt'x mimv Ni,. 4rtv:. r't.':tri'.(." Af j . . n sr.'n i I'ifMjffif ot rfit- N. ('ImiiiI'i .1 1 '.'in titer ri. ) '"l'MlKKK is no imaginable road to j;tob:l poaro nml eco-J. eco-J. noniu' miproveiiu'nt uhk'h iloos not pass tliroui'.h our country. Whether wo liko it or not, it is our ilostiny to play tho Unl rolo in tho j'.reat drama of postwar economic rei-on-struetion. We cannot play it vigorously aiul i-lTeetively it we are weak at home and divided in our counsels; it we allow ourselves to crow tlabby, fatalistic and unambitious. We have attained that role lv virtue of tho American system of enterprise thai made us strong. It would bo sheer follv and a disservice t o tn a n k i n d a t large if we choked otT our strength at its source. I for one distrust dis-trust world planners plan-ners who do not give sufficient thought to the happiness and prosperity of their own countries. being able to build a Normandle, giant of seas, every two and a half days! That Is what we are doing, in effect. American shipyards had delivered deliv-ered nearly 18 million dead-weight tons of shipping between Pearl Harbor Har-bor and the autumn of 1943. By January, 1844, America bad built In two years the equivalent of more than a third of all the ocean merchant mer-chant marine tonnage in the world I This pattern of supreme accomplishment accom-plishment is repeated consistently In every department of our economy. The machine-tool industry not only succeeded in taking care of the great conversion tasks at home, but made enormous contributions to the factories of Russia, England, India, Australia, Cajiada. Steelmaking was expanded rapidly to the point where more than half the steel of the entire world was being made in the United States. The steel industry indus-try rarely operated below 94 per cent capacity after Pearl Harbor and several months it worked at 100 per cent capacity. The 83 million Erie Johnston .. , . s M I There are men honest, high-minded men who think they are raising the living standards of the world when they only succeed in lowering the living standards in America. They forget that we Americans have been able to make the magnificent magnif-icent contribution of our industrial genius toward winning the war precisely pre-cisely because we were rich, Industrious, Indus-trious, immensely productive, and economically free. We shall be able to weight the postwar scales in favor of peace and general well-being for the world as a whole only if we continue to preserve and fortify forti-fy the economic system which gave us those capacities. To do otherwise other-wise would be to kill the roots which give life to the tree. Let us look briefly at that history-making history-making American accomplishment. We have mobilized and equipped 10 million men for war, equipping them with the most advanced modern mod-ern weapons, in the space of less than two years. The time element needs to be underscored. Germany, it should be remembered, had channeled chan-neled everything into military preparations for nearly seven years before it launched World War II; Russia had deprived itself of necessities, neces-sities, not to mention comforts, for nearly 20 years, so that it might divert all its energies and resources to military purposes. America, so far as the implements of war are concerned, started from scratch on the day when a program of lend- leasev;as decided upon. Having withdrawn 10 million men from onr productive process, we have been able, notwithstanding, not-withstanding, to gather and train the manpower needed to equip and feed not only our own forces, but to help feed and equip all our Allies. The War Production board measures meas-ures the progress of munitions output out-put with the aid of a special index which takes into account planes, ships, tanks, guns, ammunition, and all campaign equipment, but does not include military construction construc-tion work or industrial facilities created for munition production. In the WPB index 100 equals over-all munitions production for the month of November, 1941, just before Pearl Harbor. Output under the defense program previously in effect had been raised from 23 in July, 1940, to 50 in December, 1940, and had passed 75 in September, 1941. The rate of production was more than doubled between November, 1941, and March, 1942, that is to say, in four months, the index going from 100 to 213. By June, 1942, the index stood at 309; by October, 1942, it was 403; by March, 1943, 530; and in October, 1943, 614. The rate of production, in other words, increased in-creased sixfold in two years! World's largest svnthetic rubber Industry. In-dustry. tons produced in 1941 rose to 86 million mil-lion tons in 1942, to 90 million tons in 1943. Immediately after the Japanese struck at America the United States Chamber of Commerce adopted a resolution which, I know, mirrored the grim determination of all groups in the country. It said in part: "We are at war today with countries whose economy has long been geared to war. To wage this war most effective-lyy effective-lyy we must gear our entire economy to get maximum war production. That must be accomplished ac-complished at once, so as to win Uie war in the shortest possible time, in order to save lives, avoid a long, grueling war effort, ef-fort, and to prevent unnecessary waste of resources." That challenge has been met. American business and industry and labor, reflecting the mentality of a peace-loving nation, had been completely com-pletely geared to meet only civilian requirements. But being blessed with immense resources and know-how, know-how, we were able to turn overnight to the manufacture of the intricate machines of today's fast-moving mechanized me-chanized warmaking. Broad War Powers for Government Essential Government necessarily assumed broad authority and has played a Spectacular Rubber Production American Perhaps the most spectacular exemplification of the American productive pro-ductive system was provided by rubber. When the Japanese captured cap-tured our Pacific ocean rubber ources, It looked as If we had been tymied. Starting with nothing, however, we have brought Into being be-ing the world's largest synthetic rubber Industry. Despite preliminary prelimi-nary confusions and conflicting governmental gov-ernmental authorities, private Industry In-dustry did the job. Only once In Its history has the American automotive industry indus-try manufactured more than 5 million motor vehicles a year, yet by 1943 the same Industry was producing war materials, the value of which was about three times as great as in that peak year. Aviation is a super-drama that Is being acted out in the battle of Germany, Ger-many, the battle of the southwest Pacific, the battle of China. But its "breeding place" is in continental United States. The President's first figure of 50,000 planes a year seemed far - fetched even to optimists. op-timists. By the end of 1943 we were producing more than 8,000 a month, or almost 100,000 a year. Shipbuilding was virtually at a standstill in the United Slates when the world was overwhelmed by war. Eut two years after Pearl Harbor ours was the most productive shipbuilding ship-building ir.duslry of all time As Euri.ham Eier.ey put it: "Imagine dominant part in the war production direction. It has had to control the flow of materials and exercise other economic powers which normally belong to private economy. Nevertheless, Never-theless, the imprint of private enterprise is deeply and decisively decisive-ly upon the war production achievement achieve-ment The success of the unprece-dentedly unprece-dentedly huge undertaking has been dependent on the Initiative, resourcefulness, re-sourcefulness, and ability of private business. Agriculture, no less than industry, took a heroic part in the national effort and proved the value of free farming. The extraordinary achievement achieve-ment of the American farmers has received less than its due In appraisals ap-praisals of over-all wartime production. produc-tion. It Is hardly necessary to record that labor, likewise, did its share and more. Neither industry nor agriculture agri-culture could function without the cooperation of labor. In mines, on farms, at factory benches, in transport trans-port services, in a hundred other branches of the national effort men and women whose muscle power and intelligence and skills represent the iifeblood of production gave without stint. The American accomplishment in rescuing a distraught, despairing world by the strength of our economic eco-nomic system carries with it an implied im-plied promise to keep that system alive and in working order. We have, indeed, an obligation to ourselves, our-selves, and lo the world as well, to remain prosperous and to remain j free. |