U.S. WAR OUTPUT LAG

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 20861, 13 August 1942, Page 3

U.S. WAR OUTPUT LAG

PRESIDENT QUESTIONED INDUSTRIAL HOLD-UPS (10.30 a.m.) WASHINGTON, Aug. 12. At his press conference, President Roosevelt was asked many questions about the lagging of war production, particularly about the threatened shut-down of 1000 war plants because of shortages of materials. President Roosevelt replied that he would have to ask the army and navy authorities and Mr. Donald Nelson, chairman of' the War Prodctions Board, before authenticating the report of possible closures. A reporter asked. “What would you think of a union steward in a war plant who deliberately told a worker .to produce less than a fair day’s work?” President Roosevelt wanted to know who did that. The reporter replied that that had happened in Flint and Muskegon in Michegan. President Roosevelt suggested .that the questioner should dig up the facts and names whereupon he would look into the matter. Another reporter asked the President’s opinion of the various wild-cat strikes which were occurring almost daily although they were opposed by union officers. "Where?” President Roosevelt asked. The reporter replied that there was one yesterday in a Pittsburgh steel mill. Asked if he had seen the War Labour Board’s statement that the treason laws might have been invoked if jurisdictional strikes continued, President Roosevelt asked for further particulars. Asked about the conference on the stabilisation of wages in aircraft Diants which had fizzled out President Roosevelt said he had not heard anything of it.