WAR NEEDS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24836, 9 February 1942, Page 5

WAR NEEDS

AMERICAN OUTPUT WARNING TO INDUSTRY ESSENTIAL GOODS ONLY (Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 7. The head of the War Production Board, Mr D. W. Nelson, warned American industry to speed up con* version 5f its non-defence facilities into machine's ' for producing' war materials and essential ■■ civilian goods. The -. current conversion programmes under way.in the automobile,.refrigerator and typewriter industries were only a start,. and many additional plants must be, converted to war production in'order to achieve President Roosevelt's arms programme. Leaders of many industries which had not produced munitions in the past would be called to Washington: in the next few weeks to assume their share of the war job." ' • Mr Nelson declared that conversion appeared to be the only straight and fast road to-victory, and that this would be the War Production Board's principal goal during the next six months. Mr R. J. Thomas, president of the United Automobile Workers, accused Mr W. S. Knudsen of representing the interests of the automobile industry, and not the people of the United States, in his capacity as head of the defunct office of Production Management. Mr Thomas asserted that the Office of Production Management was abolished as the result of union charges that it was dominated by selfish corporate industries. He predicted that the new War Production Board, of which Mr Nelson is the head, would meet tba same fate unless it was reorganised to give organised labour a bigger voice in the conduct of the arm* programme. . He blamed lack of planning by industrialists' and their agents in Washington for the current unemployment of 300,000 workers in Michigan while an automobile plant was being converted to warproduction. v ■: Mr Thomas accused a small minority of industrialists of taking advantage of the no-strike pledge given by the American Federation of Labour and the Congress of Industrial Organisations when the United States entered' the war. He gave a warning that if employers refused to arbitrate labour disputes fairly, labour would rescind its pledge.' DEFENCE EXPANSION UNITED STATES PROGRAMME (Rec. 9 p.m.) WASHINGTON, Feb. 7. President Roosevelt to-day signed a Bill authorising the navy to spend 750,000,01)0 dollars for facilities with which to build 1799 minor combat auxiliary and patrol vessels. The Bill does not specify the actual cost of the ships, which it is estimated would aggregate 3,000,000,000 dollars. The President also signed legislation authorising the expenditure of 450,000,000 dollars for the establishment of naval shore facilities. ■;.''. 'V'iV •'■

The United States War Department meanwhile announces that' over 1,000,000 officers and men will be enrolled in the air force this year and double that number later on.