AMERICAN NEEDS OF WOOL

Southland Times, Issue 24273, 2 November 1940, Page 12

AMERICAN NEEDS OF WOOL

Clothing For Men In Military Forces The National Woolgrower, the American authoritative publication on the wool market, comments on several interesting aspects of the wool posi-' tion in the United States, and the arrangements being made for clothing its huge potential army. There is an alarming but not-to-be ignored possibility, states the writer, that in 1941 the war will revert to land fighting in Continental Europe. If that should come about, it would mean a larger prospect of defeat of the dictator Powers, though it is unlikely to happen unless the United States decides to defend herself abroad instead of at the Atlantic seaboard. Extensive land fighting would mean heavy wastage of materials by enormous armies, such as was seen in the former world war. With her large control of world wools, Great Britain would have a great advantage. If the United States should take part in such a war it would inevitably have some plan of price control of materials, if not of wages and other factors in production. The scope and plans of our preparation and equipment for defence have been approved through almost unanimous support in Congress for defence appropriations of around 10,000,000,000 dollars. Financing of a second navy, and aeroplanes, guns, tanks and clothing for 4,000,000 men has been provided, though it is optimistic to suppose that more than a 2,000,000-men land fighting force can be equipped and trained earlier than 1943.

Appropriations now available to the War Department include 250,000,000 dollars for “clothing and equipage.” No doubt the appropriated amounts would clothe more than 2,000,000 men. The difficulty that arose in Washington early in August in the proposed importion from Australia of a reserve stock of wool arose from the fact that War Department estimates were based on furnishing complete clothing equipment for 4,000,000 men by September 1, 1941. In their zeal to ensure complete and quick preparedness, the _ officials failed to. include in the supplies 388,000,0001 b of shorn wool of the 1941 clip, or to consider the large supplies of pulled wool. Also, it is manifest that undei- the most rapid and efficient preparations, it would be impossible to have 4,000,000 men in training in 1941.