PEACETIME PRODUCTION

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 228, 23 June 1944, Page 4

PEACETIME PRODUCTION

Within a few weeks many factories in the United States .will again be engaged in peacetime production. The extent will be limited, but according to the cable messages some thousands of skilled workers formerly engaged in armament factories are now idle, and the authority for firms to resume their usual activities will provide employment for them. Manufacturers will be able to obtain the materials and skilled labour required to make working models of any post-war product they have planned, the items specifically mentioned being refrigeratoi s and washing machines. These will be regarded as the first steps on the way back to-what the Americans call normalcy, and the results will be followed with great interest. Recently a Senate committee reported that there was no obstacle to very considerable increases in the production of civilian goods, and said that,’ except for copper, there were sufficient basic materials available to supply war needs in full and also some items for civilian use. The changing nature of the demand for war supplies has. resulted in many American factories being without contracts, and it is held that these could be now used for the manufacture of things required by the community. The Americans, however, realize that the first real stage of reconversion will come after the defeat of Germany. The campaign against Japan will then be carried on with increasing momentum, but it has been estimated that war production at that stage could safely be reduced by 35 per cent., and plans aie being prepared on that basis. . The extent of the reconversion problem in such highly industrialized countries as the United States and Great Britain makes the problem here look very small, but it will be sufficiently involved to provide a test of enterprise and initiative. Many plants have been adjusted to meet the needs of the war effort, and nothing could be gained by maintaining this class of production when the position du not warrant the output... Nor would the requirements be met simp y by making work for those at present employed. The situation may call for some mobility of labour, for direction to avenues of employment where hands are still needed, and in few instances could it be said that all the resources required for industry for civilian purposes are available. But first and foremost what is needed in the Dominion is a detailed ministerial statement outlining the plans of the Government with regard to the change-back. There is not even a hazy idea in the public mind of how the Government proposes to tackle this matter, but it is realized ‘hat it must be a gradual process and that the sooner both public an-' private plans can be completed the better.