MOBILISATION DAY IN AMERICA

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 208, 18 September 1937, Page 17

MOBILISATION DAY IN AMERICA

A Industrial Preparedness

jy£-DAy is mobilisation day, tho -day when .war is declared and the bird-cage factory in Pittsburgh, Pa., ("Plain and Fancy Cages for the Beagle or the Eagle") turns out something different — namely, fuses for bombs and hand grenades. In every part of the country army officers have been lining up plants which make various harmle&s peacetime products, and teaching their workmen how to make articlep necessary in war. So thorough has been this preparation; say Frank' Hanrghen in Eeview. of Eeviaws, that contracts have been,,drawn with these . firms and all that -is neeesisary to start the machines working on muni.tions is a telegram or a 'phone call on M-day. M-day'e mobilisation of American industry aees radiator companies making shells; watchmakers artillery- instruments? machinery companies guns and ammunition, airplane companies bombers, textile factories uniforms, chemical companies explosives. There will be none of the haphazard confusion of the last war. The War Department has divided the U.S.A, into 14 procurement districts; officers have surveyed. factories and raw materials. Factories have been allotted orders for M^day. Since 1933 the complex plan for industrial preparedness has been approved by both Secretaries. of War and Navy. Tho Chemical Warfare Service has made arrangements with chemical companies to supply poison gas on an hour's notice; and to supply gasmasks made.in.America. The Medical • Corps has planned quinine substitutes; the Engineers' netmaking machinery; and motor-boat companies will make pontqons, in case this country should- be cut off-by block-

ades. - Barbed wire of good strength w# already make, but the posts to string it on must be specially made. This ha» beeu' seen to. Fifty-seven plants in Dayton, Ohio, will make airplane paris. Piano fao« tories ean produce .airplane bodies. But intricate and delicate airplane equijw ment comlng from Nevr York has been made mostly by French and Swiee makers. Goggles, helmets, airplane in-* struments and cameras muat be ppe* duced at hqme. Boston, on M-day, has been allotted production of 10,470,000 pairs «f ehoei in 12 months. Uniforms, hats, mat* tresses, picks, shovels, rope, thread, ete^ have all been organised. ' Armaments organisation has been the most extensive task. Two hundred and fifty-three different gauges are ne* cessary to make a' single shell, but full production from America can be counted on for M-day. . The raw ' materials only threaten American industry. These are inanga* nese end tin. have no nickel, but can import -it from -Canada^ Iron, coal, oiU'copper are here in abundanoe; anti* mony, "chrome ore, ferro-manganese, mercury^ platinnm, tungtea fwe have in small resqnrces. ' In' the next war jpayment for manufacture will be provided in a manner. to speed production, proteet the eontraw tor .and make savinga for the Govern* ment. Under' eontraet terms the contratftof will*!'be* paid currently for labour, material,' and. overhead, «» well as. a percentage fqr. profit and for re* modelling his plant. If he eompletes his eontraet' at' a saving, he earns a part of the saving. Industrial- mobilisation is under the cofttrdl'of a War Ihdustries Administra* tor responsible to the President. Under, him qre sub-qdminietrators of eommodi* ties, facilitieis, power, transportatiom and labonr. On M-day the U.S.A. becomes a "totalitarian State eubject to the intense regulation characterisijig the Fascist nations of Enrope. Either we make efficienfc war without democraey or accept possible defeat with democracy. M-day is ominous, May it never happen| 1 •>