More Planes, More Ships

In a steady golden stream, Congress continued appropriating billions upon billions for the Army & Navy. The figures, almost beyond human comprehension, were enough to make a Jap squint.

The greatest single military appropriation in all history--$12,500,000,000 for the Army--was made without a single dissenting vote; the Senate took only 27 minutes for debate. If the sum was colossal (enough to build thirty-four $366,000,000 Panama Canals), so was its purpose: to build 10,000 trainer planes and 23,000 combat planes, armed capapie. The appropriation will forestall a lag in production due next August, when present orders begin to run out.

Even this earth-shaking $12,500,000,000 will not long remain a record. Cooking on the Congressional stove is a bill giving the Navy $26,500,000,000 (72 Panama Canals) in appropriations and authorizations. This sum will not only cover the cost of repairing and replacing the ships battered and sunk at Pearl Harbor, but add 1,799 assorted craft and some 25,000 planes to the Fleet. It will also serve to make progress payments on about 1,000,000 tons of ships already building.

The Navy no longer reveals specific items on which it intends to spend the country's cash. Its new ships may range from 75-ft. torpedo boats to 45,000-ton battlewagons. To build them, shipyard facilities will have to be mightily increased. For shipyards alone, Congress has authorized an additional $750,000,000 (two Panama Canals).

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