Musts for the "Silver Months"

Musts for the "Silver Months" "We've wasted the golden months in which we could have got fully ready, the months in which we could have expanded our steel industry, our chemical industry, our copper industry, and all the others. . . . But we still have ten silver months--the months which remain in 1942."

These sober words came from Don Nelson last week. A gun now, he said, is worth ten guns in 1943. He also listed three silver-month musts, upon which "maximum production at once" depends. The production news of the week gave clues to how he meant to enforce them.

P:First on the Nelson list was "getting greater production out of the plants . . . which are now producing war goods." That means crowding them with still more orders. Last week WPB's Purchasing Chief Douglas MacKeachie told the Truman Committee that all war orders from now on would be awarded on a negotiated basis, rather than on competitive bids. Most obvious purpose: to save time and red tape. But Douglas MacKeachie also announced that each contract would contain a standard renegotiation clause, which, if properly used, could not only 1) save money and time on contracts to efficient, low-cost producers, but 2) encourage the smaller, higher-cost firms who fear going broke on a fixed-price contract.

P:"Getting military production out of factories and machines which are now producing civilian goods" came second. Last week a tough-as-nails WPB told the radio industry--a "good" industry compared to most, in that it went after some war orders early in the game--to convert 100% in the next four months or else have their plants stripped of usable men and machines by the Government. Three other industries (refrigerators, washing machines, office machinery & typewriters) got a less publicized but even more enlightening Washington lecture. They were told that WPB has a new conversion policy: 100% real war production for the skilled big fellows, concentration of minimum, essential, civilian production in the smaller plants. Competitive tangles will have to be ironed out later (perhaps via a "Victory" label for all such civilian production). Meanwhile, the little businessman in some industries, at least, has a new lease on life.

P:Don Nelson's last point was the oldest, toughest nut--subcontracting--and he saved his toughest talk for it. "There isn't a single big producer who can't do more than he is doing now if he subcontracts," he cried. "Industry has been lazy on this whole subject. . . ." Despite some Washington bright ideas, Don Nelson swore the subcontracting nut would have to be cracked by industry itself. The man who cracks it will be the MacArthur of the home front.

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