War "Education" for Industry Near

From The American Horologist magazine, September 1938

War "Education" for Industry Near 

Army Maps Program to 'Train' Private Factories in the Making of Munitions

The War Department is getting ready to spend $10,000,000 "educating" industry to produce war materials.

Congress authorized the expenditure ever a five year period in an effort to gear the industrial machine closely to the military preparedness machine. The first $2,000,000 will be spent in the next twelve months.

Louis Johnson, Assistant Secretary of War, said today that the new program would be fully under way by Sept. 1.

The "educating" will be done by awarding small contracts for war supplies to firms which do not now produce them, but could by making slight changes in their plants.

A clock manufacturer, for instance, might receive an order for certain metal parts used in artillery range-finding instruments. The theory is that the manufacturer, through experience in producing the peace-time order, could begin production speedily in war time.

The Army's principal branches have been asked to report on what vital munitions will be most difficult to procure in the event of war, and these will guide a special board in distributing the orders among the factories. Unlike the army's usual purchases, the educational orders will be non-competitive.

The army's ordnance department has six arsenals producing and maintaining its guns and other equipment, and has contracts with a few commercial concerns for some finished and semi-finished materials.

The World War demonstrated, however, that modern conflict requires cooperation of all industry in fllling military orders. Specific tasks to be carried out in the event of another war have been assigned tentatively to about 10,000 plants.