_, .. . .
..
pil6T 0"
Nation's
Automobile
Industry
Clicks
For.
Huge
Output
!05_
U _.
More Than Four Billion Dollars
of War Weapons Are Delivered
Naval Air Station Destroyed, Strewn with Wreckage
BY DAVID J. WILKIE
Assoeeated Press Correspondent
DETROIT,. Dec. -.- In the 12
months since the Japanese attack
on Pearl Harbor the nation's auto-
Mobile industry has delivered more.
than $4,000,000,000 worth of war wea-
pons .to the United States and Allied
nations; currently it is producing
democracy's battle tools at the rate
of $7,000,000,000 a year.
That, according to the industry's
Automotive Council for War Produc-
tion is 75 per cent above the dollar
level of the industry's best peace
tin year.
In disclosing these figures today,
the council explained the industry's
achievements thus:
"Its deliveries of aircraft, fuselage
sections, engines, propellors and parts
are equal in dollar volume to 50
squadrons of warplanes, each consist-
ing of 15 heavy bombers and 30 medi-
um bombers and 90 fighters;
Terrific Output
"Its output of tanks, military ve-
hicles .and parts equals the cost of
,equipping 57 armored divisions of the
army with their balanced comple-
ments of 3,314 motorized units each:
"Automotive production of marine
equipment amounts, in dollar equiva-
lents, to 70 submarines and 650 motor
torpedo boats;.
"Added to this are millions of dol-
lars of guns and .ammunition, range
finders, helmets and hundreds of
other automotive - produced arma-
ments."'
What lies ahead on the production
front none of the industry's chieftains
will venture to guess. Given the raw
materials and additional manufactur-
ing equipment an expansion of at
least another 50 per cent would be
possible within the next year.
Shifts of War Strategy
"Unpredictable shifts of ,war strat-
egy already are making themselves
felt along automotive assembly lines;"
the Council Review pointed out.
"Some plants now are operating be-,
low peaks previously attained; others
face immediate near future curtail-.
gent, while still others are being
called upon to effect huge expansions.
pf productive capacity."
But the potentialities of the indus-
try as a mass producer of tanks and
aircraft, aviation and marine engines,
ammunition and shells and scores of
pther essentials of mechanized war-
fare have been definitely established;
the stage now has been reached where
,output capacity is to be concentrated
upon the type of weapons that have
proved most effective in battle.. 3
Flexible Production
A decision to curtain production of7
one type of armament and expand de-1
liyeries of others isn't regarded with-
in the industry as a reflection upon
the War effort of the former autopo-,
bile manufacturer; rather it is accep-
ted as an admission by the agencies'
directing the nation's war production
driye that the erstwhile motorcar in-
dustry topped even its own optimistic
expectations.
Certainly original schedules have
been bettered all along the line from,
the production of tanks and planes
down to machine gun shell clips.
In round figures the normal peace-
time output of the motorcar industry
has an annual wholesale value of
approximately $3,500,000,000, but you
can't appraise the extent of the war
production effort by comparing $4,-
000,000,000 worth of armament to the
dollar value of the peace-time output.
Unit Costs Down
As volume production was reached
on -the different articles needed unit
costs went down and it is not uncom-
mon now to find three and four units
being turned out for the cost of one
and two a year ago. Thus the $4,000,-
000,000 of deliveries doesn't begin to
picture the gigantic outpouring of
weapons from the former automobile
industry's factories.
This fact is worth remembering
also when the $7,000,000,000 rate of
annual production is placed against
estimates of several months ago that
the level would be close to $8,000,000,-
000 a year by the end of 1942.
'y Every Method'
For reasons of war strategy unit
volume of the different weapons be-
ing produced by the erstwhile auto-
mobile industry cannot be disclosed.
It may be said, however, that a
stream of armament has been piled
up by every method known to the
industry for increasing output.
What the car industry has done in
the war effort isn't confined alone
to tlhe volume production of tanks,
planes, engines, guns, shells and such
things. True, this was the task as-
signed to the industry, but the indus-
try engineers have gone much farther
than that.
New Production Technique
They have developed production
techniques that made possible the
"ahead of schedule" report on this
first anniversary of Pearl Harbor;
they have developed alternate mater-
ials that made it possible to save huge
amounts of critical metals and other
materials and they have worked out
many major changes in design to im-
prove the tanks, the planes and the
guns needed by the Allied nations.
And beyond adapting mass produc-
tion methods to precision instruments
that heretofore always were made by
hand they have put into production
an undisclosed number of lethal
weapons whose details cannot be dis-
cussed.
'A Matter of Months'
Throughout the industry there is
general agreement that the amazing
job of converting a gigantic peace-
time industry to all-out war produc-
tion in a matter of months was made
possible by the 100 per cent coopera-
tion of all automotive manufacturers.
Laying aside competition for the dur-
ation each manufacturer has made
available to the other all his produc-
tion processes and engineering form-
ula.
Wendell W ilikie
Says Leders
Overlook Peace'
By The Associated Press
CHICAGO, Dec. 5.- Wendell L.
Willkie, criticizing American Army
arrangements with Admiral Jean
Darlan in Africa, declared today that
"some of our leaders seem to forget
that how we win this war may deter-
mine whether we win the peace."
In an interview published in the
Christian Advocate, official news-
paper-magazine of the Methodist
Church, Willkie charged that Amer-
ica had "lost moral force" through
the Darlan arrangement, and "there-
fore by it, we may lose the peace."
"With all my soul, I hate this false
finagling with expediency, temporary
or permanent... The peoples of the
world must be given again the convic-
tion that the banners Americans fight
under bear bright clean colors:"
(Willkie referred to arrangements
whereby Adnmiral Darlan, former
leader in the Vichy regime, was rec-
ognized by Lieut. Gen. Dwight Eisen-
how, United States Commander, as
head of the French government in
North Africa. President Roosevelt
described the move as a military ex-
pedient to save American lives and
said it was a temporary arrange-
ment.)
Willkie called for a clear definition
of United Nations war aims which7
the Allied peoples as well as their
leaders helped formulate.
An explosion sends flames and smoke high into the air in this dramatic photo showing the wreckage-
strewn Naval Air Station at Pearl Harbor after one of the Japanese sneak attacks of Dec. 7, 1941.
Smoke Fills Stricken U.S. Naval Base
A ball of smoke fills the sky over
Pearl Harbor after the Japs ate
tacked. In foreground is capsized
minelayer, USS Oglala, and to the
left is the USS Helena, 10,000-ton
cruiser, hit by an aerial torpedo.
Beyond is the superstructure of the
USS Pennsylvania, and at right is
the USS Maryland, burning. 'At
right center the destroyer Shaw is
ablaze in drydock.
,.I..
NO SILVER PLATTER COMMISSIONS :
Men Are Changed into-Officers,
the 'Hard Way' at Fort Custer
By The Associated Press strong, willing high school graduate
FORT CUSTER, Mich., Dec. 5.- with a flare for inspiring men than
They're trying to make officers of for a college professor with all the
Andy Ford and his fellow soldiers at degrees he can earn.
Fort Custer these days and they're "We're turning -out men who will
doing it the hard way. police the world," Col. Kalloch ex-
No commissions on a silver platter, plains. "They've got to be good.
no gay social functions, no fancy They'll go with divisions and armies
frills, but 12 weeks of the strictest to the combat zones and later many
discipline, hour after -hour of drill of them will be the leaders of armies
and study and marksmanship go into of occupation in territories taken
the courses and have earned for it from the enemy, charged with main-
the description: "Toughest of all offi- taining order and at the same time
cer candidate schools." holding ,the respect of r'esidents in
Tt's the Military Police Officer Can- those territories.
- - - - - - - - - Clip Here And Mail To.A U.-M. Man In The Armed Forces- - - -
SERVICE
EDITION
1,-4r Airl i ttn tti
tommumb
t
VOL. I, No. 15
ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN
DECEMBER
6, j942
CAMPUS ATTENTION
was tuined from war prob-
lems this week as the sec-
ond post-war conference
sponsored by the Post-War
Council brought Norman
Thomas and Bertrand
Russell to Ann Arbor to
consider problems in
America at war's end . .
Thomas, four-time candi-
date for president on the
Socialist ticket, spoke Fri-
day night in Rackham
Auditorium, predicting
American emergence from
war as a collectivized state.
. Warning that centrali-
zation has its dangers,
Thomas declared that con-
fusion resulting from too
much centralization might
Post-War Conference Speers
ty students... Backed by
alumni who cherish mem-
ories of pleasant evenings
spent behind foaming
beakers, owners Stapp and
Starbuck went to Lansing
Wednesday for a state
hearing, only to be told
they had to wait a week
longer for decision
Meanwhile, faithful stu-
dent patrons of the tem-
porarily defunct taverns
occupied their usual tables,
reminiscing of days gone
by as they downed drafts
of milk and plied knitting
needles.
PAUL WHITE, leading
ground gainer for Michi-
gan during the past turbu-
lent football season, was
elected captain of the '44
team Wednesday in meet-
Norman Thomas, veteran Socialist candidate for
President, and Bertrand Russel, prominent philosopher,
I