Word: dunn
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Dates: during 1940-1949
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...report was on the capacity of the steel industry, made by Gano Dunn, 70, president of J. G. White Engineering Co., now an OPMite in the production division. Awaited for weeks, Engineer Dunn's report was expected to settle a hot defense controversy over steel: how much (if any) should the industry expand? Beaming cheer, the President said there had been a lot of loose talk about the adequacy of steel capacity; that the Dunn report showed ample facilities for all domestic defense and civilian needs, as well as for those of the nations defending democracy...
Dazzled by the happy tidings, newsmen turned to the Dunn report. But in Mr. Dunn's blend of statistics and technical language, they found no such rose-colored picture. In 1940 the U. S. produced 66,674,000 net tons of steel ingots-a record. But during December the industry was working at a yearly production rate of 77,496,000 tons. Dunn figures that present U. S. steel capacity can be upped to a "reliable capacity" of 87,576,099 tons, merely by cutting down the closed-for-repairs period by 25% and adding excess capacity...
...report the President had skipped. First "if" was pig iron. Pig output must be increased by 1,675,000 tons in 1941-42. Second "if" was coke: its output, already a bottleneck, must be increased by 8,031,000 tons. Third "if" was allocation of orders: maximum production, said Dunn, can be reached only if orders are spread evenly throughout the industry. Fourth "if" was a shift back to Bessemer steel: little-used old Bessemer ovens should be put to making steel for barbed wire, nails, low-grade pipe...
...steel did not end there. Although Dunn did not say so, England, because of her shipping troubles, has been taking delivery on less & less U. S. steel. If she had continued taking steel at the August 1940 rate (1,000,000 tons), there would be no margin between U. S. production and consumption (including exports...
...enormous "if" was Engineer Dunn's major premise: that the national income (which was $74.3 billions in 1940) will be $80 billions in 1941. Such New Dealers as Leon Henderson and such a middle-reader as Jesse Jones both agree the figure will be higher. If it is much higher, if exports to England increase, if any of the numerous Dunn "ifs" break down, there will be a real steel shortage soon...