Word: knudsen
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...problem," the President told OPM's Knudsen-Hillman last week, "is to see to it that there is no idle critical machine in the United States. The goal should be to work these machines 24 hours a day and seven days a week...
...shattered its shining lance on a pile of coal. For nearly a month, while operators and miners wrangled, virtually no soft coal had been mined. Emergency supplies had dwindled by the hour, while steelmakers, munition makers, shipbuilders cursed. "Criminal" was the word OPM's angry William Knudsen used two weeks ago to describe any stoppage in the defense program. Shocking, at least, were the figures which showed what had happened as the result of the stoppage in coal...
...Knudsen's announcement was important as an example of the kind of surgery upon peacetime industry required for an all-out defense effort, but the operation is being performed as gently as possible. The cut will be based on 1941 model production, which expects to reach a peak 5,200,0000 before the motor year ends Aug. 1-a record exceeded only by glittering 1929. Thus the quota for 1942 models (both passenger cars and trucks) will be about 4,160,000 units, and only in six years has U.S. production exceeded that figure. Moreover, the cut comes...
...Future. Knudsen's announcement termed the present cut "initial," thus left the door open for future restrictions if more men and materials have to be poured into defense. In World War I, motor-makers remember they took much more than a 20% cut. All through 1918 they had trouble getting materials, and in the second half the War Industries Board made them hold production down to 423,800 cars, based on one-fourth of their 1,874,000 output for the twelve months of 1917. For 1919 they were warned that they might not be allowed to build...
Implicit also in Knudsen's announcement was a hint that other industries may soon follow automobiles into the quota lists. Already OPM has its eye on refrigerator trays (aluminum), other consumer goods which use material that defense manufacturers are finding hard to get. In 1918 the War Industries Board ordered a 50% cut in production of sewing machines, oil stoves, electric heating appliances; a 30% cut in watches and cases; a 25% cut in metal stamps and stencils, metal tags, rubber stamps. Since 1918, U.S. industry has expanded, but so have the rules of warfare...