Doctor's Orders

Like a doctor prescribing a diet, the National Production Authority has been cautious about telling businessmen what they would have to cut out in favor of arms production. NPA did not want to frighten the patient too much. But last week NPA--and other Washington bureaus--thought it was safe to start getting tough and to begin squeezing off more civilian production.

P: NPA ordered rubbermen to cut their overall use of new rubber by about 16% for the balance of the year, or back to the pre-Korea level. (This means that tire production will have to be cut, and that there may be shortages in some other rubber products.)

P: The Rubber Reserve Corp. asked whisky distillers to divert about 15% of their capacity to the production of industrial alcohol to be used in synthetic rubber plants. (No whisky shortage is feared; there are 542 million gallons net in warehouses, a record high.)

P: NPA ordered that all columbium stainless steel, a tough alloy, be channeled into defense orders. Columbium* alloys are needed for jet engines.

Tougher orders were in the works. Over the protests of the building industry, NPA was drawing up orders to limit construction of such "frivolous" enterprises as dance halls, nightclubs, race tracks and bowling alleys. The order, it was estimated, would save $500 million worth of steel, cement and other construction materials a year.

* Union Carbide and Carbon Corp. is the main U.S. commercial supplier of columbium. For months all its production has been going for defense needs.

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