The Real Pinch Is Here

All along the civilian production front last week, squawks of anguish pierced the air. The defense mobilizers, anxious to speed up the laggard flow of guns, announced second-quarter production quotas which made a deeper slash into civilian goods than most businessmen had expected. The casualties:

P: The housing industry, which started 1,000,000 houses last year and had expected enough materials to produce 800,000 this year, will get only enough materials to build 600,000. P: The appliance industry, which had expected to maintain the 1951 last-quarter production, got another stiff 10% slash (to 45% of pre-Korea output).

Only the auto industry, which did its squawking early and was plagued by unemployment, got a bigger slice. Its steel quota, originally set for 800,000 cars, was boosted to 900,000. But there was a big catch: the industry will get only enough copper and aluminum for 800,000 cars, will have to stretch it or find substitutes. So far, substitutes have not proved too practical. General Motors, which started using coated steel radiators seven months ago, found them rusting so badly that G.M. estimated it would spend $5,000,000 replacing the defective units.

Mobilization Boss Charles E. Wilson, aware that civilian production could scarcely stand any more slashes, also started moving in on the defense-supporting industries which now take a large part of all U.S. steel. He trimmed the steel for freight-car production from 9,500 cars a month last year to 5,000.

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