Broad Base for Mobilization

Ever since Engine Charlie Wilson moved in as Defense Secretary, there has been talk that the Truman Administration's policy of a broad industrial base for defense mobilization would be abandoned. But this week, with the approval of Wilson, Defense Mobilization Director Arthur S. Flemming reaffirmed the policy.

The new statement of policy calls for setting up of stand-by production lines, but without actual volume production of anything that would be easy to make when needed. Capacity will be expanded for some materials which are hard to produce and which require long lead time to reach full output. However, the Administration will survey all defense plants to see if some" can be closed and their production shifted elsewhere to cut costs. Closed plants will have their tools kept either in place or in storage near by. Still in the defense budget, said Flemming, is a $500 million item for stockpiling critical machine tools which would be needed in an all-out war. The whole policy, said Flemming, is to cut down sharply the two years of lead time that elapsed before the full U.S. industrial might was brought to bear in World War II.

Said Flemming: "The result will be ... the development of a program which will provide us with an industrial position . . . from which we could move rapidly to maximum rates of balanced output of war and war-supporting goods."

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