The Bottle-neck in Allied Production
Already a stage in the war has been reached when the Allied handicap lies not in the lack of equipment, but the lack of it in the right place. That is mainly a matter of shipping. We can watch the mounting record of arms production with some satisfaction only in so far as we have the assurance that shipbuilding is keeping pace with it. This is only possible if to our own high output is added a still larger output from the United States. Mr. Donald Nelson, chairman of the American War Production Board, reports that the
production of merchant ships has risen so rapidly that the obj of 8,000,000 tons for the current year will certainly be met. a rate of production, according to the chairman of the Aril, Maritime Commission, is several times as high as that of w Germany, Japan and Italy together are capable. This means within a measurable distance of time our shipping problem 5 be solved. In regard to other materials of war, a War Dep estimate is quoted in Washington which claims that the total air production of the Axis Powers does not amount to more than aeroplanes a month, which is less than the present output of G B:itain, the United States and Canada, apart from what Russ. doing, and less than what the United States alone will be d before the end of the year. Tank production, also, in Amen in excess of schedule. It follows that shipping is at present bottle-neck on which everything else depends. That neck wrl wide enough a year hence, or sooner, if we keep the submar down. Till then intensive production and stern economy prevail.
Previous page
