◆ SpookStack

ae Se LE eR me eRe ee ree eee ee are Most materials used in making arms have corresponding peacetime uses. Steel can go into bombers or buildings. Civilian use of aircraft may be expected to expand, though not fast enough to take up all the productive capacity now used for fighting planes. Peacetime uses for electronics will doubtless increase for a long time. Nuclear energy offers itself for many constructive uses, more than we can yet grasp. In the field of missiles, the breathtaking vista of space exploration opens before us IF we can rid our- eelves of the threat of nuclear annihilation. Substantial parts of military spending go not into bombs, bayonets, or ballistic missiles, but into buildings, food and clothing, medical cate, paper and typewriters—the many things which parallel civilian life end will be met in some way for the same people in the peacetime world. Also, if large-scale economic aid is made available to developing countries, they will purchase needed equipment here and so extend the market for many lines. is will also make for steadier world economic conditions, In one large industrial city inquiries were made of five military suppliers, varying in scale from a working force of 250 to one of 18,000, about their plens for meeting “Disarmament Day.” One of the largest, a steel company, replied that military work is such a small part of its business that cutbacks would not seriously affect it. Another large firm reported that its business is entirely on government contracts and it has no plans for a changeover; that its work is with extremely high precision instruments and not suitable to mass production for private use. However, this firm’s products are potentially of great usefulness for the control of cancer and other little-understood diseases, for weaiher control and for the exploration of outer space—all of which would help to qualify it for continued public support. One company of medium size works pre- ponderantly on military contracts but has three smaller departments which work on civilian products, with a definite plan in reserve by which these could be expanded to retain all employees, in a changeover to peacetime economy. The two smallest firms reported no plans but agreed that dependence on military contracts is unhealthy. Later one of them called the investigator to report the start of some civilian contracts, In any planned disarmament the transition is hound to be gradual—for economic and practical reasons as well as political ones. A nation can’t in a day switch production of $45 billion worth of military goods to other things. But the time needed can be reduced by wise advance arrangements. The real problem is not strictly one of disarmament. It is the complex and continuing problem of maintaining full production and full employment in our high-powered 20th-century economy. Large-scale military production has only helped to conceal the problem and to postpone facing it. Soon we must come to grips with it in any case, or continue to court catastrophe. The task is big enough to challenge the combined efforts of industry, labor and government.