Conservation of War Materials

Report Outline
Action to Cope with Growing Shortages
Efforts to Heighten Usefulness of Materials
Salvage of Materials from Wastes
Special Focus

Action to Cope with Growing Shortages

Aggressive action is underway on many fronts to preserve, restore, and augment the country's dwindling reserves of basic industrial materials. As the partial mobilization called for by the Defense Production Act of (Sept. 8) 1950 gathers impetus, conservation of essential materials is receiving attention from many government agencies at Washington. Programs are in progress or under study to accelerate the stockpiling of strategic and critical materials, to conserve needed materials of all kinds, and to reclaim and salvage materials customarily junked.

The first important action of the National Production Authority, set up in the Department of Commerce, Sept. 9, to administer control features of the Defense Production Act, was to place ceilings on industrial inventories of materials. N.P.A. established a system of priorities, Oct. 3, to govern the placement of essential contracts. During October, it applied controls over steel products, rubber, and certain scarce alloying constituents of the stainless steel needed for aircraft engines.

A 35 per cent cutback in use of aluminum for civilian products, effective next Jan. 1, was ordered in mid-November. At the same time it was made known that in coming weeks limitations will be placed on nonessential uses of such materials as copper, zinc, nickel, cadmium, cobalt, tungsten, and manganese. Another important step by N.P.A. was the imposition, Oct. 26, of restrictions on buildings construction “which does not further the defense effort, either directly or indirectly, and does not increase the nation's productive capacity.”