War could cost $10 Billion a year, War Department estimates

The United States War Department released an estimate of costs should the US become involed in another war. Colonel Charles T. Harris, director of the planning branch of the War Department spoke about this last night.

Colonel Harris predicted that if war should erupt, the plans which have been prepared by the War Department would enable the mobilization of industry much more efficiently and rapidly, and with far less profiteering than was case in the World War.

Of course he did say that it would be necessary to gurantee the industry "a modest, fair profit" in undertaking tasks the costs of shich could not be accurately estimated in advance.

Among the necessary industrial controls he listed the powers of price fixing, of assigning priorities, the power of the commander, the power to requisition, the power to license industries, and the power to conserve necessary materials and avoid waste. Of the last power he said "It is necessary to cut the cuff a man's trousers to save materials, we'll do so."

Colonel Harris estimated that approximately half of the War Department's expenditure would be primarily commercial purposes such as food and clothing and half for munitions and explosives. He said that the department's experts had already surveyed 20,000 manufacturers and allocated war tasks to 12,000.

Although the United States is unquestionably the most favored nation in the world in the amount and variety of its raw materials, it would be seriously lacking in many strategic materials, such as manganese, tin, nickel, chromium, quinine and hemp, he said.

"In these days, when there's talk of embargoes, sanctions, neutrality acts, that's worth thinking about," he remarked.

Captain W.S. Bruberg of the Ordinance Department said that since the World War the US has assumed "the practically undisputed leadership in ordinance design throughout the world," although it was forced to rely on its allies for most of the ordinance designs in the World War.