$2,000,000,000 Worth of Tools

The machine-tool makers, first U.S. industry to be called a bottleneck, have worked like Sisyphus* to get out of that category. In two years they boosted their payrolls from 43,000 to 110,000 men, their deliveries from $200,000,000 to $840,000,000 (1939-41). By Pearl Harbor they had reached a delivery rate of $100,000,000 of machine tools every month.

Last week the rock rolled back to the bottom of the hill. As their share in the Victory Program, the War Production Board asked the toolmakers for $166,000,000 worth per month in 1942.

Yet Production Director William H. Harrison thought they could do it. To help them, some outsiders were enlisted: makers of printing presses, textile machinery, paper machinery. Detroit tool shops were called on to make more of Detroit's own new tools, pool others. Even England is now sending a few old but still useful industrial machine tools to the U.S.

*Because he double-crossed Pluto, Sisyphus in Hades was made to roll a big stone up a steep hill forever. Just before he reaches the top, the stone always rolled down again.

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