Trouble for H. J.

Like a nervous puppeteer, Henry J. Kaiser last week jerked one promise off the automotive stage, hastily substituted another. The long-ballyhooed front-wheel-drive Kaiser, promised to car-hungry America this summer, was sidetracked. The cause: "tooling" troubles. In its place, Kaiser last week offered the Kaiser Special, a conventional rear-wheel-drive car, in appearance similar to the Frazer.

Newsmen who received this information at a hastily whipped-up press conference in Detroit's Statler Hotel were not surprised. (Some who had visited Willow Run last week had seen only one car on the assembly line.) Why Kaiser would put aside one car because of "tooling" difficulties, then start a new one for which more tooling must be done, was not explained.

Probing drew little information from angry Mr. Kaiser, who seemed to think that any questions about Kaiser-Frazer's production troubles amounted to persecution. But on the subject of steel, heretofore a sensitive point, Henry became a bit more expansive. Although he had said in March that he had plenty of steel, he is now shipping it east from Fontana.

Fontana steel costs about $10 a ton more to make than eastern steel now supplying Detroit. Rail transportation will add another $15-20 a ton. The total cost of Fontana steel would thus be $25-30 more than other automobile manufacturers pay, enough to put the Kaiser Special at a serious if not fatal competitive disadvantage.

But when would the Kaiser Special be in production, asked reporters. This month, said Henry. Before reporters could find out more about this production miracle, Son Edgar rose, said his father had compelling business to attend to, would have to leave at once for Willow Run.

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