APICPPAS for Short

A quiet announcement from the National Military Establishment Munitions Board last week gave U.S. industry a minor shock. Said Board Chairman*Thomas J. Hargrave, president of Eastman Kodak Co.: the first steps toward industrial mobilization of U.S. plants for war have been taken. The new program bore the jawbreaking name of "Allocation of Private Industrial Capacity for Procurement Planning of the Armed Services"--or APICPPAS, for short.

The plan, purely voluntary so far, was part of the long-range planning for the defense of the U.S. But no businessman missed the significance in the timing of the announcement.

Under APICPPAS, the branches of the Armed Services are submitting requests to the board for tentative allocations of productive capacity. The board will allocate the best sources of supply, as determined by a survey of U.S. industrial plants. Representatives of the military and of the supplying plants will then get together to work out details.

The survey will cover about 25,000 plants, representing about 90% of total U.S. industrial capacity. The board has already tagged and allotted 11,000 of them. The services to which they have been assigned will begin canvassing managements this week to discuss what and how much the plants can produce for war.

*Other members of the board, which was set up in unifying the armed services: Gordon Gray, Assistant Secretary of the Army; W. John Kenney, Under Secretary of the Navy; Arthur S. Barrows, Under Secretary of the Air Force.

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