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OCR Page 1 of 12SPEECH OF SENATOR HARRY S. TRUMAN OF
MISSOURI IN THE UNITED STATES SENATE
ON MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 1941
FOR RELEASE ON DELIVERY
I am introducing a Resolution asking for an investigation of the
National Defense Program and the handling of contracts.
I Feel that it is my duty at this time to place before the Senate
certain information which I have, and which I am sure is of vital importance
to the success of the National Defense Program.
There seems to be a policy in the National Defense set-up to con-
centrate all contracts and nearly all the manufacturing that has to do with
the National Defense in a very small area. This area is entirely outside
the location which the Army survey, itself, has shown to be safe. The
little manufacturer, the little contractor and the little machine shop have
been left entirely out in the cold. The policy seems to be to make the big
man bigger and to put the little man completely out of business. There is
no reason for this that will stand up, because plans have been presented to
the National Defense Committee which would solve the condition of the little
manufacturer and the little machine shop owner.
A perfectly practical and concrete plan was presented by the Mid-
Central War Resources Board. A survey of the region within one hundred miles
of Kanses City was made by this Board, and 160 small machine shops and
manufacturing plants were located. It was proposed to combine the facilities
of these little machine shops and allow them to take a contract, or con-
tracts, which they could, working as a unit, carry out successfully.
TRUMAIT
Under this program there would be no housing problem. The shops are
in the small towns. The people already have their houses. They are the
S. APCHIVES "NATIONAL ADMIN RECOROS AND
best workmen and the most loyal citizens in the whole country.
Es COVERAGE
The same sort of a survey was made in St. Louis and the immediate
surrounding territory, and the same conditions exist there. I have no doubt
that these conditions exist in Iowa, Illinois and Indianc.
When this matter was put up to the Defense Committee, an effort was
made to find out whore the machines in these small shops were located so
that the big fellows could go and buy them. They are buying these machines
wherever they can find them, shipping them to Detroit, Philadelphia,
Norfolk and industrial cities in Massachusetts and Connecticut. They are
hiring our young men and moving them to the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards
and to Detroit, leaving us denuded of manpower as well a.s machines. This
makes a double housing problem. It leaves our cities with vacent property
which is rapidly depreciating in value, and créates a condition at Norfolk,
Philadelphia, Detroit, Hartford, Connecticut and Los Angeles, California
where housing problems have to be met. It just doesn't make sense. The
policy seems to be to make the big men bigger and let the little men go out
of business or starve to death, and they don't seem to care whet becomes of
these little fellows.
I want to read an extract from a confidential letter which I re-
ceived the other day. This letter is from a man who knows what he is talk-
ing about.
III think I can say that enough evidence is accumulating
here in Washington of the 'dog in the manger attitude of the big
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