The U.S. Government ended its first full fiscal year of defense this week. During that year it had let contracts to U.S. manufacturers totaling more than $17,500,000,000. Actual disbursements, which measure deliveries of defense materials, were rising:
1940
July $175,000,000 August 233,000,000 September 267,000,000 October 328,000,000 November 403,000,000 December 495,000,000
1941
January 738,000,000 February 725,000,000 March 867,000,000 April 919,000,000 May 932,000,000 June (estimated) 950,000,000
These figures (from OPM statisticians) include all U.S. defense payments, including merchant marine and RFC loans. Considering the slow rate of increase in recent months, they are not very encouraging.
To businessmen, a year...
