OPM last week figured that six U.S. corporations held 31.3% of the $9,839,000,000 Army and Navy supply contracts issued in the year ended May 31. This startling statistic has one simple explanation: munitions are a specialized product that few U.S. companies as yet know how how make. The big six:
Bethlehem Steel $927,000,000
New York Shipbuilding 507,000,000
General Motors 490,000,000
Curtiss-Wright 444,000,000
Newport News Shipbuilding 389,000,000
Du Pont 318,000,000
Holding the next 43% of all contracts issued during the same year period were 50 other concerns. Among them: Glenn Martin ($249,100,000), Consolidated Aircraft ($226,400,000), U.S. Steel ($209,900,000), Electric Boat ($126,100,000), Republic Aviation ($57,300,000), Savage Arms ($27,200,000).
But OPM's statistic...
