Big Three's Two-Thirds

To beat plowshares into swords the U.S. Government has placed $1,900,000,000 in orders with Ford and General Motors. In the Detroit area, where Chrysler had showed the public what it was doing with its $400,000,000 in national-defense orders (TIME, Sept. 8), Ford and G.M. last week gave a condensed exhibition of what the rest of motors' Big Three was doing.

Under the impact of the shows, run on successive days (with new motorcar model exhibitions as a sideshow—see p. 76), the eyes and pencils of 500 newsmen reeled. For in switching a big...