Evening star., 1940-12-21

will attempt to
settle the SQuab- DaVid Lawrence.
bles that may arise in the COM
mittee of four to which he has dele
gated power with strings attached.
The President defends his course
by saying he cannot conStitutlonally
delegate ultimate power, but ne Is
willing to delegate, nevertheless, a
great deal to a committee. In the
last war Woodrow Wilson felt he hao
the power to delegate to B. M
Baruch as chairman of the Wal
Industries Board the powers which
it has been urged would again bring
Americas production program to a
high state of efficiency.
The constitutional reasons, While
encouraging because that is not
often heard hereabouts, are not the
basic difficulty. 1t is that Mr.. Roose-
welt cannot find a man, apparently
to make boss and delegate all the
power to him. He can find plenty OF
able executives, but none that labor
will accept. Mr.. Roosevelt remains
his own prime minister and dele
= gates as much authority to his other
ministers as he can.
Expects Unanimous Decisions.
1t is significant, on the other
hand, that the new committee con-
sists of the Secretary of War, the
Secretary of the Navy and two men
from the defense commiSslon-Wll-
liam S. Knudsen as director and
Sidney Hillman of the Garment
Workers Union as associate director
This would mean on the surface
that there might be three-to-one
decision, with Messrs. Knox and
Stimson of the Navy and War De-
partments siding with Mr.. Knudsen,
former president of General Motors.
But Mr.. Roosevelt squelched any
such supposition by pointing out
that he expected the decisions to be
unanimous. This is but another way
to indicate that the committee will
become a debating society when
labor questions come up. or else that
Mr.. Roosevelt expects to be called in
to make the decision.
In any event, the setup is one
that merely postpones the difficult
; ties which production managers say
are facing us in the matter of speed
ing up Certainly Mr.. Knudsen' s
recent speech appealing for an end
to the blackout that exists from
Friday to Monday in American in
dustry will not get anywhere unless
Mr.. Roosevelt is willing to take the
responsibility now for changing the
hours of work
Knudsen Acquires Authority.
1t is worth while noting, on the
other hand. that Mr.. Knudsen ac-
quires considerable authority by the
new setup. He is made director of
production and presumably he will
be able to order things to be done
through the War and Navy Depart
ments by getting the assent of the
two Secretaries in charge instead OF
going in roundabout way through
the bureaus and subdivisions of the
two major departments.
It was reported several days ago
that Mr.. Roosevelt considered the
idea of naming Mr. Knudsen as an
Assistant Secretary of War in order
to make him part of the War De-
partment, but in the plan just an
nounced it appears that Mr.. Knud-
sen will have broad authority to deal
directly with the Navy as we'll as the
War Departments.
The Presidents latest plan elm
mates the necessity of submitting
-. production matters to the existing
Defense Advisory Commission, in
which the vote of the consumer S
counsel is equal to that of Mr.. Stet-
tinius or Mr. Knudsen. The present
Defense Advisory Commission will
continue to function, but probably
as an adjunct of Mr.. Knudsens Of
fice of emergency management.
President Moves Slowly.
Mr.. Roosevelt is moving slowly
toward a solution of the problem of
delegated power. 1t is a difficult
hurdle for him because obviously the
President is too busy to handle
everyday production and defense
problems as we'll as the multifarious
problems of diplomacy and relations
with Congress. Yet Mr.. Roosevelt
unquestionably fears the criticism
Of labor if he turns over to the very
men he used to call economic row.
alists" the task of getting produc-
ton. Just year ago his Depart
ment of Justice was indicting some
of these people who are now called
to save Americas production pro-
gram.
Chickens come home to roost, it is
said, and what Mr.. Roosevelt is fac.
ing is a disunity and distrust Gre
ated by class cleavage and bitter
warfare in the last eight years alons
economic lines, so that even in time
OF national emergency, when unity
is the national slogan, the present
Chief Executive cannot assure it
Little by little the extremists il
both camps are being asked to rec.
ognize perhaps that war and exten.
sive preparation for war canno
mean business as usual or class wal
as usual. Maybe the American peo
pie will demand something else wher
they fully understand what is hap
pening. Mr.. Roosevelt says he can,
not delegate the ultimate power
and neither can he avoid the ulti
mate responsibility to date for tn,
fact that our airplane production il
80 per cent behind the estimate
he so confidently gave to Congress
last summer.
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