The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-12-04

But despite its brilliant person. mel, the Board, like so many other things about the Defense Conmis- sion, isn't all that appears on the surface.
 What only insiders are aware of is that the Boards vaunted pow CTS cover only the priority of dis tribution. That is it can regulate the kind of planes a manufac- turer can make and who shall get them.
 This is important, but far from the whole story For an equally important priorities problem, that of production, is totally untouched by the Board. In other words the Board is not attempting to con- trol the supply of essential raw materials.
 OLD MISTAKE
 An ironic feature of this situa- tion is that it is repetitio nof major error of the World War Industries Board.
 The old Board also started out by setting up priority controls only over distribution. By the summer of 1918 the mistake was realized and the loOphoIe but not without the loss of vital time.
 This lesson was not lost on the Army and Navy, and after the war, industrial mobiliza.i ion plans provided for a complete priorities control covering both raw ma terials and distribution.
 Today Army officers connected with the job of industrial mo- bilizatiOn, privately are much disturbed about the situation. Scme gloOmily foresee a grave crackup in defense production unless immediate corrective steps arc taken. Because of the lack of centralized authority in the defense Set-ur--the key weak ness--thesc officers are keeping their mouths closed. But under cover. there is considerable re- sentiment which naturally 0OCSA AAukIOtC ne-too-cOrGiaI relations be- tween the Army and the Defense Commission.
 Greatest Army fear is a short age in strategic ores such as chrome, manganese and tungsten, which already are below the two- year emergency reserves laid down by the Joint Munitions Board.
 The Army's worry has been heightened by the war in Greece, which constituted our chief chrome supply, together with Jugoslavia and Turkey, both sitting on the Balkan powder keg.
 Chrome imports are below the reserve tonnage requirements set by the Munitions Board and with steel output steadily mount ing, it will be only a relatively short time before we get a chrome shortage, which would cause chaos in the machine tool industries.
 Should industry start compet- ing for alloys, there will be trouble. Ore reserves are jealously guarded trade secrets. On'y the Munitions Board knows the size of stocks on hand. But lacking authority, it can do nothing about either conserving or allocating them.
 And the Defense Priority Board leaves the question wide open and the defense program headed for grave trouble.
 FORECASTER
 Round Emil Hurja, ex-Demo- cratic National Committee official who bolted to Willkie and pre- dicted his victory by a decisive electoral college majority, has taken a lot of ribbing on his hay wire forecast. The other day he explained to group just how he arrived at his figures:
 'Im like the fellow they tell about down In Georgia, who de- cided to put out an almanac and when he came to the Fourth of July, marked it down for hail, slect and zero cold. The printer, going over the copy noticed this extraordinary forecast and asked if there wasn't some mistake. He was assured there wasn't.
 "'Why peope will think you are crazy, the printer said.
 "'Sure.' was the calm reply.
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