Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-06-01
Former0. p. N. Aide
DepIores Failure 10
Name Defense Head
Wiekenden Says President
Seems Unable to Yield
Major Responsibility
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
CLEVELAND, May 31-A recent
executive in the Office of Produc-
ton Management declared today
that President Roosevelt seems I'M
able to delegate any major respon-
sibility for defense planning and
coordination"
Every headline proclaims our
profound confusion concerning the
war and our future course Of
action" said DR.. William E. Wick
enden. president of Clevelands Case
School Of Applied Science and until
this month chairman of the general
production group of o. P. MS pri-
critics division.
Declaring in an address to Case
alumni that there are nearly 10000
persons in 10 civilian defense agen-
cies. apart from the Army and Navy
and regular departments of Govern
ment. which have no other co-ordi-
mating head short Of the President
himself" the educator remarked:
"As an aside I should like to sec
ond the nomination that has been
made of Wendell Willkie for that
post"
pushed Into Decision"
Asserting the Nation is not so
much being led as being pushed into
decision by force of circumstances"
the educator observed I'VE are still
trying to grow a defense head on a
New Deal body and tail"
Scarcely year after we began
to plan in earnest for the defense
Of the home base and to put on
paper an army, navy and an air
force sufficient for that purpose, We
announce ourselves as the arsenal
of democracy for three or possibly
five continents" he said.
political Washington, it seems,
Is far better equipped to make ring
ing announcements to the world
than to make a blueprint of this
gigantic task, the dimensions of
which it can scarcely guess.
Our leaders are in a tough spot,
with an unfinished social revolu-
ton on their hands, with the isola-
zionist policies of two decades to
reverse almost overnight, with Gov
eminent credit already burdened
by an unprecedented debt, and with
most of the key posts filled by men
unfriendly to industry and COM
mitted to the principle that labor
can do no wrong. It is not easy
to convert this organization into
one for producing the world.
We are still trying to grow a de-
Tense head on a New Deal body and
tail. The tail seems at times
to be wagging the dog"
Contrast With Totalitarians.
DR.. Wickenden held that "our
apparent fumbling" contrasts strik-
ingly with the long and precise
preparations of the totalitarian
powers"
I'VE are running into alarming
shortages of engineers, chemists,
technicians and craftsmen" he said,
and some of the most acute bottle
necks are in the realm of efficient
management.
"A recent co-ordinating check on
the program for a single major
military item revealed that a par
ticular plan for equipping and oper-
ating a plant would not only have
saved large numbers of precious
tools for other uses, but would
actually have made it possible to
complete the whole program one
year sooner"
DR.. Wickenden disclosed he had
resigned a month ago from the o.
P. M. post to which he was called
Feberuary S. He explained he
agreed with Case trustees when he
took. the job that he would devote
only a limited time to o. P M.