Evening star., 1941-09-21

Well-intentioned, had guessed wrong on
fundamental problems and had not pro-
duced the necessary results. The powers
of Nelson and Henderson were enlarged.
Vice President Wallace, bold thinker
and able administrator, was made the
official head Of the new group
Action began almost at once.
With Baruchs post-mortem report on
the World War as a guide, Nelson and
Henderson, who know Baruch's theories
and practices, started shaping S. P A. B.
into War Industries Board as far as
the present situation and the Presidents
order permitted. Authority was claimed
for the group and apportioned among
the various divisions with instructions
that division heads must take RESPONSE
bilities.
Blitzkrieged Correspondence.
Henderson was given complete control
over civilian supplies, which meant no
more pickering, often in the newspapers,
over curtailment of automobile and other
production.
Nelson, in characteristic fashion,
work which had been accommodating for
weeks and months. From Chicago he
imported three correspondence experts
from Sears, Roebuck who blitzkrieged
through the piles of unanswered letters.
No Government department had ever
seen anything like it. Orders were given
that no future letter should remain un-
answered for more than 48 hours and
check-up system was installed to en-
force the rule.
Nelson found that as many as 10 diff
ferent signatures were necessary on some
correspondence. He reduced the number
to a minimum and to take care of cases
where multiple signatures were abso-
lutely necessary he arranged for daily
morning clearance meetings to cut down
the appalling amount of time required
to route papers from room to room and
building to building.
SPA BIS Most Important Order.
The most important order issued to
date by S. P. A. B. called for a general
breakdown of all important defense de-
mands and the means of supplying them.
This general overall picture of what
must be done and what can be done has
handicapped the defense effort from the
beginning, although a similar chart was
an integral part of the War Industries
Boards program.
On one hand the present breakdown
will show the needs of our own Army,
Navy and Maritime Commission, neces-
sary civilian requirements, the applica-
tions of Great Britain, Russia, China
and the conquered countries and the.
goods that should be sent to South
America as part of hemisphere defense;
on the other hand, it will tabulate exist
ing and prospective production facilities,
actual and prospective amounts of raw
materials, labor supplies and all the
other elements entering into production.
With this survey as a basis, S. P. A. B.
officials can issue their orders for pri-
critics, plan for increased production
and start conservation and simplification
campaigns.
AS yet, no one Official seems to know
what demands will be made on this
country and the actual and potential
means of supplying them.
Wants Industry Expanded.
Nelson has been in the forefront of
the "expansionists," those officials who
have insisted that our present productive
capacity and our present efforts are not
enough and who have called for an end
tHn
time, he is bitter foe of the initiation
lists" who want higher prices either for
goods or services.
The present rate of defense spending
is about sl000,0O0OOO month. Nelson
believes it should be three times this
amount, or about $35 900 900 900 a year,
if Hitler is to be beaten. This would
call for a diversion of IS to 40 per cent
of the national economy to defense.
For months Nelson has been preaching
that the ''frills and trimmings" of our
high standard of living will have to
be cut away for the emergency period.
This emergency is going to bring
changes" he told an audience last May.
There is no avoiding them; you can't
concentrate roughly 40 per cent of a
countrys national income on the pro-
duction of war materials without re-
arranging a great many things. What
we have got to do is to conflne those
changes to changes we can live with.
We cannot do this unless we realize
that the very size of the effort which
we must make is as real challenge to
our whole way of life as is the menace
of Nazi-ism itself.
when the Nazis launched their huge
defense program, they made their job
rs simple as possible by striking from
their national life everything-iterally
every single thing, from freedom of re-
ligion down-which did not contribute
directly to a war effort. They turned
their nation into combination of work.
shop and drill field; they permitted only
one voice to be heard and only one
ideal to be seen.
I'VE must produce in equal proportion
without giving up the very things we
are struggling to preserve. In other
words, we must do better than the Nazis
have done without discarding the things
they discarded when they stripped for
action And we have got to do some
sober, earnest thinking about what we
intend to preserve and what things we
can get along without for while"
In his personal affairs Nelson has given
up the "frills and trimmings" of
h,,c;,accp,op,S ,laa cant life tn devotn his