Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1941-06-06

""'''@' >'~ S''o0'a@ IA lesser
Henry McLemors. official in the
o. P. NJ. is one who has no more
than three bottlenecks under his
control-handled the case despite
the fact that he was at the time
seriously engaged in supervising the
installation of new furniture in his
office.
The man wanted the priorities d.
vision of the o. P. NJ. to sanction his
purchase of some fOrmaldehyde.
Nuts with bombers, tanks and anti
aircraft guns-the inside Of his hem
cOOps needed dEinfecting something
awful-and the fact that formalde-
hyde is vital in the production Of
plastics didn't matter. His hens
weren't happy, and the situa ton on
his poultry farm was as grave as
Dakar.
The o. P. NJ. executive put it to
him squarely. Was the happiness
Of his hens important to national
defense? Did the cackhng Of his
hens mean more to our safety than
the rattle of machine guns? Hs
figured it as tossup, and before
he was dlsmissed-Wlthout his for
maldehyde order-One could almost
picture Gen. Marshall needing the
dlsinfected CoOps as a field head
quarters in case Of invasion, and the
cheerful hens cackling a warning
with the arrival of each enemy para
chutist.
X
This is the sort of thing that
goes on IN the o. P. NJ. every day.
It's halls resound to the hollow
tread of men with heads TO match.
Thousands of them. They want to
buy, they want to sell. The TAXI
cab driver who drove me to the
o. P. NJ building-and some day
I'll do story on Washington taxi
drivers, the best-informed hackers
on earth-advised me to wander
about the halls and listen.
Il drive guys there by the hum
dreds," he said. And most of EN-
| carry a chiseI somewhere. 7 had
pair of EN- yesterday-hill-b ilnes
with button shoes and rubber ties.
But they talked in the millions.
| The tens of millions. And they didn't
| gimme a tip
One of the major O. P. NJ. bot
| tlenecks is the result of business
men who. no matter what their
lines, can see in them some tie-up
with national defense. Take the
soft drink manufacturer. for ex-
ample. and the o. P NJ would
appreciate your taking him, I'm
sure.
He wanted metal. Tons of metal.
For what? For guns. bullets. ar
NOR plate or one of the other many
things that go toward building
military might? No. He wanted IL
just had to have it-fOr bottle
caps. How, he wanted to know,
could our soldiers prepare to meet
an enemy without a bellyful of the
drink that, as citizens. they had
used to wash down peanuts and hot
dogs?
1t took quite a while to convince
him that while il might be true
that an army moved on its stom-
ach, that stomach didn't necessarily
have to be awash with soda pop.
He left disappointed, just as did
the railroad bigwig who sought to
get on the mailing list for a good
share of the Government supply
of stainless steel. His was a touch
ing explanation when asked why
he wanted it. His company planned
a mess of fancy, streamlined, eve
filling cars, so pretty that no tour
list could possibly resist hopping
aboard for vacation in Florida,
Sun Valley or points East and
North. He was hurt when the
o. P. M. couldn't quite see the tie
up between yaCationists riding in
style to sunburn and freckle CEN
tiers and nation girding itself for
possible battle with foreign die
tators.
| I know that your heart, just as
mine does, bleeds for him, and the
soda pop gent, and the man whose
Rhode Island red and Buff Orping-
tons must suffer the discomfort Of
not having their coops redecorated.