Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1941-01-10
New Defense
Se+up Ruled
By President
Roosevelt Holds Control
in 'Three-Mon' Board
BY PAUL MALLON

defensive drive is at tap root a
device for keeping the final au-
thority within himself.
Even Mr.. Roosevelt himself
grinned when he spoke of Mr..
Knudsen and Mr.. Hillman as
Mr.. Observation-Disclosures, a single
head which, he insisted, would
always be in agreement. He
said he knew they would always
agree because they told him
they would. This. of course, was
just a little presidential top
dressing TO make the new dual
control more palatable to those
who have been demanding a
single forceful personality.
In practical application every
one in the defense commission
knows the new control is not
dual. but triple. Mr.. Knudsen
and Mr.. Hiliman have been get
ting along fairly well in the old
unsatisfactory setup. But init
mates attribute this accord
primarily to the fact that Mr..
Hillman, the labor leader, was
not prominent in all the COM
missions biggest activities. Some
of his friends have complained
the others did not even show
him some of the most important
contracts before these were APP
proved.
While Mr.. Hillman and Mr..
Knudsen are both reasonable
men, their viewpoints are opro-
site. Agreement is to bfx-
pected logically between i'm
upon established principle4 |ut
what they would do 9bt
giving contracts to HenryElCd,
whom Hillman considers a5Abor
act violator, is only the. first
question and not necessarily the
one most likely to cause sin
cere differences. The question
whether skilled workers in such
industries as machine tools and
aviation should work longer
hours, whether apprentice work.
ers should be brought in at
once. may obviously require
arbitration.
That is where Mr. Roosevelt
steps in. While his announce
fnent indicates his hope that he
has passed the responsibility
entirely Mr. Knudsen-Hill-
man, it is conceded that in all
questions of disagreement
meaning therefore the most inn
portant queStions-Mr. Roose-
welt will give the third and de-
Gliding vote.
THE New Deal coterie within
L the defense commission says
il had nothing to do with the
Presidents plan. Neither Cor
coran, Cohen. Jackson, Douglas.
nor even Henderson, did any
direct work on the preparation
of the executive orders which
were issued by the President.
War and navy secretaries, Slim
son and Knox. Knudsen. and
particularly Knudsen's lawyer.
Frederick NJ. Eaton. and Black
we'll Smith. legal counsel TO the
Stettinius division. we're respon-
sible for the legal form-except
the Hillman part of it. In. fact
they sent several suggea{fd
executive orders to Budge&-
rector Harold Smith beforG p
final text was decided J.
Among other technical d
tons to these earlier draftss1s
their uniformity in leaving
vague the position of Mr.. Hill
man and assigning top role. to
Mr.. Knudsen.
THERE was some disappoint-
L ment within the defense
commission because Mr.. Roose-
welt failed to choose a single
all-powerful authority. but con-
fidence remains that the job can
still be done if aggressive adj
ministration is attempted. Mr..
Roosevelt obviously had in mind
that Hillman will act as friendly
watchdog to preserve the gains
labor has made. and all agree
that is good objective if ii does
not jam the defense works. If
it does. neither labor'S gains nor
those of any one else will be
worth a nickel in a defeated
country.
General appeals for patriotism
alone cannot possibly perform
the task. they say. What is
needed primarily is troop of
perhaps several thousand men to
go into every plant in the coun-
try with defense orders and
make a special investigation of
each case to ascertain whether
the plant is capable of fulfilling
the contract, whether Sub-con-
tracts are advisable. whether
priorities should be demanded,
etc. A flying squadron of per-
hapS six, seven or eight thousand
persons could be used Mr..
Knudsen is now initiating work
along this line by getting the
machine tools industry together
and imposing obligations on them
as a group.
The trouble is that defense
production involves million dii-
ferent technical problems, no
two of which are alike.
If determination and vlgor
can do The job in time. the en-