Evening star., 1941-06-25

D"'iu b""'eh'c' ItSlSI lllclI IOll-
nection with the trade associa ton
or abandon their connection with
the o. P. M.
Naturally the effect of this is to
send home the persons connected
with trade associations and TO make
it impossible for American industry
to be effectively represented on the
o. P. M. The action would be un-
derstandable if it were uniform, but
the hypocrisy of it is illustrated by
the fact that Sidney Hillman con-
tinues as a highly paid official of
&C. I. o. union and also functions
as coordinate head of the o. P. M.
itself with Mr.. Knudsen.
It will be recalled that Mr.. Knud-
sen resigned his connection with
General Motors and that he is not
receiving a salary from the Gov
ernment but is volunteering his
services on the dollar -a-year basis.
Not long ago. President Roosevelt
in a press conference stated that
only the Republicans seemingly
could afford to be dollar-a-year men,
bv which he meant presumably that
officials drawn to the Federal agen-
cies from the Democratic ranks
would, of course, be placed on the
Government pay roll. Obviously the
dollar-a-year men who come to
Washington from the trade asso-
Citations cannot afford to let go OF
their connections with these trade
associations because the admins
tration under the New Deal would
never think of paying these men as
Government officials salaries COM
parable to what they get in private
industry.
Bars Experienced Executives
The net effect is to drive out OF
Washington the experienced trade
association executives who have
picture of their industries from an
overall point of view. An lllustra-
ton of the way in which the o. P. M.
has become a purely New Deal
agency is given in the virtual dis
missal of c. w. kellogg OF the
Edison Electric Institute. Be
cause Mr.. Kellogg had the ~temerlty
tG tell the public the truth about
the shortage of electric power. ne
was attacked by Secretary 1ckes
and promptly thereafter the o. P.
M. established its new rule which
eliminates Mr.. Kellogg.
Significantly enough, the man
who is taking Mr.. Kellogg's place
as consultant on electric power
is j. A. Krug. power manager for
the T. v. A. In other words. a man
representing private industry Is
sent home and a man representing
the Government ownership idea is
appointed in his place.
The theory that a trade aSSocla-
ton man cannot honestly serve his
Government and his industry, too,
is a new one. 1t would seem that
of all the persons in an industry the
man who was least detached from
any possibility of profit making is
the executive of trade aSsocla-
ton which has TO look out for the
interests of all members of the
association large and small.
Means Less Efficiency.
But the New Deal has an entirely
different concept. It's favoriteS
among the consultants are those
businessmen who play ball with
The New Deal. If an executive
makes a speech condemning in
dustry, he goes into high favor. If
he announces that there is Short
age and that Government capital
should be introduced, he is ap-
plauded.
The New Deal is giving evidence
that in its judgment the war effort
cannot be intrusted to the execu-
tives of American industry. This
distrust is breeding friction and is
undermining the morale of Amer
ica's productive mechanism. The
o. P. M which was thought of at the
beginning as a mobilization center
for American industry is rapidly
turning out to be a shell of its
original organization and the be-
ievers in Government ownership
and state capitalism are in the sad
die. This means less instead of
greater efficiency in co-ordinating
industrial production for defense.
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