Evening star., 1941-11-29

This impulse ana QlreCtl0n m
wolves much pickering and disagree
ment. The Office of Price Admin
istration. for instance, has an in
formal agreement with fuel oil deal
ers that the price won't be in
creased. but recently the o. P. A.
discovered that the army was offer
ing a premium price in New York
in order to insure its getting all
the oil it needed.
1t involves also some vagueness
on the part of responsible employees
of such organiza tions of paramount
importance as the Office of Produc-
ton Management Representative
Petersen of Florida. interested in
priorities on phosphate for ferti-
lizer-makers. called an o. P. M
representative who disclosed that
he thought the only civilian use
for phosphate was in making drug
store Sodas. He had never heard
that it was essential for fertilizers,
which in turn are essential for
the forceddraft farm production
program now under way in the In
tereSt OF leaSe-lenC.
Bureaus to Go On and On.
The special offices are the gov
ernmental children of Europe's war,
but the plans of the moment, half
formed though they are, call for the
continuation of some of them into
the next era of peace
S. P. A. B. and the Economic De-
fense Board. of both of which Vice
President Wallace is chairman, are
KEYS which the administration has
in mind for unlocking Americas
postwar problems S. P. A. B.
to deal with domestic questions and
E. D. B with the international side.
For the present most of the major
new agencies have plans for their
own expansion. They hire at the
moment but 10000 workers. whereas
the total governmental defense es-
tablishment has about 100000
workers scattered over the world.
AS long ago as August-and the for
ward trend in hiring has been ex-
pedited since then-Washington had
1881 Government employees sta
toned in the Capital, compared
with 125 .o06 in September, 1889.
Between August. 1910. and August,
194l, the War Department civilian
personnel alone increased from
/ l5O.112 to 358.788.
/ The newcomer to Washington pre-
/ fers to work for the new defense
! agencies and the old hands at the
Government try to get themselves
moved to these agencies. Their pay
is better, their prestige is greater
and the hurly- -burly Of their Job is
more exciting and more interesting.
Bureaus Battle One Another.
The defense agencies make Of
Washington microcosm of eco
nomic America. Even all the COM
petitions of that America are pre-
served by the agencies. which cover
every phase of our lives. The bu-
reaus by the nature of their separate
tasks battle one another.
For instance. o. P. NJ. seeks goods
for defense. o. P. A. seeks goods for
civilians and seeks to hold the prices
down to civilian consumer levels.
Inter-American Affairs seeks goods
for Latin America. The War De-
partment buys goods for the Army,
while lend-lease arranges the pur-
chase of goods for England, Russia
and a dozen other governments. The
Economic Defense Board sees that
none of these agencies inadvertently
aids the Axis or its accomplices
So domestic competitors are pitted
against domestic competitors for the
market, the domestic against the
foreign and foreign against foreign.
The result of such intra-govern-
mental clashes is the turtle pace at
which the whole program crawls
forward. Since Donald Nelson was
given the jobs of director of priorities
and executive director of the s. p
A. B. and thus became the foremost
figure in the economic side of the de.
fense program, the turmoils of last
summer have disappeared. But Mr.
Nelson's closest associates have beer
exhorting him to act more boldly, tt
move swiftly and to make strong de-
cisions. The need for a human de-
fense dynamo is still felt.
Some of the agencies function
capably with few workers. Tht
National Defense Mediation Boarc
situated down the hall from o
P. M. In the Social Security Build
nuggets along with a staff Of SO