Evening star., 1941-09-25
Priority Initiation
Is Making Ratings
OF Little Value
10000 Issued Already
On 300 Items; 1000
Applications Weekly
BY JAMES FREE.

Imitation has set in in the defense
prioritieS system.
So many preference ratings have
been issued, and so many more
have been applied for, that the
value of priority certificates has
been lowered. AS one authority
puts it, the currency of priorities
has been debaSed.
More than 100000 priority ratings
and extensions have been issued by
the Army and Navy Joint Munitions
Board on orders involving some 800
items on its critical list" And the
o. p. NJ. has issued nearly 10000
priority ratings. Despite the clear
ing up of an accumulated mass of
priority applications by overtime
work recently. the o. P NJ. still car
rles heavy burden which seems to
grow from week TO week. The
rate of applications received. for
example, has increased from 500 a
week in June to about 1000 week
al present.
For this reason Donald NJ Nelson,
director of priorities. already has
begun change in the prevailing
method of assuring supplies of
scarce materials TO defense and eS-
Sential civilian industries. The gen.
eral plan heretofore has called for
issuance OF ratings to concerns
needing materials and leaving them
more or less on their own in OBJ
tanning their requirements. If there
were not enough materials to take
care of all the ratings, then the
scuffie began all over again for still
higher ratings.
The trend is toward the Govern
nent-through the Supply Priori-
ties and ALLEGATIONS Board-aSSum-
ing control of scarce materials at
the source and rationlng them to
the plants whose output is con-
sidered more essential
Advantages of the rationing or
ALLEGATION method are two-fold 1t
permits more complete regulation
OF supplies And it is much more
simple to operate than a plan in
volving thousands Of preference rat
ingS
Pass On Orders Received.
ALLEGATION by industries is not new
It was tried in latter stages of the
World War, and it is now in effect
in several industries - aluminium.
magnesium, copper and cork. to
name some of the more important
ones. Producers and importers in
these industries now bring their Or
der books to S. P. A. B. and the de-
fense board considers the relative
importance of the orders and
specifies how much is to be de-
livered TO each manufacturer.
Extension of this plan to other
industries is inevitable, priority Of
ficials agree. 1t will be superim-
posed upon the existing system
gradually. There is no reason why
priority ratings should be junked, it
is explained. for even though they
might be almost valueless because
OF their great number. they might
we'll be used as rough basis for
ratIoning For the sake of SIM
plicity. for example, PrioritieS Direc-
tor Nelson might decide that. if
there is not enough of critical ma
terial to take care of demands of
all holders of AS ratings, that a
certain amount. say 100000 tons. it
to be divided among them in pro-
portion TO the size of their essential
orders.
Base Year Plan Weighed
In the case of industries or plants
engaged in non-defense work. tenta-
tive plans call for distribution of
scarce materials according to base
year calculation. For example. aft
er defense demands are met, 200 900
tons of a material may be found
available for a particular monde
fenSe industry. That amount is,
say, so per cent of requirements of
the industry in 1910. Each plant in
the industry, therefore, would be
allowed up to go per cent as much
of the material as it used in 1910.
bhOuld de1enSe needS take all avail
able supplies, there would, of course,
be no point in base year calcula-
tions.
Adoption of an ALLEGATION system
would be perhaps more severe on
civilian industry than the priority
rating plan. The very complexity
OF the priorities setup or breath
ing spell in delivery date require
ments for defense orders might en-
able a producer to fill an occasional
non-defense order under the priori-
ties plan. Under an industry alloca-
ton system, however. the Govern
ment, having control of all supplies,
might choose to build up its reserves
and hold the materials for future
defense use.