The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-04-08


 dandiest little mysteries of Wash ington.
 If you will tag along however, perhaps some light can be shed on the matter. At the same time you may have a better idea of how your government works, for O. E. M. is government to the nth degree. By little oversimplification 1t may be said to be 8 creation intended to keep the government out of the hair of the defense agencies trying to do job without benefit of govern ment red tape.
 O. E. M. will be one year old come May 24, and 1t was sired by Executive Order No. 8248, out of section I (0. The functions were stated to be, (a) to assist the Pres ident in the clearance of informa- ton with respect to measures necessitated by the threatened emergency: (b) maintain liaison between the President and the Council of National Defense and other agencies, and Co perform such additional duties as the Pres ident may direct.
 That Co, you'll notice, is broad enough to cover, such functions as conveying the fleet to Singapore or taking Falla, the Presidents Scottie for his pre-bedtime stroll, on the White House lawn. FROM ONE OFFICE
 TO 16 BUILDINGS
 O. E M. started as one man, Will liam H. McReynolds, one Of the Presidents administrative assistants. It now has 200 employees and Is growing It got Its first money from the Presidents emergency fund, got some more when the President took couple million away from the Council of National Defense, and will have available part of the $l0 million earmarked for administra- ton of the $7 billion British aid bill.
 Starting with one office which McReynolds had in the State De- partment building. the outfit has grown until 1t now reaches into l6 different government buildings, and 1t Is doubtful If anyone ex- cept the messengers and few of the executives have been in all the 16.
 twelve different government agencies connected with the de- fense offort are co ordinated through the o. E. M:
 Oflce of Production Manage ment, the Knudsen-Hillma1 out- fit.
 Division of Defense Housing Co., ordination under Charles F. Palm CT.
 Cultural Relations with South America, under Nelson Rockefeller.
 Defense Research Committee, under pr. Vannevar Bush.
 Division of State and Local CO., operation under Frank Bane.
 Defense Communications Board under James Lawrence Fly.
 National Defense Mediation Board under Dr Clarence A. Dykstra. Then come five divisions of the Ad- visory Commission (experts) to the Council of National Defense (six cabinet members who shape the board outlines of war policy):
 Division of Labor under Sidney Hillman.
 Division of Agriculture under Chester o. Davis
 Division of Price StabiliZation under Leon Henderson.
 Division of Transportation un- der Ralph Budd.
 Division of Consumer Protection under Miss Harriet Elliott. CREATED
 FOR HARMONY
 Now, the heads of all these 12 organizations don't have to run to o. E. M. every time they want to talk to the president. Each Is an in- depenedent agency, and the idea of O. F. M. is not to cranp the style of any of the agencies, but to help them get along with each other and with other government agencies, and guide these emergency, civilian agencies through the maze of gov- ernment procedure.
 To do this, 1t has under Me- Reynolds an executive director, Sidney Sherwood, an ex-Treas- ury Department organizer and his assistant Shane MacCarthy.
 It has budget and finance off, cer with 8 force of 50 under Jerome Gunther whose job it is to handle the payroll, expenditures and bookkeeping for all these out- fits except o. P. M., which is so big 1t takes care of its own fi,nanc- ing.
 In other words, the job of O. E. M. is largely housekeeping and sec- retarial and clerical. It's the ser- want of the defense effort.
 If Leon Henderson and Harriet Elliott want survey of the cost of living, to determine how much of price downholding campaign they should put on, they call up Sherwood, who calls up the Bureau of Labor Statistics and asks them enough researches or enough money, O. E. M. tells B. L. s to hire the experts and charge 1t to o. E. M.
 There has been talk that O. E. M. might be given a lot of authority and really run the defense show. That's now doubtful. What they would like is one building big enough to house their 12 branches now in the l6 buildings.
 O. E. Ms service department is now in one of the old temporary buildings built for World War I. The building has been condemned for years, smoking is forbidden, and fire drills are regular. That's typical, perhaps of all the con- fusion there has been about O. E.. I'M