Evening star., 1941-03-19


assistant to the President) with full
control of personnel, budget ard
management in the entire defense
picture. Sherwood recently v's t's
target Of a dollar-a-year drive .
capture the o. P. M and elimin- 3
White House control of the c.
fense program. He now is in gem
eral charge of co-ordinating the o.
P. NJ, price stabilization, cultural and
economic relations with South Amer
lea (the Nelson Rockefeller pro-
gram vocational training. labor and
the other elements affected by the
policy of total defense"
This setup represents a rebuks
and q shellacking for John Biggers,
head Of the o. P. MS production
division. At least, the New Dealers
hold Biggers responsible for recent
efforts to play business politics in
the o. P. M.
Co-ordinator Knudsen has no part
In this affair. Relations between
him and Sidney Hillman are close.
| friendly and practical and the White
House trusts Knudsen and gives him
free hand in production manage
ment. However, the dollar yea"
thesis is that the boss is a nai-s,
honest, simple man, and We must
protect him"
Protection" Is Curious.
Their protection" takes curious
forms. At one time they contend
that the administration and the
labor people are "hampering" Knud-
sens work. At another time they
get out their crying towels to sug-
gest that the sanity Knudsen is the
prospective victim of New Deal
plot to remove him from his post,
as was indicated in an extraordinary
article in a recent issue of Time.
Recently all arrangements were
made to have Sears. Roebuck re-
call Donald Nelson-Who stands in
the way of the "dollar-a-year'
crowd-but Roosevelt stymied this
move by calling Nelson into his
Office and telling him to keep on
with his defense work. Again there
was an attempted squeeze play di-
rected against Robert Horton. TIE
administration choice fc" director
of o. P. M publicity Here the
/ plan was for each division of o. P.
M. to have its own publicity staff,
reducing Horton to a fgurehead.
This one was stopped cold.
The most recent move attributed
to Biggers was his announcement Of
planning board" which included
Harry Hopkins. The White House
knew nothing about this one until
it was announced. New Dealers be-
lieve Hopkins was named as .
smoke screen" to divert attention
from the fact that a subordinate
part of the o. E. M. was presuming
to set up planning agency for the
whole defense program. This board
exists solely on paper and Is ex-
pected to remain there.
Sees Corporation Politics.
The New Dealers believe that the
dollar year boys are just about
at the end of their rope. Their serv-
ices in many cases are admirable
and even indispensable, but the ten
dency of a certain element in the
o. P. M. to play corporation politics
with the national defense and to
use the boring g-from-w tech
nique of the Communists to control
defense and obtain particular ad-
vantages for their home town busi.
nesses and to place labor in an ugly
light strongly suggests what is
known as the pork barrel" and log
rol1incx IN Capitn1 Hill
BY contrast. Sidney Hillman has
refrained from enlarging his staff
Of labor management with strike
a year" men. He has played a wait
ing game and where Biggers and
"the element" have gone far to dis
credit the patriotic disinterestedness
of men like Knudsen and Nelson,
Hillman has maintained labor's po-
sition intact for the time when the
o. P. M will fall into line as only
one part of a far-reaching national
program for total defense" and
total victory" The o. e M. is the
first administration move toward
broader setup than the o. P. M. and
with the twilight of the dollar a
year" men, labor should obtain new
powers and new responsibilities
which will end affirmatively the
present epidemic of petty rat-fights
over jurisdiction and over collective
bargaining in defense industries.