Evening star., 1941-08-30
Politics in Defense
Consideration Seen to Have Influenced
Presidents Revisions of Armament Setup
BY RICHARD L. STOKES,

ohLS,
Correspondent St. Louis Post -Dispatch.
An analysis OF the Presidents
executive order instituting the
third revision of the Nations
defense administration reveals
that considerations of politics
prevailed at least equally with
those of rearmament. From the
legal text of the order, entitled
Delegation and Coordination
of Priority Authority" the fol-
lowing facts emerge:
Far from setting up a COM
mander in chief of the industrial
defense program, like Chairman
Bernard M. Baruch Of President
Wilson's War Industries Board,
Mr.. Roosevelt relinquishes not
an iota of his personal powers,
and specifically retains all final
decisions in his own hands.
The New d. al is in majority
control of the seven-man Supply
Priorities and Allegations Board.
Four of its members are of that
faith-Henry A. Wallace, Sidney
Hillman. Harry L. Hopkins and
Leon Henderson. The others are
William s. Knudsen, Secretary
of War Stimson and Secretary
of the Navy Knox.
Vice President Wallace is the
leading New Deal candidate for
the presidency in 1914. AS chair
man of S. P. A. B., in addition
to his Craftsmanship of the Eco
nomic Defense Board, Wallace
is placed in strategic position
for building up prestige with the
public. On the other hand,
failure in the new job might
we'll shatter his chances.
Overall Policy Making Body.
On the credit side, the new
order, in setting up the Supply
Priorities and ALLEGATIONS Board,
constitutes for the first time an
overall policy making body
subject always to the Presidents
final decisions-on which are
represented the heads of chief
branches in the whole field of
preparedness, international as
well as domestic About its table
will sit the leaders of economic
warfare abroad, lease LEND aid,
industrial production, civilian
supply, labor and the armed
services.
BY vesting S. p. A. B. with power
to determine policies and make
regulations governing the pro-
curement, production, transmits
sion and transportation of power
and fuel, the President sought to
unscramble conflicting agencies
In these areas, and, incidentally,
appears to have baffied the am
bltion OF Secretary of the Interior
Ickes to become czar of electric
ity, petroleum and coal. On the
orders face, S. P. A. B. will have
degree of supremacy over the
Federal Power Commission, the
Tennessee Valley Authority and
the Department of the Interior,
in so far as the latter is in con-
troll of the Coulee and Bonneville
Dams, bituminous coal and pc
troleum coordination.
In the matter of priorities in
raw materials, for the construc-
tion of shipyards and vessels, the
Maritime Commission Is for the
first time brought within the
formal defense organization. But
the commissions power to allo-
cate shipping for defense pur-
poses, having been fixed by
Congress in the Ship Warrants
Act, remains untouched. Prob
ably because the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. is an organ Of
Congress and not the Executive,
the new arrangement makes no
provision for its alignment with
the general program. Among its
important defense subsidiaries
are the Export-Import Bank
and three corporations charged
with the procurement and stor-
rage of strategic and critical
materials.
William S. Knudsen is relieved
of the function Of policy making,
regarded as the principal defici-
ency of his administration, and
hereafter will be able to devote
himself exclusively to his spe-
cialty, that of production. Two
other spots of notorious weak
ness in the ONCE of Production
Management are eliminated by
the process of thrusting their
occupants upstairs.