Imperial Valley press., 1941-07-31

WASHINGTON, July 81 - The
sagebrusn. crackc- oorrel or water
front philosopher who first wise
cracked. The besu nd of COM
mittee to appoint is committee
of three members. two of whom are
dead" should &c rounded up and
brought to Washington to save his
country He should be ordered to
speak his piece into every private
office and over every private tel
ephone line in government circles.
Secretaries who are listening in
should take the speech down in
shorthand and put neat little type
written reminders on the corners of
their bosses blotting pads every
morning.
Idea men dreaming up slogans,
creative artists painting posters
that will win the war, government
ropagandistS. government ghost
writer's of brass hats speeches,
press handout hackwriterS, govern
ment educational film" directors,
even the governments radio script
writer's shauld be called in on the
play for nothing less important
than winning the war is at stake.
If something drastic isn't done
soon, Washington is going to be
overrun with SO many committees
there won't be enough conference
rooms to go around, or enough
chairs for the delegates to sit down
in, and of course they can't all be
standing and speaking at once.
UP TO NRA TRICKS
1t all started apparently, in the
Office of Production Management
when the production and the pur-
chases and the priorities divisions
of OPM decided there would have
to be Defense Industry Advisory
Committees, in order to get manu-
facturers into line for all-out de-
fense. These committees were care
fully planned, and they were set up
with Department of Justice bless
ing, in such a way that they could
do what the old NRA code author
tiles tried to do
These OPM Defense Advisory
Committees were probably all right
in their conception. There were to
be only about so or so or them,
and they would split up the U. S.
industrial world in such a way that
every business would be represent
ed and have its interests looked out
for.
If the committee setup had stop
ped there, all might have been
well but on top of this OPM list
of committees, Leon Henderson's
Office of Price Administration and
Civilian Supply decided that it, too,
must have Defense Industry Ad-
visory committees. And so, grad
ually, there is appearing on the
Washington scene q second set Of
committees, the OPACS commit
tees.
Some of the boys are beginning to
get smart now, and they're ap-
pointing the same men TO the diff
ferent committees without telling
the bosses. That's all right with
the committee members, but they
still have to serve on two COM
mittees.
The height of Stiffness in this
conflict came the other day when
Henderson announced that passenger
car production would have to be
cut so per cent right off. 1t was
Knudsen who had arranged for the
first 20 per cent cut, and why Hen
derson should have gone over
Knudsens head is one of those
great mysteries that worry Wash
ington, but the rest of the country
doesn't give a hang about.
LINE FORMS HERE
If this confusion Of committees
isn't enough for you, just consider
the other defense fountain heads
from which all blessings may flow
in the form cf appointments to
committees:
The labor division of OFM has
nAfensp Iahor Advisory Conroitfeee