Evening star., 1941-09-14
Priority Operations
Are Vital Function
OF Defense Machine
Writer Exposits
Intricate System
OF Nelson's Unit
By JAMES FREE.

All chairs in the Waltlng room oI
an important defense official were
filed. It was a busy afternoon.
StenographerS peCked furiously at
typewriters. Some Of the waiting
business men grew impatient There
was that kind of tension in the air
that may bring a fare-uP OF nerves
any moment
Through the outer door came
chubby and energetic, but obviously
discouraged executive, brief case IN
: hand.
Where" he asked pleadingly,
"can 7 get a priority?'
A roar of laughter went up. Not
laughter of ridicule, but of relief
Nearly everyone in that room was
in the same boat. They were after
priorities too.
Priority is the most important
word in the defense vocabulary.
without preference ratings for
scarce supplies, thousands Of de-
fense plants and factories produc-
ing the more essential consumer
goods could not operate. Defense
order ratings range from Ala to
A-10-z. with civilian order ratings
from B-1 to B-8. In extreme de-
fense emergencies a priority of AA
is obtainable, but the more usual
ratings take care of virtually all
situations.
Ratings Show Importance.
Each rating is, in effect, tag,
showing the relative importance Of
the order it is attached to and the
degree of preference the manu-
faCturer, or receiver of the order,
must give it. One of the major
purposes of a priority is to assure
delivery by the required date. This
means that a plant can deliver
orders with low priority ratings or
no ratings at all so long as they do
not interfere with scheduled Ship
ments of higher priority orders.
Preference ratings are obtainable
through the o. P. Ms director Of
priorities, Donald M. Nelson. Mail
applications usually are sufficient,
although until a short time ago,
when an accumulation of thousands
of applications was cleared through
overtime work, many businessmen
called in person to present their
cases. Except in instances of eX-
treme complication, o. P. NJ. dis
courages applications in person.
When the Importance of a man
ufacturer's intended product and
his need for preference ratings in
obtaining scarce materials is shown,
a priority certificate is issued. This
can be served like a court summons,
or otherwise transmitted by the
holder of the certificate, to the
supplier from whom a material is
needed. When a number of sup
pliers are involved. o. P. M. issues
or authorizes issuance of the re-
quired number Of copies of the GER
tif1cate-each with an identifying
serial number.
The quickest way to get a priority
is to address the application directly
to the particular section of the pri-
critics division that handles the
kind Of rating wanted. Individual
types Of priorities are many. but
they are not so complicated as a
mere listing would seem to indicate.
Fall Into General Glasses.
Prlorities fall into two general
claSSlflcations: Those identifying Or
uers for raw materials as essential
to production and those indicating
relative Importance of finished
goods.
Most common type of priority is
the individual certificate issued a
manufacturer or businessman to aid
him in getting particular order
or group of orders for supplies. The
bulk OF these are granted under
the "prloritieS critical list" set I'D
by the prioritieS division in con-
junction with the Army and NAVY
Munitions Board so that authorizes
contracting officers for the TWO
services can assign ratings that NAV
oe necessary in fulfilling contracts.
Most of the some 300 items on the
list are in the finished products
category. Army and Navy officials
nave issued nearly 100000 certif-
Gates and extensions under this
plan; the o. P. M priorities division.
10000.
More comprehensive and more
efficient, where large numbers of
individual certificates would be re-
CURED are project ratings, assigned
to cover construction materials going
INTO single projects such as powder
plants and limited blanket ratings
covering materials required by plants
IN certain vital industries such as
merchant ship building.
Another special device is the de-
fense supplies rating plan, for
certain manufacturers who must
begin production before receiving
orders and therefore require a steady
now OF materials into their plants.
BY clearly establishing the percent
age OF defense work their plants will
do-say so per cent of the total
production - these manufacturers
may get preference ratings that they
can apply on deliveries of half of
their required materials.
Severely Regulated.
BroadeSt and SeVereSt form of reg
ulation is industry wide control that
the priorities division exerts in