Evening star., 1941-09-21
Defense Boss in the Making
Donald NJ. Nelson's Star Rises as Crisis Grows
By Raymond p.


intricacies of business and Government
from personal experience, and he was
understandingly sympathetic when an
exhausted businessman recently ap-
pealed to him. The weary man COM
planned:
I've been scurrying around Washing
ton for two weeks trying to find the
proper officials who can tell me how to
adapt my business to the national de-
fense program and so far as results are
concerned I'm just where I started. Have
you ever tried to catch garter snake in
a rock pile? That's what I've been doing
here. Every time thought I had the
answer, was told to 60 somewhere else"
Nelson, who was born on 1.-The wrong
side of the creek" at Hannibal, Mo, in
1888. allowed he knew exactly how the
businessman felt.
IF you have any more trouble" he
told his friend, come to see me. I'll get
you decision. 1t may not be the deci-
sion you want, but you will get deci-
sion"
Baruch Says He May Be the Man.
S. p A. B., the quickly adopted alb
breviation for the Supply Priorities AL
location Board, is only three weeks old,
but already there is a more electric sir
around the defense Offices. Not all Of
this is due, of course, to Nelson. OFF,
cially he is only the executive of seven-
man group headed by Vice President
Wallace. The other board members are
Secretary of War Stimson, Secretary Of
the Navy Knox, Lease Lend Administra-
tor Hopkins, o. P. M Directors Knudsen
and Hillman and Price Administrator
Henderson. Actually, because of his
general and detailed knowledge of the
defense situation, he is in a position to
make himself boss of the show. He is
also in full control of priorities which
gives him the power of life and Death
over large part of the manufacturing
industry.
Bernard M. Baruch, chairman of the
War Industries Board of the last war
and a persistent fighter for one-man
control Of the Governments defense ef-
fort, has shrewdly observed:
Doildlu 1NClSOIl NC llidil
1t is too early to say whether Nelson
will emerge triumphant from the present
emergency as Baruch did in 1918 and
1919. Wallace and Henderson are force
full personalities. in some respects more
colorful than Nelson. There may be
Kilkenny fight between two or more of
them.
Each of the three men is a believer
in teamwork and it is hard to conceive
of any one jeopardizing the national
defense for personal advancement.
Most Likely Candidate for Boss.
On present evidence, Nelson is the most
likely candidate for boss. Baruch, who
has watched his career with interest,
says:
He will succeed if he takes the re-
the politicians"
Nelson has the habit of success. at
tanned the hard way. The son of a
locomotive engineer, he led his class at
the Hannibal High School, thereby win
ming a tuition scholarship at the Uni
versity of Missouri. To pay for his
room rent he fired furnaces during his
first three years. During his fourth year
he was student assistant with super
vision of laboratory classes and during
his fifth year he enjoyed comparative
opulence on salary at the university
agricultural station. He received his
degree in chemical engineering in 1911,
a member of the top-ranking scholastic
groups, Tau Beta Pi, honorary engineer
ing fraternity, and Alpha Chi Sigma,
honorary chemistry fraternity. He was
not a campus politician and only one
school legend remains about him.
He ate at the university dining club,
then perhaps the cheapest place to eat
at tine university. This CLUB" was man.
aged then, as now, by Stanley Sisson,
who had bought huge supply of canned
rhubarb, which was served thrice daily
for several weeks.
Nelson organized group which raided
the storage lockers and disposed of the
remaining rhubarb, only to learn that
Sisson had ordered another huge lot. The
next day the diners raised a row at
lunch, pounding the tables with their
knives, forks and plates and shouting
poem" written by Nelson:
"RhIIha ri tepdor ho fo,,oL,.