Evening star., 1941-07-22
.0.P.M. TO Name Group
To Maintain Flow
OF Newsprint
Steel Output Problems
Will Be Studied at
PorIey Here Tomorrow

ForeSeeing shortage of transpor-
! tation facilities for neWsprint ship
ments, the Office of Production Man.
agement announced today plans for
formation of a subcommittee of the
Pulp and Paper Defense Advisory
| Committee to handle this problem.
Rail transportation is not yet
seriously lacking. said C. w. Boyce,
head of o. P. MS paper and pulp
section, but the situation is expected
to become rather serious" as rail
cargo facilities become congested
with defense shipments.
In response to an inquiry on
whether priority order might be
isuued for the transportation OF
| neWsprint, Mr.. Boyce said the o. P.
M. would take whatever action is
necessary to insure deliveries" The
o. P. M. priority division, however,
said no action of this sort was now
contemplated.
Steel Group to Meet.
The o. P. M. announced also that
an enlarged Steel Industry Advisory
Committee of Is members will meet
here tomorrow to consider defense
production problems in that field.
/ The committee. replacing the infor-
NAL Seven-man group which formerly
represented makers of steel plates
and shapes. strip steel, sheets and tin
plate, is designed to represent all
divisions of the industry.
In another action. intended to
remedy serious shortage of loco
motives" the o. P M. issued two
blanket priority orders to give loco
motive builders and repair plants
preference on deliveries of materials.
Through creation of three gigantic
power pools in critical areas the
o. P M reported yesterday it had
obtained the 100000 kilowatts of
electricity necessary to run the Gov
ernment-owned plants which are to
produce aluminium and magnesium
for bombing planes, tanks and war
| ships.
Power resources of the Northeast
ern States. the Southwest and the
South will be linked into huge re-
gional gridS. it was announced, so
that the surplus energy in each area
may be diverted to the cities where
defense production has created a
power shortage.
Will Solve Power Provlem.
Co-DirectorS William KnudSen and
Sidney Hillman of the o. P. M.
cn1Trn Va YNrnh-
lem of providing energy for the new
plants announced last week. which
are to add 6O0000,00O pounds of
aluminium annually to the Nations
output of the light metal.
Mr.. KnudSen and Mr.. Hillman
also announced that o. P. M. would
take complete responsibility for the
Nations power supply for defense,
and appointed j. A. Krug, former
Tennessee Valley Authority man.
ager, to be head Of a new special
power unit of o. P NJ
Mr.. Krug declared the o. P. M.
has approved plans of the T. V. A.
for construction of s50000,O0O
hydro-electric plant in Western
North Carolina. The plant is to be
Government owned and operated
and will be located on site obtained
nearly 80 years ago by the Aluminium
Co of America The T. V. A. and
A. L. C. o. A. have reached a verbal
agreement on the matter and are
now negotiating an operating agree
ment, it was said. Capacity of the
projected plant, to be completed in
80 to SO months. will be 100000
kiloWatts.
Meanwhile, in another defense
agency action yesterday, Leon Hen
derSon. Federal price administrator.
urged $50 leading bakers to offset
higher costs of wheat and other in
gradients by cutting operating ex-
penses rather than by raising the
price of bread.
He suggested that price increases,
when unavoidable. should be frac-
tional, and he added that in no
locality does it appear that an in
crease of more than ! cent loaf
would be warranted"