The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-05-26

Latest to raise the precedence Issue was Mrs. Stanley Hornbeek. wife of the Political Adviser of the State Department. She was attending a dinner given by the former French military attaehe, Colonel Emmanuel Lombard, and his attractive wife, who had seat ed Mrs. Hornbeek at the left Of the host. At tho hosts right and in the No. place of honor sat Mrs. Wallace Murray, whose hus- band iS Chief of the State De- partments Near Eastern Division,
 To the average citizen of Kala- mazoo or Kankakee there Is no great difference between the of- fleial ranks Of the State Depart ment's Adviser on Political Rela- tions and It's Chief of tho DivlS- ion of Near Eastern Affairs. Geo. graphically, of course, there IS Q big difference. pr. Hornbock is a specialist on China and the Far East, while Wallace Murray Is Q specialist on Turkey, Egypt and tho Near East.
 A lot of people don't bother about these technicalities, but to the practical social eye, pr, Horn- beck, as Political Adviser, ranks ahead of MT. Murray as Division Chief.
 Mrs. Hornbeck is one of those with practiced social eye. And no sooner did she see that she was on tho left Of her host, with Mrs. Murray on his right, than she said In Q voice which the whole table could hear: Every one makes mistakes, my dear, even as thee and me-"
 "VNhat was that?" asked Madame Lombard, worried by Mrs. Hornbeck's indignant eye, but not experiencing the terrible faux pas."
 "I said, everyone makes mls. takes, my dear, even as thee and me. ! tu9t wanted to call your attention, Helen, to the fact that I Outrank Mrs. Mur- ray on every occasion."
 Dinner guests gasped, then hastily covered the confusion. Shortly after coffee was served, Mrs. Hornbeck departed.
 JEALOUS ARMY
 It never leaks out Into the open, but one Of the most serious hitchcs in the defense program is the caste- minded hostility of Army and Navy brasshats toward the civilian OPM.
 The military resent the civilian defense officials and seldom miss a chance to mick" them. Result of this undercover antlpathy Is a state Of strained relations which naturally hampers results.
 Illustrative Of the Army-Navy attitude was the coup of Navy brasshats in sneaking an amend- ment into the prioritles bill while 1t was in the House of Repre- sentatives, making them, in ef- feet, masters of the OPM. It re- quired direct Administration in- tervention to kill this scheme in the Senate.
 A later case Is the issue of sub- contracting, one of the most serious problems facing defense chiefs.
 There are thousands of plants all over the country able and eager to make parts for de- fense orders. An effective sys- tenn of sub-contracting utilizing these unused production facilities would tremendously increase both the speed and volume of arma- ment output. But many primary contractors balk at sub-contract- ing, and the brasshats side with them.
 Finally forcing a showdown, OPM Associate Director Sidney Hlllman demanded an OpM rul- ing that all big Army contracts contain mandatory sub-contract- ing clauses.
 PROCUREMENT REFORM
 OPM chiefs agreed to this and named a subcommittee, consist ing of Ifillman, Knudsen, Pro- duction Director Biggers, Priori- ties Director Stcttinills, and Pur- chasing Chief Nelson. They arc working out a concrete plan on the proportion of sub-contracting