Evening star., 1941-07-16
Bdruch' Old Setup
Seen as Pattern
For 0. P. N. Shifts
Reorganization Proposal
Calls for ; Separate
Commodity Sections
BY JAMES FREE.

The ONCE of Production Manage
ment's new internal reorganization
plan, to be announced in detail in
the near future, will show a strong
trend toward the wartime industrial
mobilization setup recommended by
Barnard Baruch more than two
decades ago, it was learned today.
It's similarity to a revised pre-
paredness scheme approved by Army
and Navy officials in 1882 admittedly
based to a large degree on earlier
reports by Mr.. Baruch. head of the
War Industries Board in the World
War, Is unmistakable.
The new plan calls for assignment
Of commodity sections-most of
which still are being formed-into
three groups, each under one direc-
tor. These groups are to be COM
prised, roughly, of commodity Sec
tions primarily concerned with %
manufacturing. (2) raw materials
and 80 consumers goods To these
three groups a fourth is expected to
be added later in line with blue
VI AileS oueililNb by p1I odl uCIl anu
military and naval authorities. This
would be transportation sub
division, with commodity sections on
railroads, motortrucks and buses,
ocean shipping and inland water
ways shipping.
Some Differences Remain.
Save for a difference in termin-
ology, the sections correspond closely
to the four mapped in the 1889 re-
vised industrial mobilization plan of
Army and Navy heads.
There still would remain funda-
mental differences in the projected
o. P. M organization and that
favored by Mr.. Baruch and the 1899
revised program of the Army and
Navy. The o. P. M. has a dual
dictatorship, with William S. Knud-
sen as director general and Sidney
Hillman as associate director gen.
eral, as opposed to the single head,
a war resources administrator, urged
by Mr.. Baruch and Army Navy
The o. P. M, moreover, has no
direct authority over price control,
which definitely would come under
the war resources administrator in
the Baruch- Army Navy setup.
These differences, many defense
authorities are convinced, would
disappear if the Nation actually en-
tered war or if the threat of in
volvement became so immediate that
there would be little opposition to
changes that might create a furore
3ust now.
Messrs. Knudsen and Hillman
might remain joint heads of o. P.
M. In such a contingency, but O.
P. M. and other defense agencies
(Which operate under the Office for
Emergency Management. with
Wayne Coy as liaison officer prob
ably would be put under a single
executive comparable to the sug-
gested war resources administrator
Need Of Pivot Stressed.
The Army Navy 1899 revised
plan stressed that the ONCE of the
war resources administrator should
be the pivot around which the war
time industrial mobiliza ton will
turn" that it must be charged
with the responsibility and clothed
with adequate authority to make
and enforce decisions" 1t added
that the administrators powers
should include priorities. price con-
tSol, conservation Of materials and
preparing for postwar readjust-
ment.
Most frequently mentioned of late
as possibilities for the post of ad-
ministrator have been Robert p.
Patterson, Assistant Secretary of
War, and William L. Bait. o. P. M.
deputy director Of production.
Chief OF the enlarged division. in
eluding commodity sections on va
rious transportation facilities. sc-
tording TO persistent rumor, would
Be Joseph B. Eastman. chairman of
the Interstate Commerce Commits
sion. He would take over duties now
performed by Ralph Budd, head OF
che transportation unit formed un-
der the now virtually obsolete Ma
Honal Defense Advisory Commission.
who Is said to have expressed often a
desire to return to private business.
Heads Of the three commodity
section groups, ss has been indi-
eated In recent announcements. will
hs John D. Biggers, for those deal
Ing principally with manufacturing
esh ~ steel. aluminium, magnesium,