The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1941-12-11
Three Way Pulling Match
Builds Defense Log Jam
Washington Sees Conflicts of Authority,
Effort and Viewpoint as a Threat to
Satisfactory Carrying Out of Program.
BY BAUKHAGE
National Farm and Home Hour Commentator

WNU Service, 1343 Fl Street, NV,
Washington, D. c.
There is a log jam today holding
up the defense program that is 60
ing to take dynamite to blow up.
Whether there is the courage n
the unity and the understanding TO
do the job remains to be seen.
1t will take understanding be-
cause the men who make the
charges will have to know the facts
and realize the conditions and the
traditions which have created the
evils.
It will take courage, for a pre-
mature burst may damage a
lot of innocent bystanders.
As far as can be judged from in
formation leading out of the cracks
in the defense machine it is q three
way pulling match. The difficulty
in Analysing the situation is the diff
fculty in classifying and identity
ing the opposing forces.
The usual classification is: One,
the New Deal group. Two, the dol
lar-a-year men. Three, certain army
and navy officials.
But this is a very misleading
classification because there are
some dollar-a-year men who are
working with the administration.
There are some members Of the
administration charged with play
ing into the hands of the dollar-a-
year men. There are some army
officials who are cooperating with
the so-called New Deal element.
Roughly-the Charges
Roughly the charges are these:
Those sympathetic with the view
point of the New Dealers say that
some army officials insist on favor
ing the dollar-a-year men who man.
age to steer defense contracts to
big business, block sub-contracting
to the smaller firms.
Some of the army and navy Of
ficials say that they are not going
to let amateurs run their affairs,
that they have dealt with certain
firms for years who know how to
do what they want done.
The champions Of the small bust
ness men and congressman who
have attempted to help them say
that %priorities assignments are
sending essential materials to the
big business firms-(and they men
ton the utilities in particularly.
Small manufacturers and public
projects like rural Identification
which is bidding for precious cop
per for its power lines, are being
passed by, is the accusation.
The dollar-a-year men say that
they are protecting free enterprise
and that those opposing them are
trying to turn business over to gov
eminent control.
These bitter conflicts of author
ity, effort and viewpoint naturally
prevent the cooperation essential
in the tremendous undertaking
which the Office of Emergency
Management is attempting to carry
out.
This is one reason for the log
jam. There is another. In Wash
ington itself criticism is growing.
This is not new. 1t is criticism
of the overlapping and conflicting
authority among the officials of the
DEM.
Theoretically, Vice President
Wallace is the responsible head of
all defense effort and in that capac-
ity he reports only to the President
but the money he requires to carry
out his functions is controlled by
Jesse Jones, head of the RFC as
well as secretary of commerce.
That is just one example OF similar
anomalies right down the line.
The strange thing about it all is
that everybody in Washington
seems to know all about the log
jam except the President himself
who is the only nan who a
Straighten it out.