Evening star., 1941-03-23
BERNARD M. BARUCH, who knows

~ from experience ana observation
more than any one else about wartime
control of the American economic sys-
tenn, has very definite ideas as to sundry
steps he considers necessary to wage
effective total war against the axis
powers.
Many of his proposals, In one form
or another have already been incor-
porated in the present defense program
as a result of his many conferences with
President Roosevelt, members of the Ma
tional Defense Advisory Commission, the
ONCE of Production Management, Sena-
tors, Representatives and ranking ad-
ministration officials
This role of planner, adviser and elder
statesman is not new to Mr.. Baruch,
who will be II years old next August.
President Wilson called him from his
Wall Street office in 1916 to be a men,
Der of the first Advisory Commission of
the Council OF National Defense He
successfully became chairman of the
committee on raw materials, minerals
and metals and commissioner in charge
of all purchases for the Allies; in March,
1918, he was named chairman of the
War Industries Board, which held al
most supreme power over American in
dustry the later months of the war.
Sees Danger to Industry.
After the armistice he was member
OF several important committees at the
Versailles peace conference. President
Harding appointed him to the agricul-
tural conference in 1922; President
Hoover called on him repeatedly for
advice after the 1929 crash: he was an
intimate adviser of President Roosevelt
from 1888 on; he has testified before
numerous congressional committees, and
now he is prepared to give the country
in its present emergency the benefit of
his experience and research.
Mr. Baruch writes in the Harvard
Business Review that demands of total
war are so great that even in the United
States, with its present excess capacity
and its unemployed reserves of labor,
there is danger that some industries may
be strained beyond their limits and that
this condition may extend to the whole
economic structure.
His major solution, to be applied when
the present industrial capacities and
labor reserves are used up, calls for wide
spread imposition of priorities and the
simultaneous setting of ceiling beyond
which prices cannot rise although retain
ing fluidity below the fixed maximum.
He would not ban strikes or "conscript"
labor but would establish a labor rela-
tons agency to prevent strikes either
by opposing unjust encroachments on
labors rights or by winning the backing
OF labor for, any sacrifices that are found
absolutely necessary"
Single Body With Single Head.
Mr.. Baruchs general plan differs from
the present organizations Of the ONCE of
Production Management and Advisory
Commission in that he would have one
single body with a single head. Mem
bers of these defense agencies who have
read his monograph observe that most
of his proposals have been or could be
fitted into the present setup if the emerg-
ency reaches the point he foresees as
probable In the o. P. M. there are already
divisions of production. under John D.
Biggers; purchase, under Donald M. Nell
son; priorities, under Edward R. Stet-
tinius. jr., and bureau Of research and
statistics, under Stacy May. In the ad-
visory group there are commissioners
in charge of price stabilization, Leon
Henderson, and consumer protection,
Miss Harriet Elliott.
The latest o. P. M. regulations au-
thorize the director of priorities to set
up specia! committees for each indus
try and groups of materials and to
assign preference ratings to all con-
tracts ana subcontracts and materials
directly OF indirectly necessary to the
national defense. The system now in
use, with the exception of administra-
ton, is similar to the one Mr.. Baruch
advocates
The price and consumer divisions of
the Advisory Commission have not been
as active as the o. P. M. agencies, but
both positively and negatively they have
stopped runaway prices and proflteer-
ing.
In the positive field, Mr.. Henderson,
who has worked closely with Mr.. Baruch,
has beater down prices of metals, scrap
meta, lumber, aluminium and iridium.
The last named, which is a hard sub
stance sparingly used in complicated
machinery, rose to s375 an ounce. Mr..
Henderson forced the price down more
than hail. These positive acts had
great negative value-they kept in