Evening star., 1941-09-21

DONALD w. NELOON.
Harris & ElUing Photo.
tile centers as chairman of the Industrial
Committee to recommend working stand
ards for the textile industry under the
wage-hour law and last year he joined
the Treasury Departments Procurement
Division.
President Roosevelt had asked him to
come to Washington for two months to
help the Treasury buy airplanes for the
British. AS late as last January he told
this writer emphatically that he was leav-
ing in April When a small wager on this
was offered, he refused to take it, saying
that unfortunately he knew the Presi-
dents persuasive powers.
Nelson is Democrat and is generally
classified as New Dealer, although he
hasn't any philosophy or plan for re-
making the world. Primarily business
man, a merchant, he believes in getting
done the job at hand. He is in Wash
ington today because he is convinced
that our first job is to eliminate Hitler
ism from the face of the earth. This
can be accomplished, he says, by con-
centrating American productive power to
the task. Business and Government, must
work together efficiently and harmoni-
ously, he explains, but business and the
country must accept the necessary sacri-
fees; Government, on the other hand,
must not destroy the very fundamentals
we are protecting.
On the necessity of controls during the
emergency, Nelson says:
"All of this talk of controls, of rules
and regulations, Of converting business
from one line Of activity to another
all of this, of course, Is unpleasant.
don't like controls :. but I think it Is
all-important for us to realize that we
are either going to accept great many
temporary controls now or live In world
where permanent, iron-tight controls are
the order of the day.
For that, after all, is what is at stake
in this whole world struggle.
so these emergency controls, irksome
though they may be, are things we must
accept for our own sake. We will accept
them gladly-as long as we realize that
they are in fact emergency controls, and
hence temporary controls.
For in this great struggle we are not
thinking at all of the present moment.
We are thinking of the future. This pro-
found effort of ours would not be worth
making if 1t were not the only way of
| making sure that we can be free in the
| future as we have in the past.
What we do in this emergency must
be planned carefully. 1t must not merely
insure the mastering of the greatest pos
| sible strength; the individual controls
and actions by which We muster that
strength must be planned and put to-
| gether in such way that they can be
dismantled after the emergency is
| over -"
Big Physically and Mentally.
Physically and mentally, Nelson Is
big man. Over feet all, weighing more
than 200 pounds, he has an air of self
confidence which breeds confidence from
others. AS executive head of the largest
mail order house in the world, he was
trained to think in terms of spending
| hundreds of millions of dollars year, as
acting director of the Treasury Depart
ment Procurement Division and later at
the Purchase Division of the Office of
Production Management he thought in
| terms of hundreds of millions of dollars
| a day. AS executive director of S. P. A. B.
| he is dealing with billions yet he has
the same unhurried, friendly but precise
composure of his earlier years.
Somewhere along his career he worked
out technique admirably adapted for
the present national and international
situation. He is not afraid of responsible
| ity; in. fact, he reaches for it and is
willing to take the consequences.
II may make mistakes in this new job,
but if I'm right 80 per cent of the time
I'll be more than satisfied" he says. II
would rather make some mistakes and
| get the big job done than make no little
mistakes and jeopardize the whole
works"
S. P. A. BIS jolicy to make decisions
will evoke small criticism from business
| men, to whom uncertainty is often worse
| than adverse action. They will at least
know where they stand and can start
again from there.
Got Action at Once.
| The Presidents executive order Great
ing S. P. A. B. was the third reorganiza-
| tion of the defense machinery. The Ma
| tional Defense Advisory Council and the
Office of Production Management had
proved inadequate. Critics of the defense
effort said the latest move was like the
proverbial reorganization of the French
cabinets-positions were shuf1ed, but the
old faces remained.
| S. P. A. BIS first actions, however,
pleased Baruch, who had almost ex-
! ploded over the inefficiencies, Stupidities
and chickering's in N. D. A. C. and o.
P. NJ
The Presidents order had not ap-
pointed one-man head of defense pro-
duction and had not explicitly delegated
the necessary authority to the new
group, a. Baruch had prsached IA and