The Nome nugget., 1941-09-19
Federal Grip On Supplies Tiightenes g
By W. H. LAWRENCE

WAof1lN( O1S 1leSlelcilt Roosevelt filled what has been regarded generally here as a long-felt need for centralized planning when he established a Supply Priorities and Allocations Board. This Supreme Court of the American Economy has the task of reconciling the maximum demands of all-out military pre- paredness and defense aid pro- grams, and the minimum require ments for keeping the civilian economy functioning on an even keel.
 Upon SPAB was placed the re- sponsibility for sizing up the to- tai supply picture, considering not only what domestic sources now produce but the advisability of expanding them for future in creased production. It must look for means of further coordinat- ing the supplies and facilities of the United States and Canada, and it must try to increase i'm ports of important raw materials.
 No Easy Road for Board
 This is a tough job, and the men who handle it will not be popular in the next few months, because the closed doors of civ ilian factories-fguratively bear ing the sign Closed by Order of the OPM' = and the expected temporary unemployment of as many as 100000 civilian goods workers vii create a certain amount of unrest.
 At SPAB's head the President put Vice President Henry A. Wal lace, and the difficulties of the task confronting him serve as a partial answer, at least, to those who ascribe political motives to every move and who think that the President is placing Mir Wal lace in the limelight with the 1914 Presidential election in mind. But those who see politics in it can assert easily that if MT. Wallace can do this job, and do it well, he will go into the 1914 Presidential race with enormous prestige, and the goodwill of businessmen and workers.
 MT. Wallace has a board of thoroughly cosmopolitan charac ter, including a representative from industry, William s. Knud- sen, OPM Director General and former head Of General Motors Corporation; labor leader, Sidney Hillman, OPM Associate Director General; the Secretary of War, Henry L. Stimson; the Secretary of the Navy, Frank Knox; Leon Henderson, Federal Price Administrator and OPM Civilian Allocations Director, and Harry L. Hopkins, special as sistant to President Roosevelt and supervisor of the defense-aid programs.
 Nelson Is Key Man
 Key man in the new organiza- ton is Donald M Nelson, a busi- ness man who is popular with the New Dealers. He is to be ex- ecutive director of the board, will preside in the Vice Presi- dents absence, and will carry out it's decisions as OPM prior ities director, succeeding Edward R. Stettinius Jr, who moved in to Harry L. Hopkins's old job of Lease-Lend Administrator, while MT. Hopkons took on the general supervision of all defense-ai John D. Biggers stepped out as director of the OPM Production Division, to fill Presidential assignment as American Minister to London in charge of synchron izing British and American pro- duction for defense.
 The move was pleasing to both New Dealers and business men, although it established for the first time since the defense pro- gram was set up a board in which the New Dealers were ,1or1a in ant foi,Y fo 4hraa xr,iiI NI,