The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-12-01

IS an lNQepenueQG EdsOm governm e n tai agency with authority to act swiftly on specific complaints and problems,
 It might be called the Ofilce of Small Business Problems, It would serve as forum where complaints could be heard and Gs an independ- ent advocate of the cause of small business. More important, 1t would net as @ trouble shooter to represent small business and get action, and 1t would have to be clothed with ample power. The President would probably have full authority to appoint such , board, but Holcomb thinks 1t would have even more force If Con- gress enacted . law creating 1t. The membership would be composed of small business men with Q few law yers to give legal advice.
 More than half the complaints from small business men received by Holcomb were drafted after they had failed to get relief from other department of the government. He found small business msn as q whole were distrusttul of the oface of Pro- duction Management. The leading figures on OpM were big business dollar-a-year men, corporation ate torneys, labor leaders and profess sional economists.
 EVIDENCE
 PILES UP
 Time after time small business men complained to Holcomb that they saw their big competitors se- curing priority material after trips to Washington. Holcon.p cited case where 0 Michigan boiler manutac- turer said he was the lowest bidder for installation at an Oklahoma air. port, but the award was made to 6 company bidding $l,700 higher. Hol- comb contacted the officials in charge and the Michigan man flnal- ly got the contract,
 A small but well known Inanufac. turer of outboard motors complained that he was about to close his plant because of priority shut-down on materials, while only i6 miles away his largest competitor was operating full swing on government and civil- ian contracts. Holcomb has tackled this problem and hopes for results.
 L. M. Evans, president of Small Business of America, Inc, from his otflce in Cleveland, has written Pres ident Roosevelt complaining that small business men are under 0 siege of economic boycott as strangling as the tightest military blockade. He asserts thousands of small business men, who with their employees con- stitute the largest taxpaying group In every city and state, are facing ruin. Says Evans;
 This pending calamity must be laid at the door of the administra- tors of national defense who have fiagrantly discriminated against small business. Big business has re- ceived every consideration, small business none. Perhaps we should have expected this, for the men who head the defense administration are nearly all from big business"
 AS SENATOR'S
 SEE IT
 Congress is getting restve about this problem. Senators are not con- vinced that the Presidents naming of Floyd Odlum as director of OPM's division of contract distribution Is Q solution. Senator Hatch of New Mexico, head of Q special committee to investigate defense program con- taets, Is alarmed lest America have the experience of Britain, where 20,- 900 manufacturing plants were shut down almost overnight in the changeover from peace to war economy. According to Odlum's own estimate, 2 per cent of the supply of strategic materials would enable 30,- 900 to 45,000 small metal-working U. 8, plants to continue during the first half of l942.
 Senator O'Mahoney of wyoming, complaining that the little fellows are being kicked around from pillar to post, has introduced a bill to help small business. Under 1t, any person whose business operations are ad~ versely affected by assignment of priority In any materials used in his business shall be afforded a chance to present his views to an agency designated by the President.
 If he shows that his business op- erations will be hurt by shortage of materials or that his inability to continue business will result in un- employment for his employees, the agency shall so report to the Pres ident, and he shall allocate to the complainant such amounts of ma terials as in his judgment will be necessary to prevent hardship to the business man, his employees or his customers.