Imperial Valley press., 1941-04-24

WASHING loN, hpTll "a - Oiic
of the best things that has happen
ed in washington in a long time is
the coming of William S. Knudsen
as director of the Office of Produc-
ton Management. Twice in the last
week he has been before congress
sional committees which are trying
to find out what's wrong with the
defense setup.
First, he went to the Military
Affairs Committee, which could
only see red on labor troubles,
then to the Truman Senate Com
mittee, which really has chance
to do constructive work in explor-
ing contracts that may have been
too hastily made and too eXpen-
sivelv carried out.
Before these committees, Mr..
Knudsen has handled himself SO
we'll that he has had the commit
teemen eating out of his hand and
thinking everything was great,
which it was. After Knudsen's tes-
timony before the Truman commit
tee, a little old lady edged her
way through the crowd and said
she just wanted to shake his hand
and pat him on the back and tell
him what a good job he was doing
KNUDSEN
KNOWS
The mans utter simplicity and
unaffectedness, plus a rich sense
of humor. and his knowledge of
what he's talking about, enable him
to get things done.
Giving the background OF leav-
ing his job in Detroit to take over
defense production, he said SIM
ply that one day the President
called me up on the telephone to
say he wanted me to come down
to Washington. I asked for a day
to go TO New York to tell my peo-
pie about it. The next day 1
came to see the President. 1t was
all over in Is minutes. I was work
ing in Washington.
The story Of what he has done
in Washington has of course been
told. How the plans for an amy
of 100000 were raised to provide
for an army of 100000. How
plane production schedules were
raised from 1000 to $4,000 a year
How the machine tool industry ex-
panded from 5000 million in 1899
to S400 million in 1910 to $3.50 mil
lion now. How tank production was
stepped up, even though that
meant redesigning the 27-ton med
ium tank. all except the running
gear. And so on. Four big bomber
plants built. New powder mills.
Five new tank plants.
Concerning the biggest Of those
tank plants, Knudsen said Il went
10 Chrysler and got Chrysler to
agree to make ID tanks a day" 1t
was as simple as that. The SIC
million plant was scheduled to open
April %, and will be turning out it's
Ia a day by october.
Knudsen knows all the answers,
and he explained patiently how
his organization was set up.
Does it work efficiently?" Sem
ator Ralph O. Brewster of Dexter,
Me, wanted TO know.
oh, senatorl" Knudsen replied
with a big grin. "I'll leave that TO
YOU. When the laugh on Brewster
was over, Knudsen's modesty came
to the fore again. I'VE handle
whatever comes our way, he said,
and waved the idea away with his
big hand.
We're all on the same floor" he
went on to explain. I'VE can get
together every hour. Hillman is
right next door to me. I have a
private wire TO Stimson and Knox
ard whenever / want to talk TO
them I pick up the phone. The
biggest part OF my work is done
on the phone"
SEES FOR
HIMSELF
That may apply to the time
Knudsen is in the office, but he
spends an amazing part of the time
on the road, inspecting these de-
fense industry plants TO find out
what they're doing-not TO check
up on them or look for trouble,
but just TO know.
Knudsen's office has been vitally
concerned with the reliability of