Evening star., 1942-01-11
Henderson's Reputation
Enhanced by War
BIZ OUen L. Scott.

i
By OtUen L. Scott.
Only one among the many high rank
ing Army, Navy and civilian off,cials who
were preparing this country for war
emerged from the recent shocks with
reputation enhanced. That person.
strange as 1t may seem, turned out to be
. young New Dealer.
When war came, con Henderson, who
Is price administrator and director of
civilian supply. found high officials
scrambling to try to do all Of . sudden
what he had been urging that they do
for = year. Likewise, when war came,
Mr.. Henderson was all set with his own
plans and wasted no time putting them
into effect. His are the orders that put
an end to tire and automobile sales and
directed sharp curtailment In many other
fields. He had his skeleton organization
and his regulations all ready.
Mr.. Henderson. IN his job n price
controller, has had very little SPECIFIC
power. Yet with the power he does have,
and by using persuasion. he has managed
10 hold this eomtry's price structure in
. remarkable degree OF balance. To do
the JOB he has not hesitated 10 clash
head on with the farm bloc in Congress
or to tackle any other bloc or group that
might stand In the way.
All Of this Is tn striking contrast to the
situation in other fields Of the armament
effort.
The Army and Navy and o. p. NJ. hold
great powers, directly given them by
Congress. Yet. while Mr.. Henderson was
pushing ahead to do his job with made
quate powers, the others were hesitating
to use the powers that Congress had
given them. Every sign Of political or
group opposition led to hesitation Now
that Congressman are asking why this
country has such an unsatisfactory rec
ord Of military production. there Is under
way . game Of buck passing that prob
ably seldom has been equaled The buck
finally Is landing in the lap Of the public
which Is accused Of not wanting better
results II getting them tnterfered with
the comforts Of life.
A moral may be read into this interest
ing situation.
Leon Henderson Is young man, barely
Is, and Is surrounded by young men. He
and his aides have no particular interests
outside Of their jobs. They have few pre-
past methods. They appear ready to ny
In the face Of the politicians when neces-
sary.
Except for Mr.. Henderson, President
Roosevelt. rather naturally, in choosing
men to direct this country's armament
effort and to run the Army and Navy.
turned to older men who are fixed
in their ways. Ages. with . few excep-
tions, run from 90 to "a. There u
much emphasis in the top ranks on
lawyers and on salesmen types. There
Is very little emphasis upon engineers
and managers of the kind who are
interested first of all in results.
1t required q disaster in Hawaii and
defeat In the Philippines to shake
o. P. M. and S. p A. B. out Of their
ruts. In the Navy It was not until the
experience which the japanese provided
at Pearl Harbor and that the Amer
lean Marines, with IL planes, provided
at Wake Island that the airplane was
accepted for what it Is worth. In the
Army the leadership recognized some
months ago that modern war and mod
ern methods require younger and more
adaptable commanders and planners.
AS result, the Army is ahead of the
Navy in its shake-up Of personnel and
its acceptance Of new ideas.
Yet. all through the services and the
o. p. NJ and S. p. A. B. there runs an
emphasis on can't" type Of philosophy.
Army oficials in charge Of procure
ment have argued that you can't get re-
suits through forced subcontracting.
They have insisted that the country
can't speed up production by using small
plants or by changing contracting meth
DDS. The o. P. M. accepted the argu-
ment that the tools of the automobile
and other industries can't be converted
to use in making armament.
Now the country Is being told that
the 10000 900 wild rubber trees In South
America can't be tapped to produce more
than about $1,000 tons Of rubber . year.
There are all kinds or arguments ad-
vanced to show why enough synthetic
rubber can't be produced to meet the
country's basic needs and why Guayule
rubber can't be developed in time.
The Navy insisted until the last few
weeks that . bomb can't sink battle
ship and that planes can't stop . naval
offensive. There was . very long argu-
ment about Why the steel industry can't
increase its productive facilities to ad-
vantage. Now there is another claim
that the country can't nnd brains enough
to plan and execute Z vastly expanded
shipbuilding program.
Emphasis has been, and still is, very
often on the negative side. Few officials
are insisting that all of these and other
problems can be solved with real effort.
They are inclined to discover reasons
why labor can't be brought into line. or
why farmers can't be denied something
that they want from Congress or Why
this or that interest can't be interfered
with.
It is for that reason that Leon Hen
derson and his aides take on such i'm
portance. They always have practiced
the opnnsite annroach