Imperial Valley press., 1942-06-23
CAPITAL TALKS
by
Peter
Edison


Donald NJ. Nelson is scheduled to
go before Senator Truman's COM
mitee investigating war production
some time before the end of June
and give a progress report on what
| he has done in the six months
since he took over. The formal re-
/ port itself will probably be pretty
dull going. Much of it will be a
mere making public of information
prepared previously for an execu-
/ tive session of the House Appro-
priations Committee, when Nelson
/ appeared to estimate the sums
needed to finance WPB operations
during the coming fiscal year. That
part of the report will be a mere
chronology of WPB operations
Production figures. if they could be
made public, would make an in
teresting chapter. but that's all re-
Stricted information.
Nelson's appearance before
the Truman committee can be
a pretty lively session, however,
if the senators have a mind to
version, in which they lam
basted the War Production
Board for keeping dollar-a-
year men from big business i'm
key WPB positions. This is be-
coming quite a row. and il is a
beautiful example of the diff
ference in the way things are
done in government and the
way they are done in private
business.
Some of the WPB braintruSters
who are Nelson's advisers privately
bemoan the fact that the boss s
one blind spot is his continual
backing up of these dollar-a-year
men who are his principal as
SiStantS.
Nearly all of the senators on the
Truman committee still mistrust
dollar-a-year men. They believe
Nelson. to save himself, should di-
vorce the WPB organization from
all these dollar-a-year boys.
MOT IMPRESSED"
Nelson's first reaction to the Tru-
man report on conversion was to
issue a statement expressing full
confidence in Philip D. Reed, $780,
000-a-year chairman of the board
of the General Electric Company
now on leave and serving at a dol
lar-ayear as chief of the Bureau
of Industry Branches in WPB. The
committee singled out Reed for
criticism, declaring he did not
take the necessary action to obtain
the maximum conversion of pri-
vate industry to war production in
the shortest possible time" and
that the committee has not been
impressed with Mr.. Reeds ability
or accomplishments, either in the
field of conversion or in the field
of copper, lead and zinc, where
the committee, in its report of
Jan. Is, 1912, had occasion to crit
icize his failure. to recognize that
a shortage of thes metals was i'm
minent or to take proper action
with respect thereto"
Now in this battle over Phil
Reed you have a glaring cX-
ample of the difference between
the way top man gets fired in
private business and the way
he gets the gate in government.
In private in s try, when
some second vice president or other
Stooge pulls boner and is about
to be bounced, he is permitted TO
resign, quietly Any publicity is
hushed up.
It's just the opposite in govern
ment.
AS to whether Phil Reed is guilty
or innocent, you're as good a
judge as anyone. You have the re-
port of the Truman committee that
he isn't so hot. A few days before,
a House subcommittee on military
affairs. investigating the same set
of facts, found that dollar-a-year
men were okay and vindicated
Reed in particular. Nelson shares
the latter view.
TOUGH ENOUGH?