The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-08-06
b. PETER EDISON
Monitor-Leader Washington
Carresnondent

make all past crises on price
control, wage control, sas ra-
tioning, sugar rationing and syn
thetic rubber production look
like Sunday school picnics. This
may sound like lot Of alarm
ist spreading of the old con-
fusion, but it can probably be
tr, ced back to the one funda-
mental difficulty experienced
with every phas" of the war ef-
fort that has gone wrong-too
many conflicting agencies trying
to run things, too much division
of authority. In town so full of
co-ordinators and liaison officers
that they're easier to count your
self to sleep with than sheep,
there is no one in clear, undis-
puted control of this fuel oil
problem, so the prospects are ex-
cellent that this, like every other
administrative conflict will
eventually have to be rolled back
to the President for solution.
Currently, five government
agencies have their fingers in
the fuel oil barrel, Mt counting
thu Army, the Navy and the
lend-lease administration who
have first call on all petroleum
products.
First is the War Production
Board-Donald Nelson & Co.
which is supposed to issue direc-
tives to other agencies, telling
them what to d. about any given
shortage or critical material.
Second is the Office or Price
ADMINISTRATION Hender-
son and Co.-which has the
power not only to set the price
on fuel oil, but also to ration it.
Thir is the Office of Defense
Transportation-Joseph B. East
man & Co.-charged with NOV
ing fuel oil as we'll as everything
else when and where it is need
ed, to the best of its ability.
UNCLE JESSE, TOO
Fourth is the Defense Supplies
Corporation. in. the Recon-
struction Finance setup - Uncle
Jesse Jones & Co. This is the
only outfit with any money and
therefore the only one that can
consider paying subsidies to oil
dealers to REIN .'se them for
losses incurred when they have
to pay higher transportation
costs to get oil b rail into the
eastern seaboard area so as to
sell it below maximum prices
set by the Office Ct Frice Ad-
ministration.
Fifth and fl .ly there Is the
Office of the Petroleum Co-ordi-
nator for War - Harold L. Ickes
& Co.-which controls produc-
ton of all petroleum products.
Through its decree that no fuel
OF can be sold to consumers in
the eastern seaboard area be-
tween Aug. 3 and Sept. Is, OPC
has actually taken over control
of distribution though tn t
would seem to be the function
of OPA.
Actually, the conflict between
these agencies runs much deeper
than that.
CPC wants to build a pipeline
from the mid-continent fields to
the eastern seaboard, instead of
just as far as Salem, Ill. WPB
says the steel can't be spared
and won't allocate it.
OPA is ready and willing to
ration fuel oil any time WPB
tells it to, but OPC is against
rationing, although Co-ordinator
Ickes declares that even if every
bus, truck, taxicab and passenger
Ca. in the eastern seaboard we're
taken off the highways for the
entire months of January and
February. existing fuel oil
transportation facilities still
could not meet the normal re-
quirements of the 100000
dwellings IN tn area, heated by
fuel oils.
MORE RATIONING
OPA leans to the idea that the
middle west, east of the Missis-
sippi river at least, should be
rationo on gasoline and fuel oil
so as to share their supply with
the stricken seaboard states, but
OPC is against this.
OPA wa cd to permit the
eastern states oil dealers t. raise
their prices on petroleum prod
ucts couple of cents a gallon to
mako In for tho hiphor frapcpor