Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-12-29
Nelson Denies Conflict
With Army and Navy
On Output Control
Reports No Opposition
To Scheduling Work
Undertaken by Wilson
BY the Associated Press.

By the Associated Press.
There has been no fight be-
tween the War Production Board
and the armed services over
control Of munitions production
or control of the civilian econ
omy, in the expressed opinion
of WPB Chairman Donald M.
Nelson.
Mr.. Nelson today authorized re-
porters to make public some off-the-
record statements made by him at
press conference last Thursday, add
ing the stipulation that he not be
quoted directly.
There have been misconceptions
and lack OF understanding, he ac-
knowledged, but he declared he was
absolutely certain there now was no
opposition in the services to the pro-
duction scheduling work newly UNI
dertaken by his production vice
chairman, Charles E. Wilson, former
president of General Electric Co.
Control of the civilian economy
an objective which some congress
sional and other sources have at
tributed to 1t. Gen. Brehon Somer-
veil, chief of the Army's Services OF
Supply-has never been funda-
mental issue in the relations be-
tween WPB and the Army, Mr.. Nell
son declared.
Differences on Methods.
There always will be differences
of opinion as long as strong men
have charge of the various aspects
of the program, he went on, but
these differences have had to do
with methods of getting the job
done, not on the main objectives.
The task is to get agreement on the
main objective and how to achieve
it, and Mr.. Nelson said it was his
honest judgment that the merging
of viewpoints was in better shape
today than it has ever been.
To illustrate his point about
strong men clashing, Mr.. Nelson
took programs not connected with
the Army or Navy: High octane
gasoline and rubber. Rubber Di-
rector William M. Jeffers in re-
port to Mr.. Nelson recently de-
manded top priority for the syn
thetic rubber plant construction
program, declaring that other i'm
portant programs, including high
octain gasoline, were in such direct
competition for materials that he
was not hopeful Of completion be
fore the danger deadline.D
The heads of two such programs
are bound to be in opposition to each
other, Mr.. Nelson said, because to
each man his own job is the most
important one. The man in charge
of rubber, for example, says we must
have rubber regardless of anything
else Mr.. Nelson said he agreed-that
you can't win the war without rub
Der, but, he added, you can certainly
lose the war if you don't have hun
dred-octane gasoline
The programs conflict right down
the line. Both types of plant use
the same valves, same heat eX-
changers, same instruments and
many of the same components.
Mr.. Nelson said his job was to
reconcile these points of conflict so
that all important programs move
forward together and we get hun
dred-octane gasoline to keep the
planes flying at the same time We
get rubber to keep the mechanical
Army rolling. Such clashes are not
fighting, he said; they are the rubs
that inevitably occur when strong
men are doing their jobs for all they
are worth. Whenever there is COM
plete harmony, he added, we are not
doing enough.
In the same sense. there has never
been fundamental conflict between
WPB and the Army on who decides
what the Army wants, when it is
wanted and where it is wanted, Mr..
Nelson said-that is strictly a Job
for the fighting forces.
WPB's job, however, is to tell the
services whether all such programs
are possible when Jumped together
with the essential needs of the civil
Ian economy and the indirect needs
of the war program itself-such
things as lubricating oil and ma
chine tools.
Mr.. Nelson said he believed full
understanding had now been arrived
at; that WPB's Production Execu-
tive Committee, headed by Mr.. Will
son, provided meeting place for the
elimination of conflicts, and that
there was no opposition from the
services to the type of production
scheduling and meshing that Mr..
Wilson proposed to do