Evening star., 1942-07-25
WPb Is Blamed
.|nHigginsCase
Steel Shortage
House Members Suy
Inventory Control
Is at FuuIt
Earlier Story on Page A-4.)

Earlier Story on Page A-4.)
P, TIT Associated Press.
The reported steel shortage to-
day was declared a matter of
faulty inventory control" by
members of House Merchant
Marine subcommittee investigat-
ing circumstances surrounding
Government orders halting con-
struction OF the gigantic Higgins
shipbuilding project at New Or
leans.
The assertion was made in a joint
statement by Representatives Boy
kin, Democrat of Alabama, chair
man of the subcommittee, and Cul-
kin, Republican of New York, after
long closed session in which DR..
Mordecai Ezekiel Government econ
omist at present connected with the
War Production Board, testified as
to steel stocks in the country.
Representative Boykin declared
that while shortages of steel had
occurred in some shipbuilding yards,
there was an abnormally large sup
ply in others.
He contended in the statement,
issued orally with Representative
Culkin asserting confirmation, that
there had been sufficient steel on
hand at the time of the cancella-
ton Of the Higgins contract to meet
all the demands involved.
Text Of Statement.
The text OF the Boykin-C -Culkin
statement follows:
THE evidence tends to establish
the fact that at the time of the
cancellation of Higgins contract
there was and there had been suf-
ficient steel for construction of the
entire ship building program.
THE WPB, in charge of allocating
steel, allocated it to the Maritime
Commission.
ut now appears that the old
standard yards, some of them SUBJ
sidiaries of the old steel trust, had
inventories way out OF proportion to
their normal needs. If this steel had
been properly allocated and distrib-
uted, there would have been suf-
ficient steel for the entire ship build
ing program in the United States,
both naval and maritime vessels,
including those at the Higgins yards.
"The shortage has occurred in the
newer and more efncient yards"
Denies Outside Influence.
Earlier, Chairman Emory S. Land
of the Maritime Commission, had
declared fiatly that absolutely no
outside influence" had entered into
the commissions decision cancelling
a contract awarded the Higgins
company for construction of 200
Liberty ships.
Just as firmly he ascribed short
age Of shipbuilding steel as the rea-
son for thes action, and said that
there now were sufficient ways and
sufficient yards to absorb present
steel ALLEGATIONS to the commission
land any additional ALLEGATIONS"
L. E. Detweiler, assistant to the
president of the Higgins firm, charged
in testimony yesterday that men
acting as advisors to high Govern
ment officials while still retaining
connections with steel and ship
building corporations Influenced"
decisions to cancel the contract.
Denies Detweiler Testimony.
At one point in Mr.. Deitweiler's
testimony, he said Secretary of the
Navy Knox "has to rely on Joe
(Joseph W. Powell. who came from
the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corp
Mr. Powell is an assistant to Secre-
tary Knox. Representative O'Brien,
Republican of New York, expressed
the opinion that Joe Powell is run
lining the maritime commission"
Today, Admiral Land was asked
whether Mr.. Powell had influenced
the commission in the Higgins case
and the reply was that neither
Powell nor any steel man nor any
ship builder" had damn thing to
do with it,"
I'VE will meet the President S
shipbuilding program irrespective of
the Higgins cancellation" Admiral
Land said during his testimony>be
fore a House Merchant Marine Sub
committee inquiring into the COM
missions decision.
Mr.. Higgins, asked today by re-
porter whether he had any hope
that the cancellation might yet be
revoked, replied, I'll never give ur
hope"
"An intelligent allocation," he
added, would show that there is
enough steel to build all the ships
(See HIGGINS, Page 2-X0