Evening star., 1942-10-20
Agency Topping
WPb Is Asked
In To|an Report
Congress Committee
Says War Con Be
Lost in Washington
By the Associated Press,

N-~~~~-~sSN
A complete reshuffling of top
war agencies under a new super
control board was recommended
today in a congressional report
which said:
Those officials who have charge
OF the war production program, in
cluding the mobilization Of man
power, have not yet grasped the
meaning OF modern war"
The report, bristling with criticism
Of the present setup, was issued by
the Special House Committee on
National Defense Migration, headed
by Representative Tolan, Democrat,
of California.
1t urged subordination of the War
Production Board, the Selective
Service Administration, the War
Manpower Commission and Office
of Price Administration to a new
super agency to be known as the
Office of War Mobilization.
Says War Can Be Lost Here.
Asserting that "our materials dis
tribution system is breaking down"
and that "hoarding of raw materials
has become a Nation wide phenom-
enon," the committee declared:
This war can be lost in Wash
ington. Despite numerous realign-
ments, 10 months after Pearl Har-
Dor, business usual considera-
tions still permeate the Washington
wartime agencies.
The proposed new agency, which
the committee said should be Gre
ated by legislative action, would be
headed by a chairman and primarily
would be policy determining
group.
Under it would be an Office of war
supply, exercising functions now
vested in WPB and the procure
ment divisions of the Army, the
Navy and the Maritime Commission;
an Office of war manpower, taking
over most of the duties of the
existing War Manpower Commission
and Selective Service, and an Office
of economic stabilization, an op-
Grating agency in which the present
OPA would be the chief branch.
Would Transfer Agencies.
The divisions and agencies in
volved would be transferred. the
committee noted, without "imme-
diate changes in personnel"
The committee declared in its
sixth formal report that THE cur
rent demand for the immediate
passage of a national service act
is a symptom of prevailing admin
istrative shortcomings" which. if
not quickly faced and corrected"
would jeopardize the war effort.
"The bare outlines for national
war production program have not
yet begun to appear" it commented.
The committee said it believed the
public was prepared to follow clear
and simple" directions, but was con-
fused because of conflicting orders
and demands emanating from Wash
ington agencies"
1--WE believe the American people
are ready for any test" it said,
provided that they feel assured that
their leadership has prepared the
ground for the proposed advance"
After suggesting that the President
enunciate at once the principle that
all the Nations manpower shall be
used where it will be most useful in
winning the war, the committee said
it then would be clear that occapu-
tional deferment must become the
chief instrument for organizing our
manpower supply"
Decentraliza ton Proposed.
Under the committees proposed
set-up, which would precede enact
ment of service legislation, there
would be fixed policy of decentrali-
zation, the committee asserting that
many of the shortcomings of the
war effort to date are traceable to
the attempt to run. the war from
Washington
The committee accused the War
Manpower Commission of seeking
service legislation to "underwrite the
authority it has failed to exercise -
asserted Selective Service "is obvi-
ously unfit" to effect a balanced
apportionment of manpoWer re-
sources between military service and
war production, and said the War
Production Board had "activelv pro-
NOTED" what it called "the present
dispersal of responsibility for pro-
duction."
WPB, it added, "has never been
converted to the job of war produc-
ton" and has permitted endless
jockeying between the individual
| industry branches" and endless col
lisions between individual produc-
ton projects"
Other Comment.
It's other comments included
these:
Government arsenals and navy
yards "are among the worst offend
ers" in the matter of boarding OF
labor and improper utilization OF
skills.
Production has proceeded from
one crisis to another" with the
major problem being ..the absence
of a national production program -
There is not today available
within the Federal Government any
single agency which knows whether
conversion" from peacetime to war
time industry "has taken place at
80 per cent or at so per cent efn-
ciency."
'"The war agencies still pursue
patchwork methods"
"The most serious single mistake
OF the War Production Board has
been the devolution Of its RESPONSE
bilities to the military agencies who
have been incapable Of carrying out
these responsibilities"
Committee members besides Mr.
Tolan are Representatives Spark
man of Alabama and Arnold OF
Illinois, Democrats, and Curtis OF
Nebraska and Bender of Ohio, Re-
pubhcans. Il