Evening star., 1942-08-28
Nelson's Get. Tough
priorities Order
Hailed by Brewster
WPB Chief Also Urged
To Dispense With Few
DoIIor-u-Yeur Men

To Dispense With Few
DoIIur-u-Yeor Men
War Production Chief Nelson,
urged on Capitol Hill to become
a Simon Legree," was hailed to-
day by a Republican Senator for
his strong order OF last night
pulling back to the WPB power
delegated to the services.
Mr.. Nelson announced that au-
/ thority to assign priorities to in
dividual Army and Navy contracts
will be exercised after September 7
| by WPB district officers instead of
| the procurement and contracting
officers of the armed services.
Senator Brewster of Maine, i'm
mediately interpreting the order as
evidence that the war production
head is getting tough" said he
commended him heartily.
Raps Pocket Patriots"
"These are times" Senator Brew
ster said, that require a regular
Simon Legree who'll play no IA
vorites. Mr.. Nelson obviously is the
man to do the job If he really gets
tough. He's fitted by background
and training
Senator Brewster. asserting that
''this crisis cannot afford pocket pa
triots," also suggested that Mr.
Nelson could dispense with few of
the dollar-a-year men in WPB.
People must realize" he said,
that no matter how important they
are, Mr.. Nelson can order them
around without impugning their pa
triotism. Mealy -mouthed procedure
is OUT
Mr.. Nelson informed the services
of the priorities order in letters to
Undersecretary of War Patterson,
Undersecretary Of the Navy For
restal and Ferdinand Eberstadt,
chairman of the Army and Navy
Munitions Board. -
Specialists for Offices.
WPB Immediately will send
priority specialists to the various
district Offices in order to exercise
tighter controls over assignment of
preference ratings, and to separate
that function from the job of ex-
pediting particular parts Of the war
program. The specialists will have
authority to issue preference rating
certificates on the basis of approved
directives on recommendation by the
| Army and Navy.
This was another step in Mr.. Mel
| sons announced plan of balancing
war production. Under the system
followed recently, parts of the war
program were pushed too fast at
the expense of other parts which
may have been Of equal or greater
Importance in the overall program.
Procedure in Past.
In the past. preference ratings
have been assigned to military
orders in the field by individual
procurement and contracting Of
ficers on the basis of broad di-
receives prepared by ANMB with
WPB approval. Under that plan
WPB was unable to schedule prop
erly. There has been no careful
accounting of the quantities of ma
terials to which ratings were as
signed.
Mr.. Nelson explained the new pro-
cedure was. another step toward q
much moFestrict syst&p1pf l1and1ina
the fow~ Of materials to guarantee
the most efficient possible use OF
every ounce of scarce material and
every critical sub-assembly. It is
IN line with the recently announced
fourth quarter materials control
program.
The WPB has started experiment.
ing with new plan for controllins
the how OF materials needed by
prime war contractors with a view
to meeting delivery dates exactly.
The plan, called contract produc.
ton control" was outlined by Amory
Houghton, WPB director general TO,
operations.
1t Is being tried out in connection
with three Navy contracts for radios
II successful, Mr.. Houghton said. il
may be given a place in the genera
program for controlling the flow o,
materials.
Full Budget Set Up.
Principal feature of the plan is tn.
setting up of a complete budget O
materials and parts required to full.
fill prime war contract. First tn,
prime contractor obtains from all hi.
subcontractors information showins
both material requirements and pro.
posed shipping schedules for thu
parts which the subcontractor vii
supply.
These reports then will be assem-.
bled by the prime contractor, to.
gether with a statement of his owr
material requirements and a pro
duction schedule of the parts he viii
make himself, for submission to tn,
contracting agency.
Preference ratings will be assigned
to the approved deliveries of mate
rials and parts, SO that the sched
ules can be met. The plan calls TO
delivery Of materials neither earle
| nor afnr fhoy naeoccor