Evening star., 1942-11-26
Nelson Letter
10 Force Issue
On Production
PIons to Abroeote
Scheduling Power
Of Army, Navy
BY JAMES Y. NEWTON.


Donald M. Nelson of the War
Production Board and the Army
Is actually a life-and-death
struggle" for control of the Ma
tion's entire economy" high
Government official said today.
While Mr.. Nelson was described
as going ahead with his plan for set
ting up Charles E. Wilson, WPB vice
chairman, as a "czar" over produc-
ton, the source said the move would
be useless without Instrumentation
from President Roosevelt. Mr.. Nell
son and Mr.. Wilson were said to be
hopeful Of help from the President
following their visit to the White
House yesterday, but they are by no
means confident.
Nelson Order Expected.
Mr.. Nelson is expected to issue in
the next day or two an administra.
tive letter which would give Mr.. Will
son powers over scheduling war pro-
duction which the chairman dele
gated to the armed forces last
March. The move would abrogate
the March agreement with the
services.
WPB officials blame much Of the
delay in warplane and other arms
production on faulty scheduling, by
which they mean principally the
failure to arrange balanced flow of
parts for assembly into finished
planes, guns and ships.
The informed source said definite
instruction from Mr.. Roosevelt to
the War and Navy Departments
telling them to acquiesce in the
Nelson plan would be necessary for
the move to mean anything. With
out this White House backing, the
official said the armed forces prob
ably would "sit tight" and ignore
the letter.
Balks at Compromise.
Asked If he believed it likely that
the White House would attempt to
compromise the views Of WPB and
the Army, the official said:
There can be no compromise in
this matter. Such a thing would
mean that war production would be
handled In the same slip-shod way it
has been handled in the past. We
are hopeful that things are working
out our way, but we are by no means
overconf1dence. 1t is too early to
count the generals out"
The official said he believed the
issue would be settled by Monday at
the latest. Without a clear cut
grant Of authority which would
enable him to do q Job" 1t was
held likely that Mr.. Wilson would
resign.
The official described the situation
as a battle for control of all civilian
economy, including manpower, war
production and the Nations trans
portation system. The victor in the
war production fight, he said, will be
likely to win on the other fronts.
Open Conflict Flares.
Conflict between WPB and the
armed services, which has smoldered
Tor months, broke out into the open
week ago when Mr.. Nelson an
nounced that he was creating an
aircraft board to direct plane pro-
duction. He said Mr.. wilson would
be chairman, and that he was dele
eating to him "all my powers" over
plane production. Subsequently, it
was said, MIR. Nelson planned to give
Mr.. Wilson control over production
OF other munitions, including tanks,
guns and probably ships.
| In order foy. Mr. NITiIc1,, - L..-
the authority to carry out his new
duties. the ofdcial said, 1t was nec-
essary for Mr.. Nelson to get back
from the armed services the powers
OF scheduling and expediting war
production. The War and Navy De-
partments so far have not agreed to
relinquish this power.
Generals Important Factor.
One argument the Army is using
to retain control or gain complete
control over aircraft production is
that airplane manufacturers prefer
to do business with the Army alone.
The official said, however, that
plane manufacturers feared the gen.
erals since they receive contracts
from them, but that he knew the
manufacturers would rather have
civilians in charge of production.
In order that control over plane
production might be maintained at
the top, it was charged that the Air
Forces are using from 100 to 200
actual combat officers in its material
division.
The official said most of these men
were trained as pilots and that they
were doing jobs which could be
handled better by civilians, adding
that some Of the officers were dis
trict managers, material chasers"
and general production expediters.