Evening star., 1942-08-23
Nation Remains Deep
In 1ane|efoot on
Home Front
Production Riddle
And InfIution Threat
Unchanged in Week =.
BY JAMES MARROW and WILLIAM
PINKERTON.
Wide World Business Writers.

NEW YORK, Aug 22-This was
another tangle foot week for Amer
leans on the home front.
Much action was promised, or
hinted. or was in the making. Much
remained to be settled. Little was.
The scrambled production pro-
gram still was scambled The threat
of imitation still was threat Both
may be cleared up in the weeks
ahead.
Donald M. Nelson, needed to an
ger by the mounting criticism of the
ways he runs the War Production
Board, returned from weeks vaca-
ton with these promises:
From now on any one who crosses
my path is going to have his head
taken off. l am going to get tough
enough to get this job done. There
will be no more alibis. l am sick
of them"
officials said he had ordered a
housecleaning in the WPB to weed
out the misfits.
super Board Wanded.
When Judge Samuel l. Rosenman
had finished his check-up on keep
ing down the cost of living, author
itatlve sources said, he would recon-
mend to President Roosevelt the
creation of super" board to ham
die the Job.
They said he believed the admin
istration attack on imitation should
be unified by putting all the i'm
portant officials connected with the
problem on the same committee
which might be headed by neutral
outsider.
The committee, II created, proba-
bly, would consist of such officials as
Nelson, the price administrator, the
Treasury Secretary, the budget di-
rector. the Secretary of Commerce.
the Agriculture Secretary and the
War Labor Board chairman.
Problems that need settling in
clude wages, farm prices, taxes, the
Governments fiscal policy for
financing the war, and subsidies for
to keep down living costs.
Wickard Changes Stand.
In major reversal, Agriculture
Secretary Wickard advocated parity
instead of ITO per cent of parity for
price ceilings on farm products and
said he was preparing to consent to
ceiling on livestock prices.
An associate explained the Secre-
tary has reached the conclusion that
some form of price-flxing should be
adopted to stabilize farm, food and
industrial prices in order to prevent
imitation and retain wartime eco
nomic unity.
Meanwhile, the military was NOV
ing in and out of plants where war
production was endangered by labor
and management disputes over War
Labor Board decisions.
The Army took over the S. A.
Woods Machine Co, South Boston,
Mass, and the machines kept hum
ming The management there had
defied a WLB order requiring In
clusion of maintenance of member
ship and arbitration clauses in
contract with CIO electrical workers.
The Navy returned to private
management the General Cable
Corp. plant at Bayonne, N. j., where
workers week ago had struck be-
cause the WLB denied them a pay
raise.
Upon recommendation of the Navy
itself, President Roosevelt ordered
the plant given over to the manage
ment again after the workers had
pledged no further work stoppage.
Rubber Crackdown Planned.
The three-man committee ap-
pointed by President Roosevelt two
weeks ago to investigate the Ma
tion's rubber situa ton repeatedly
was inquiring into legal aspects cov-
ering possible drastic steps to con-
serve tires. The inquiries might in
clude the possible need for legisla-
ton or executive orders by the
President.
Voluntary meatless days such as
Americans knew in the First World
War were suggested as possibly a
good idea right now by Roy F.. Hen
| erickson, chief of the Agricultural
Marketing Administration. who said
| this country may have to ration
meat. Reason: Needs of our armed
forces and allies.
The WPB reported that. no BLACK
market had been involved in steel
shipments to the Higgins shipbuild-
ing plant at New Orleans, but the
agency said some warehouses might
be guilty of selling products In vio-
lation Of Federal laws.