Evening star., 1943-08-29
u. ). Chamber Selects
II 10 Study Problem
OF Postwar SurpIuses
BY the Associated Press.

BY the Associated Press.
What to do with the huge special
purpose war plants and the big
stocks of war goods when the war
Is over-or even before-became yes
terday the particular problem of a
committee of businessmen.
The United States Chamber of
Commerce announced creation of a
27-member committee representing
varied lines of industry, designated
as the Special Committee on Utiliza-
tion of War Plants and Surplus
Property and headed by Albert C.
Mattel a vice president of the
chamber and president of the Homo
lulu Oil Corp, San Francisco. In
an initial gathering here on Sep
tember and 10, the committee will
make a preliminary survey of the
scope and extent of the problem.
Meanwhile, Senator Kilgore, Dem
ocrat, of West Virginia, contended
that the Nation must be on guard
lest war-spurred development of
various synthetics and substitutes
for natural resources could be taken
over by monopolies which, he said,
could wreck our postwar economy"
Hearings Are Planned.
As chairman of a Senate Military
Affairs Subcommittee studying tech
biological mobilization, he announced
that open hearings will begin in mid
September on patents, industrial re-
search and prospective monopolies,
with one phase of the inquiry CEN
tering on the peacetime future of
synthetics.
The chamber posed the postwar
goods and plant problem this way:
Even before military operations
reach their greatest intensity, the
war agencies are finding that they
have excess stocks of some kinds
of war material and supplies. The
accumulation of such stocks is in
evitable in a highly mechanical
war. New weapons, redesigned facil-
tiles and necessary changes in the
fighting mems equipment make
obsolete munitions and supplies
previously in use.
LAS the war goes on and comes
to a close, the problem of the dis
position of surplus property will be-
come increasingly important.
There will be the problem, at
the end of the war. of the proper
and efficient utilization of the great
special = purpose manufacturing
plants"
Experts on Committee.
Members of the special commit
tee, the chamber said, include Of
ficers of companies engaged in the
production of raw materials, the
manufacture of war supplies, in
dustrial machinery and transporta-
ton equipment. the building and
operation of ships, the manufacture
and distribution of consumer goods
and banking.
Senator Kilgore is author of
pending bill which, in addition to
establishing a Federal bureau to
mobilize the Nations technical and
scientific resources, would give pri-
vate industry full access to pro-
cesses and patents developed dur
ing the war in plants financed by
Government money.
Present contracts between such
Industries and the Office of Sci
entif1c Research and Development,
covering research activities, give the
Government only shop interest"
in any patents developed in the
plant. In other words, the Gov
ernment has the right to use them
for its own purposes but cannot
make them available to industry at
large.
A current war-business problem
also came in for attention yesterday
with the Federal Housing Admin
istration. the Federal Home Loan
Bank Administration and the Ma
tional Housing Agency waring
against an "incipient real estate
boom"
The agencies said that while
the situation is 'spotty' and prices
are still realistic in many communi-
ties" real estate boom "is in the
making in some sections of the
country" That, said the agencies,
Is dangerous trend to be guarded
against.
Looking forward to the postwar
era, the FILA is making a survey in
all important housing markets to
find out in what shape the con-
struction industry would be for re-
suning home building Immediately
after the war.