Evening star., 1943-03-28
Davis, NewFoodC Chief,
Expected 10 Arrive
In Capital This Week
Agriculture Department
Officials Speculate on
Changes in Setup
BY MALCOLM LAMBORNE. Jr.

Nndn9es IN SetuP
BY MALCOLM LAMBORNE, Jr.
Chester c. Davis, new food admin
istrator. is expected to arrive here
from st. Louis early, this week to
take over the toughest assignment
in his career.
Perhaps no wartime administrator
has faced more knotty problems that
must be solved in the quickest pos
sible time than the man President
Roosevelt appointed as head of the
Administration of Food Production
and Distribution Thursday.
And certainly no presidential ap-
pointee of recent years has entered
his Job with as much support-from
farm organizations, Congress and
the public at large-as has been in
dicated in the last three days.
His most immediate task is that of
farm manpoWer, as Mr.. Roosevelt
pointed out at his Friday press con-
ference. Planting of crops already
has begun in some sections of the
country, and farmers are looking to
Mr.. Davis for definite assurances
that the crops they SOW will re-
receive adequate labor at harvest
time.
Officials Mark Time.
officials and employees of the Agri-
culture Department marked time
meanwhile, and speculated on what
changes might be made in the setur
headed until now by Secretary oi
Agriculture Wickard. BY the exec
utlve order transferring the Food
Production Administration, the Food
Distribution Administration, the
Commodity Credit Corp. and the
Extension Service to Mr.. Davis, some
AZ 900 employees here and in the field
come under his administration.
The future role of such high de-
partment officials as M. Clifford
Townsend, head of FPA; Roy F.
Hendrickson, chief of FDA. and
Wayne H, Darrow, head of the Agri-
cultural Administration, likewise is
in doubt.
Representative Pace, Democrat. of
Georgia yesterday summed up the
feeling of many sources on the i'm
portant question of MI Davis con-
trol over farm prices and his rela-
ton with the Office of Price Ad-
mlnlstratlon. ''Mr. Davis appears
to have little authority to take
charge Of prices as the executive
order now stands, but I think he
Will receive them on the basis of
what the President said yesterday
friday, Mr.. Pace declared.
Called Fighting Man.
The executive order stated that
MI. Davis shall be directly respon-
sible" to the President. At his press
conference Mr.. Roosevelt asserted
that the new administrator would
have control over food prices to be
exercised through the OPA, though
this was not stipulated in the order.
Old hands in the Agriculture De-
partment recall Mr.. Davis. during
the time he served as head of the
Agricultural Adjustment Agency
from 1888 to 1886, as fighting man
and an excellent administrator. At
the very outset of his first Job with
the department he came to grips
with the NRA, which was fighting
to gain control over agriculture
prices and marketing, somewhat
similar to the situation today with
OPA.
Mr.. Davis won out then. and MS
supporters this time say he may do
1t again.
His friends also recalled yester-
day the showdown he had with
Vice President Wallace, then Secre-
tary of Agriculture, early in 1885.
in which group headed by Jerome
Frank and Lee Pressman were
"purged' from the department.
Close Friend of Wickard.
Mr.. Wickard, who came with the
department in 1884, served under
Mr.. Davis and the two are said to
be close friends.
Another question raised here is
whether the administrator would
make any revislOns in the food goals
announced by MI Wickard last fall.
The latter placed emphasis on pro-
auction of meats, milk, poultry
products, dried beans and peas. DO
tatoes, soybeans, peanuts and pro-
teln food for livestock In view of
the farm labor shortage, some au-
thorltleS have advocated less en-
phasls on meats and more on food
crops containing proteins that
could be substituted for meat.
Also hanging fire is the question
of milk prices brought on by the
Governments price policy on this
important food. Mr.. Wickard has
taken the stand that dairymen are
not getting enough profit to en-
courage them to maintain produc-
ton.
Incentive Plan Opposed.
There is also the problem of what
the Government should do about a
Sl00,000,000 incentive payment plan
to stimulate maximum production
OF So-called war crops. The farm
bloc in Congress has been opposed
to such a program.
With the meat situation now
acute IN many sections of the coun-
try, Mr.. Davis is expected to act
soon on the problems of food dis
tribution. There has been some
speculation on whether the demand
on poultry and egg supplies, as a
result of the meat shortage, would
force ratloning of these substitutes
for meat.
The administrator likewise is ex-
pected to be urged to back up the
Farm Security Administration pro-
gram for assistance to low-income
farm families. Congress already has
lnd!cated its Intentions virtually to
dbQliSl ESA one of thu oa xl.- A,e..,