Evening star., 1943-06-29
Jesse Jones Accused
Of Obstructing BEW
In Blast by Wallace
Vice President AssuiIs
RFC Head in New
Administration Clash
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

Administration Clash
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
In another clash between high
administrative officials, Vice
President Wallace today charged
Secretary of Commerce Jones
with obstructing the program of
the Board of Economic Warfare
by holding up funds for the pur-
chase and development of strs-
tegic materials.
In a statement prepared for the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
Mr.. Wallace, who is chairman of
BEW, urged that the extremely
competent group of businessmen
and technical engineers" employed
by the BEW be free from this ham,
strlngIng bureaucracy and back door
complaining by MI. Jones and his
employees"
In this f1are-up OF the feud which
has smoldered for months between
officials OF BEW and Mr.. Jones, who
as Federal loan administrator is
banker for the BEW, the Vice
President accused Mr.. Jones of
creating "a false impression" before
The Byrd Committee and similar"
impression earlier before the Senate
Banking Committee.
Charges misrepresentation tions.
1t is time to prevent further
harmful misrepresentation of this
nature" Mr.. Wallace declared.
Pointing out that on April 13. 1912.
the President vested in BEW COM
plete control over all public imports.
Mr.. Wallace added, Mr.. Jones has
never been willing to accept that
TACT. He has instead done much to
harass the administrative EMPLOYEES
OF the board in their single minded
effort to help shorten this war bv
securing adequate stocks of stra tegic
materials.
There are times when the sense
OF public duty outweighs the natural
personal reluctance to discuss facts
OF this nature" Mr.. Wallace said.
This is such time"
Mr.. wallace listed Quinine, used in
the treatment of malaria, among
the strategic materials required. He
said that April IA, 1912, Gen. Doug
las Macarthur wired that 2,0OO, 900
seeds Ear East cinchona bark Of
high grade strain had been
brought out of the Philippines and
quoted Gen. Macarthur as saving
the seeds must be planted without
delay"
| More Fights, Fewer SHORTAGES
Il am sorry to have to inform this
committee the Vice President said,
that Jesse Jones and Will Clayton
| assistant Secretary of Commerce
and director of the Defense Supplies
! Corp, an RFC subsidiary stalled
for months on this program. 80"
| There are times when what we need
is more fights and fewer shortages"
! For more than year, Mr.. Wallace
said, BEW has tried to do its lob
| lin spite of the obstructionist tactics
Mr. Jones has employed from time
/ to time
Mr.. Wallace explained in a supple
mentary statement that he had
prepared the Senate Appropriation
| Committee statement originally
after Acting Chairman McKellar
had said certain things about BEW
on the Senate floor June 4, but
latter sleeping over the matter sew
eral nights had decided not to
make it.
But, since the recent appearance
of Milo Perkins, executive director
of BEW. before the Appropriation
Committee, "the effort to misrepre-
sent the facts concerning the work
Of the Board of Economic Warfars
has continued" Mr.. Wallace said,
adding that some of the ''misrepre-
sentations" had been of "such a ma
ture" that he had decided to release
the original statement and was re-
questing Senator McKellar to mako
it part of the hearings concerning
BEW.
Failed to Build Stockpiles.
Mr.. Wallace discussed the stock
piling of various strategic materials.
He said Congress had made funds
available for such a purpose as far
back as 1889 and that in the summer
of 1910 the RFC was given funds for
stockpiling.
From the summer of 1910 until
we'll past December 8, 1941," Mr..
Wallace said, the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. failed dismally, so far
as the import field was concerned,
to build the stockpiles authorized
and directed by the Congress nearly
18 months before Pearl Harbor.
During this period, of course, prl-
vate purchasing of imports contin-
ued on somewhat increased scale
due to better business, and the Re-
construction Finance Corp. en-
tered into various underwriting
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