Evening star., 1943-06-29
Jesse Jones Accused
In Blast by Wallace
Of 0bstructing BEW
Vice President AssuiIs
.RFC Heed in New
Administration CIush
Continued From First Page)

agreements with some countries
under which we agreed to take sur
pluses if they were not bought pri-
vately.
'9This seems. to us to have been a
tinnid, business -as-usual procedure;
at least it was a far cry from the
aggressive Government stockpiling
which the Congress directed and au-
thorized so that this Nation might
have margin of security in its i'm
ported raw materials inventories.
Delayed for Four Months.
Mr.. Wallace said a plan to plant
the cinchona seeds from the Philip
pines in Costa Rica was worked out
by BEW and formally approved by
the Undersecretary of War October
7, 1912, after RFC officials had
acquiesced to the proposal.
On October 10, Mr.. Wallace con-
tinued, Mr.. Jones notified BEW "the
matter requires further considera-
tion," and that these considerations
continued for four months. The
Vice President continued:
"Mr. Jones said that our proposal
was postwar planning because OF the
time it takes for cinchOna trees to
come to full maturity for profitable
stripping. The Fischer trees Ut.
Col. Arthur F. Fischer brought the
seeds from the PhilippineS) couldn't
be harvested for two and one-half
wears at the earliest; normally seven
wears pass before stripping OF the
bark begins.
During 1941 Mr.. Jones may have
felt that this would be a short war
in which we wouldn't become in
volved; in any event, he did not buy
quinine during that period IN ade-
uuate amounts for Government
stockpiles; during 1912 he acted as
though the war might be over by
1914 if we can take his attitude
toward this quinine project as a
criterion. @
"As a matter of fact, Mr.. Jones
may have been considering some
thing else. He takes great pride IN
the profits of the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. and some of its sub
sidiaries. as evidenced by his recent
testimony before the Byrd Com
mittee
Red Ink on RFC Books.
"If the cinchona trees which we
have been discussing have to be
stripped after two and one-half
wears because of desperate military
needs for quinine, they will yield
about 10000 ounces OF quinlne-and
6 sl25 600 loss to the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. That will mean red
ink on the books of the Reconstruc-
ton Finance Corp.
"I do not like to assign motives,
but it is difficult to escape the con-
clusion that a possible dollar loss
held up this production project.
Like many things in total war this
project may, of course, prove to be
an expensive undertaking in terms
of dollars. 1t seems to us to be
a wise investment in terms OF say
ing lives, however.
Whatever his reasons may have
DeNU, UllS l6ClNo Oh CAAeAo A'AA. OSNNOS
disregarded the constant proddlngs
by the Board of Economic Warfare,
and for while he ignored the fact
that I, as chairman of the Board
of Economic Warfare, had personally
investigated the matter and recon-
mended immediate action. His con-
siderationS continued right on
hott1p -N-ifl1 919T11
and with tie Japs-at Guadalcanal.
"It was not until late January,
1e43. that the Reconstruction
Finance Corp. finally announced
that it would spend some money for
this quiniue project. For all the
full power the President has given
the Board of Economic Warfare
over imports, we are helpless when
Jesse Jones, as our banker, refuses
to sign checks in accordance with
our directives.
Precious Time Lost.
FINALLY, we have won out in all
such cases, but the time lost has
been precious time which there was
no excuse for losing. There have
been many other times, of course,
when personnel down the line in
both the Reconstruction Finance
Corp. and the Board of Economic
Warfare have found themselves in
complete agreement and have moved
forward together with speed. The
situation is better than 1t was a
while back, and Mr. Perkins en-
phasized this fact in his recent
testimony before the House Appro-
priationS Committee.
"Col. Fischer is now in Costa Rica
and the quinine project is under
way. Some of his seeds have been
terminating in the Department OF
Agricultures experimental station IN
Beltsville and are about to be sent
to Costa Rica. The rest will be
planted there. 1t will be 1916 before
uuinine from the seeds brought out
of the Philippines by Col. Fischer
can be put to work fighting malaria
in the tropics. Even SO, our armed
forces may need it desperately by
that time if they are still fighting
in the malarial regions of the
Southwest Pacific.
I'VE and the Army would be
quite willing to strip a greater part
of the young trees at the end OF
two -and-One-half years if we have
to do so to get quinine for our SOL
diers, even though the Reconstruc-
ton Finance Corp. may lose little
money through not waiting seven
years to let the trees mature for the
most profitable period of stripping
Backs Guatemala Project.
TN fairness to the Reconstruction
Corp. 1 want to report that on a re-
cent development project in Guate-
mala, where 300,000,000 cinchona
trees for quinine are being planted
under Board of Economic Warfare
directives, we have thus far had nc
opposition from the RFC. We hao
previously won our fight in terms OF
principle on the Fischer project Jus1
A