The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1943-09-03
. BEHIND THE SCENES
IN WASHINGTON .

consist OF some 100 reports on
land and water resources, public
works. housing, income and con-
sumption, transportation, tech
nology, research, state planning,
regional p ami &. postwar
planning The accumulation has
been kiddingly referred &c as
"Eliot's new five-foot shelf. -
Some of the reports are pretty
big and pretty tough going, UNI
less you happen to be particu-
larly interested and used to
hard reading.
Maybe that was the trouble.
Too many people and all the
congressman didn't have time to
find out what was in EN-. so
they stopped this outpouring of
words at the source. This frame
of mind is perhaps best express
sed by an iratc citizen in Salt
Lake City who, during a meet
ing to set up a regional postwar
plan for Utah, rose from his
seat TO protest that, Were sick
and tired of planning-all we
want to know is what were go
ing 20 do"
IN THIS CORNER
Who gets the credit for killing
off NRPB? A couple of Repub-
licop cAnornccn,an paCrcd Inbr
Taber of Auourn, N Y, and
Richard B. WiggleSworth of
Milton, Mass, who led the fight
in the House Committee on APP
preparations. The Senate was a
little more considerate, wanting
10 give the board another $500
600 TO string long on. but the
House opinion prevailed.
What scared some people off
of NRPB was the fear that it
stood for RECOMMENDATION, govern
mental controls, planned econo-
my and such things which were
loosely interpreted as state So
cialism. NRPB Spokesman deny
that the board ever had any such
intent. What il tried 10 do was
collect the best information It
could get on oil reserves. or for
ests, or social security, or what
10 do with and for discharged
soldiers, passing this informa-
ton on to the President, Con-
gress or other appropriate priv
ate or state and local govern
ment agencies whose direct re-
sponsibility il was 10 deal with
the problems presented.
The board was always rather
mousey about pushing its own
reports, In 1884, for instance,
il made an elaborate study Of
strategic materials, even going
so far as TO point out the short
ages which would develop in
case Of war That was five years
before war broke out Yet no
one paid any attention 10 II. and
as a result, the country got
caught short.
POSTWAR PLANNING
In 1889 the board wanted 10
reorganiZe 10 help the war ef-
fort, but in conferences with the
President. he gave TO the board
the job of thinking about post
war problems, not through pub
lie discussion but through re-
search into how the transitions
could be made from war 20
peacetime economy, profiting by
the mistakes OF reconversion
that had been made in 1918 and
1919 after the last war In 1912
the board put out its first re-
ports on postwar planning, aim
ed at.
|. The maintenance OF full
employment. 2 Security for
all workers 3 The continued
up-building of America.
Then in March, 1913, the
President sent 10 Congress the
NRPB reports on social security
planning and on postwar econ
omic adjustments. with the re-
quest that Congress give these
matters full consideration dur
ing this session. Congress did
nothing of the sort. Instead il
killed NRPB, with the result
that today your government is
doing nothing at all about post
war planning, save for the eff
forts of the private industry
financed Committee for Econ
omic Development which is
sponsored by the Department OF
Commerce.