Evening star., 1943-05-28
Dissension in 0PA
Spurs Move 10 Shift
Food Power 10 Davis
Clash Of Chief Aides
Gives Brown Choice
Of Disehorging One
BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.

BY CARTER BROOKE JONES.
With the movement to trans
fer control over food prices and
rationing from the Office of
Price Administration to the War
Food Administration gaining in
fluential support in Congress-,
dissension within OPA apparent
ly left Price Administrator
Brown today the choice of dis
charging one or the other of two
top-flight OPA executives-Lou
Maxon. deputy administrator in
charge of public relations, or DR..
j. K. Galbraith, deputy adminis-
traitor directing price control.
Mr.. Maxon, a Detroit advertising
executive serving OPA for 81 year,
demanded the job next to the ad-
ministrator's with complete control
over policy direction and personnel.
And he said he would resign if he
didn't get these powers. DR.. Gal
braith, former assistant professor of
economics at Princeton, declared he
would resign If Mr.. Maxon gained
his objective Mr.. Maxon then re-
torted that if he were OPA second in
command, he'd give the professor"
Is minutes to pack up and leave.
Confronted with this situation, Mr..
Brown, without naming the two Of
f1cials. told reporters last night that
if his ranking advisers couldn't get
along, he would pick the one he con-
sidered best and let the other go.
But the administrator added that he
doubted If he would decide the mat
ter for a couple of weeks, and he was
more concerned at the moment with
subsidies and other important pol
icies. He gave no indication of
which official he was inclined to
favor.
Patman Favors Davis.
Meanwhile, Chairman Patman of
the House Small Business Commit
tee proposed, as some members of
the House Banking Committee have,
that supervision over production.
distribution and prices of food be
centered in Food Administrator
Chester c. Davis. Mr.. Patman said
he would offer the plan as an
amendment to a measure extending
the life of the Commodity Credit
Corp. This bill is before the Bank
ing Committee.
Congress, said Mr.. Patman,
made a serious mistake when it
divided authority and responsibility
on food prices between the OPA and
the Secretary of Agriculture. A diff
ference of opinion between these
two departments leads to undue de-
lay and oftentimes great hardships" :"
Chairman Fulmer of the House
Agriculture Committee disclosed he
is working on measure, to be in
troduced early next week, which
would place the entire business" of
food supervision in the hands of the
War Food Administration, with the
power that Mr.. Davis thought he
would.have when he became admin :,
istrator'
Mr.. Fulmer predicted that unless
Congress acted on the food situa-
ton, the executive branch would
have to do something.
Grange Backs Davis Control.
- The move in congressional quar-
tiers to give Food Administrator
Davis complete control of all Gov
ernment functions connected with
food-thus removing it from the
jurisdiction of the OPA-also won
the backing of the National Grange.
Albert S. Goss, master of the Or
ganization, advocated this before
the House Banking Committee.
His position was recorded only a
few minutes after Representative
Patman formally notified the Bank
ing Committee that he would offer
three amendments to the Commodity
Credit Corp. bill. They would:
l. Turn control of the food prob
lens over to the food administrator.
2. Turn administration of all pc
troleum and fuel problems over to
Secretary Ickes as petroleum co-or-
dinator.
3. Place enforcement of both fuel
and food regulations under the
Justice Department.
Many observers felt that if food
control were taken from OPA, the