Imperial Valley press., 1944-09-08
captaI ToIk
bly,
Peter Edison

cation came from the loyal camp
followers of each side, constantly
tugging at the coat sleeves oil tnelr
superiors and needing each into
the belief that the other was out to
get him. There was lunat1e fringe
of few trouble-makers on each
side who did most of the damage.
Wilson tried twice to resign but
the President wouldn't let him. To
try to bring harmony into the Or
ganization, Nelson called back to
Washington Sidney Weinberg OF
New York, who had been one of his
closest friends, and assigned him to
step the feudin6 within WPB. "a
THE TROUBLE BEGINS at
All this came to head early last
winter when Nelson began to work
on his policy of reconversion. Cut
backs were beginning to appear.
Nelson set up a special group In
the WPB to get reports on cancel
lations of army and navy contracts,
so that Office of Civilian Require
ments and Smaller War Plants Cor
poration could utilize idle facilities.
The Wilsonites resented this be-
ing handled outside their organiza-
ton and the fight began. 1t went on
all last winter and 1t was settled
only by Nelson's turning the whole
thing over to Wilson to handle. The
committee named, subordinate 10
the production executive commit
tee. did little more than okay IDEAS
of the armed services. which were
against any resumption of civilian
production till the war was won. J.
Nelson turned his attention to re-
conversion. and made public
statement that he was preparing
orders which would permit civilian
use of aluminium surpluses that
we're piing up, and permit the
manufacture of experimental mod-
els for postwar production. Army
production men Immediately
Jumped on these proposals and Tor
a month the battle ragged hot and
heavy. Then Nelson got pneumonia
and went into the hospital. ".
Wilson was on a spot. he had
been told by Nelson to issue the
orders and he himself was appar-
entity in favor of Issuing the or
ders. but all the pressure from the
armed services and from his own
subordinates was against their is
euance. So for weeks the orders
we're delayed. When Nelson began
to convalesce. his aides ran TO MIN
with stories that Wilson was sabo-
taping reconversion. On the other
hand. Wilson. before leaving WASH
inpton was able to get in his dig
that Nelson held up Wilson orders.
That was the situation in the
summer when two things happened,
of no particular Importance. First,
Sidney Weinberg. who had been
brought back into WPB by Nelson
to make peace, switched sides IN
the middle of Nelsons illness. be-
coming a Wilson man. The second,
and more important, was that the
army began to put out stories that
there we're shortages in NUMBER OF
important items like trucks, tanks.
big guns and ammunition.
Nelson. unconvinced that war
production was in such a terrible
shape and genuinely concerned over
the need for organizing reconver-
sion to prevent postwar unemploy-
ment. went ahead with his four
\ orders which came cut early in Au-
Gust. They we're hedged with quail
fications, permitting the manufac-
,urc of certain lines of civilian
supply under conditions non-com-
petitive with war production. Never
theless. it ic a start towards recon-
version.
The final blow-up in WPB came
lust after the orders were out. Eric
tion within WPB was now such an
open scandal that Wilson's resig-
nation had to be accepted and Mel
eon had to be cent some place TO
permit reorganization.
Such is official life in Washing
! ton.
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