Evening star., 1945-05-13

other imponderables. Guesses as to the
probable total surplus range from
$50 900 100000 to more than 100000
100000.
In a research study issued last year
under the auspices of the Committee
for Economic Development, a Nation
wide organization of businessmen, DR..
A. D. H. Kaplan, professor of economics
at the University of Denver, held that
estimates of surplus goods totaling
$1OO 0O0,000,O00 were clearly wide OF
the mark"
"a total of so billion (original cost
for the inventory held by our armed
forces at the close of the war seems to
be the maximum plausible figure war
ranted by the official statistics of war
production-and this figure makes gen.
| erous allowance for leftovers due to
changes in armaments and tactics, for
unused stockpiles and for lag in contract
cancellations" he said.
Much May Be Left Abroad.
Whatever the total surplus, however,
it is bound to dwarf the percentage
Wll1CU WILL UC odloDlC III IAiS SAfAAAesAA
market Obsolete military planes and
other aircraft and equipment which
| cannot be converted to civilian uses will
probably have to be scrapped. Guns and
ammunition will find no ready postwar
demand back home. Much material will
| have to be abandoned or sold abroad.
In an effort to arrive at an approx
nf tho nnct nf Q0NHS
eventually to be available for sale in the
United States, studies are now being
made by OSP economists. Until that
study tells the story more accurately,
estimates most frequently heard range
from S6,ooO,oOO,O 900 to well over that
figure.
Incomplete data as to the eventual
size of it's job, however. has not kept
the OSP from vigorously going ahead
with its task 1t has built up an organ
ization of 1000 employees and II regional
and 40 district Offices in various parts
of the country. Through its Surplus
Reporter, a publication which goes
monthly to 100000 wholesalers, manu-
facturers, distributors and retailers, it
provides wide notification on material
declared surplus, where it is located and
the method of sale.
The catalog of consumer goods is is
sued in eight volumes, covering eight
claSsifications of materials handled by
OSP, as follows: Furniture, hardware,
machinery, automotive, textile and
wearing apparel, medical and surgical
paper and Office supplies and general
products.
May Add 500 Employees.
Not completely satisfied with its In
formation program, OSP is going ahead
with plans to reach an even broader
field of potential business customers.
Proposals for suggested advertising
program recently we're invited from about
100 national advertising agencies. These
presentations are now being studied.
Meanwhile the agency is still expand
ing to handle the heavy increase in
surpluses anticipated within the near
future Plans call for the addition of
500 employees this month, Commerce De-
partment sources have indicated.
Virtually all surplus property sales
made by OSP while under the Treasury
Department were to manufacturing and
distributing concerns rather than to
ultimate consumers. This policy, while
economical and in conformity with the
Surplus Property Act of 1944-which
calls generally for the employment of
normal trade channels in disposals-
has drawn some criticism, notably on
behalf of veterans, who are given pref
erences in the act.
Aside from the purely administrative
job of smoothing out the organizational
structure, this criticism and the extern
sion of further opportunities for small
business, the discovery of markets for
certain products difficult to sell and the
equitable ALLEGATION of surpluses in short
supply will probably afford the chief
short-range problems.
Must Guard National Economy.
Overshadowing all considerations for
the future, however, will be the prob
lens posed by the effect of disposal
policies on the national economy. Com
menting on the long-range implications
of surplus property disposal before the
Truman Committee August IT, 1914,
Ernest L. Olrich, then assistant to the
Secretary of the Treasury in charge of
procurement, said:
"The time will undoubtedly arrive
when the effects of disposal policies on
reconversion, employment, international
cooperation and economic conditions
in general can be so great that decisions
involving these policies will call for the
thinking Problems of this sort are
SOLDERING in their implications. Those
charged with answering them assume
tremendous responsibility.
The time of which Mr.. Olrich spoke
is approaching swiftly. 1t was probably
with all this in view that the Surplus
Property Board decided, on recon-
mendation of Secretary of the Treasury
Morgenthau and with the concurrence
of War Mobilization Director Vinson
and Secretary Wallace, to turn over this
task to the Commerce Department.
Mr.. Vinson, in announcing the trans
fer several weeks ago, pointed out that
the shift places the sale of consumer
goods with parent agency whose basic
functions are closely associated with
the commercial and industrial life of
the Nation"
Over "a period of many years, the
Commerce Department has been charged
by law with assisting in the develop
ment of domestic and foreign COM
merce.
large part of its nearly $4,000 full
| tirne an6 intnr,oiftonf onl ,t- a; n