The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-04-21
Job For Byrnes
BY ARTHUR KROCK


WASHINGTON, - One major plan on which
President Roosevelt was working at the time
of his death, according to well.informed per-
sons here today, was the chart OF a top Com
mittee on PoGcy-the approximation Of that
War Cabinet which had been urged upon him
since 1940 Whether President Truman will
put the system in practice is not known.
The immediate concern Of the group would
be to agree en- a postwar policy for Ger
MANY. Only few days ago the President was
warned that necessity for immediate decision
on this might come suddenly, and it was point
ed out that this would find him without an
integrated and agreed plan and without per-
sonal knowledge of the subject. On this problem
the Government is seriously divided, with Sec
rotary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau Jr
in the center of the division.
The Committee on Policy which MIR. Roose-
welt was studying was to be composed OF sew
en- members: the Secretaries OF State, Treas
ury. War and Navy; Leo 7. Crowly, Director
of the Foreign Economic Administration; Fred
M. Vinson, Director of the Office of War Mo-
Utilization and Reconversion, and Harry L.
HOPKINS. special assistant to the President.
This committee was to be served by a
counsel Who in the form OF briefs, would pre-
sent at its meetings the facts on all disputed,
unsettled or confused Government activities af-
fecting war and post war that required settle
ment or indignation. No issue referred to the
counsel less than three days before each meet
ing would be briefed and submitted.
If President Truman should carry through
the plan, it has been suggested that, until Mr..
Hopkins regains his health, or IN the event of
his retirement from government, the seventh
place on the committee, and perhaps its active
mana cement be offered to James F. Byrnes.
The President has been casting about for a
portfolio suitable to the talents and former
high offices of the ex-Justice, ex-senator and
ex-Director of the OWMR. but thus far none
has been discovered or, if it has, the fact has
not been announced. Mr.. Byrnes has declin-
ed any unofficial connection becaCse he dis
approves of the system of government by per-
sonal deputy" He is known to believe that
public persons, especially those to whom great
influence and authority are delegated by the
President, should have SPECIFIC commissions
and open responsibility.
But, whether or not the suggestion as to Mr.
Eyrnes materializes, the creation OF this Com
mittee on Policy by the President would pro-
vide at last that War Cabinet which President
Wilson used with such effectiveness in World
War 1, and the advocates of which never
ceased to press upon Mr. Roosevelt. Despite
all the organizations and reorganizations OF
war and postwar departments and agencies,
it has still been found necessary to apply at
many different places for an overall policy,
and often in vain.
Mr. Wilson'S War Cabinet members were
the Secretaries of the Treasury, War and Ma
Wy and five administrators: B. M Baruch of
the War Industries Board Herbert Hoover Of
the Food Administration, E. N. Hurley of the
Shipping Board, Vance Mccormick of the
war trade and international economic divi-
sion, and James M. Garfield of the Fuel Ad-
ministration. The Treasury chief, William G.
McAdoo, was also in charge of domestic trans
portation.
President Wilson acted as chairman of this
group, and whenever it gathered he would ask:
"Is there any trouble today?" Thus disputes
had to be stated and argued out, and the re-
suit was that all important differences were
settled and integrated promptly. Jurisdictional
blockades, which have been the bane OF the
current war government and would equally af-
feet postwar administration were steadily and
quickly broken up in 1919
The plan that was before President Roose
welt at his death was worked out in greater
detail, on the basis of previous experience, and
it was geared to the greater magnitude of this
war program and of the problems that must
be met after VE-Day Especially that of Ger
many, and the final route of the Axis. The
installation of the counsel and his briefing is
new, and the three-day barrier is also an inno-
walton. But in substance the idea and its pur
pose are the same.
There are many high boards, including the
regular Cabinet, where the chief policy-mak-
ing officials meet and discuss general and
specific problems. But the system has never
been frightened to a point where an orderly
er-an policy machine has functioned prompt
ly, and decisions were quickly and finally OBJ
tainable on issues in dispute or confusion
among departments and agencies of almost
equal authority which overlap many areas.
Boards have been piled on boards, but this
has more often diffused and complicated the
problem than channeled and disposed of it.
The authors of the Committee on Policy
plan believe this is the best solution of all
They were encouraged to hope that Presi-
dent Roosevelt was coming to their way of
thinking at the time of his DEATH prompted
by the continuing intra-government dispute
over postwar Germany.
The office of committee counsel would be of
high Importance, and in this connection the
name of Hugh Fulton is heard. He served in a
similar capacity for the special Senate COM
mittee which Mr.. Truman headed and which
conducted running investigation of the war
program on the home front. - New York
Times.
EDITORIAL COMMENT