Toledo union journal. [volume] (Toledo, Ohio) 1942-current, 1946-03-08
Washington.
LaborReport
BY Bradford v. Carter

The appointment of J. A..
Krug to succeed Harold Ickes
as Secretary of the Interior is
not good news. AS head Of
the War Production Board it
would be difficult to find
anybody who more consistent
ly allied himself with the
forces of reaction. Indeed it
would be difficult to find any
major issue on which he was
right in his tenure as chair
man of the WPB.
AS a Vice Chairman in
charge of program require
ments, Krug had done a mod
erately decent job. When he
resigned this post to enter the
Navy, it was understood that
one of the factors which had
prompted his withdrawal from
the WPB was the intransi-
gence of the military repre-
sentatives on production mat
terS.
OF the three major issues
which Krug faced as WPB
head he was wrong on all of
them. He was wrong on the
issue of non-military produc-
ton; he was wrong on the is
sue of national service legis-
lation and he was wrong on
the issue of decontrols.
CAPITULATION
Donald Nelson was forced to
resign in the backWash of Bit
terness which resulted from
his support of some intelligent
policy of reconversion adjust
ment as the requirements Of
military production were re-
duced. When Krug took over
Nelson's job he threw out the
Nelson reconversion program
and capitulated to the mill
tary.
This pattern of Subordinat-
ing production policy to the
interests of the brass hats con-
tinued throughout Krug's later
career in WPB. 1t was very
much in evidence when Krug
went along with the Army's
surplus production crisis"
campaign led by General
Somervell in the fall and win
ter of 1944-45.
The propaganda emanating
from military sources aided
and abetted by Krug was that
we were we'll on the way to-
ward a serious crisis in the
war unless we Speeded up pro-
duction. Observers at the time
suggested that this was a
method of covering up the dis
aster of the Battle of the Bulge
and a method of building up
to what the military wanted
all along national service
legislation for civilians. With
the latter "Work-or-jail" pro-
poSals Krug went along too.
The European war ended even
as the need for national serV-
ice legislation was being ar
gued as necessary to protect
the flight of workers from
war production jobs.
DEMOBILIZATION
To maintain his batting aV-
erage at zero, Krug became
the most ardent exponent in
Washington for immediate de-
mobilization of wartime con-
trolls. The kind of legacy
which Krug left can be seen
in the results of the removal
of controls over construction.
Nobody who knows anything
about the housing problem
has doubts that the almost in
decent lifting of construction
controls was important in paw
ing the way for the current
housing crisis.
Krug also stripped WPB of
its personnel by cutting the
staff down to a skeleton basis.
Now John D. Small, head OF
CPA (the WPB successor
agency, is scurrying around
madly to find people to do the
job which was aggravated by
the failure TO do it right in
the first place.
This is the kind of man who
has been appointed Secretary
OF the Interior to replace Har-
old Ickes. 1t requires no
great insight to discover why
IckeS' resignation and the
Krug replacement were greet
ed with contentment by the
same circles. The Krug ap-
pointment is another step in
solidifying conservatism in the
A Administration.
II Socrates were alive today,
he would be amazed by the