Evening star., 1947-10-31
Control Of Industries
May Be Consequence
OF Marshall Plan
Steel Export Regulation
Would Force Domestic
Use Distribution
By David Lasprence

By David Laaorence
Fsr-reaching control Of the
manufacturing industries of the
United States may be direct con-
sequence Of the way the Marshall
Plan may be put into effect If the
administrations present planning
is adopted.
To control the export of steel is
to channel the use of the remainder
of the steel for domestic uses. Ger
tainly the steel industry itself will
hardly wish to take the responsible
ity for distribution by concerted ac-
ton for this might well be vio-
lation of the antitrust laws. Some
Government agency, therefore, act
ing perhaps on the advice and
recommendations of persons famll-
lar with the industry's operations
may have to be set up to distribute
steel in America.
Since steel goes into the manu-
facture of such a wide variety OF
articles it Is conceivable that every
branch of industry will be affected
directly or indirectly. The theory
back of the control of domestic
use Is to prevent what is called
waste or inefdciency. This cannot
be accomplished without some gov
ernmental evaluation Of the uses OF
steel.
Pressure on Companies.
The pressure for steel on the
steel companies by the would-be
users has been extraordinarily In
tense. No such pressure has been
exerted for scarce article in peace
time years. The steel companies
are accused of favoring old-estab-
lished customers. New users feel
they should be given some consider
alton, too. The situation that may
ensue is forecast vividly by an Of
fetal of a Midwestern industrial
operation who writes this CORE
spondent:
II understand that there Is a
great deal Of agitation in Wash
ington at the present time in favor
of restoring priority or ALLEGATION
controls on certain critical items,
especially steel. 1t Is my belief
that this could be the most unfor-
tunate move our Government could
make. Any attempt to allocate
steel on the part of the Govern
ment means that the Government
takes direct control of, and respon-
sibility for, the volume of business
done by practically every manufac-
turing company, and most dis
tributing companies, in the United
States.
'It is true that our current de-
mand for steel is several million
tons above the ability of the steel
industry to supply, even though
they work full blast, which they are
doing.
Zone .act must be recognized, and
that is that in a period Of short
supply most users are going to be
dissatisfied and any system that is
set I'D for distributing available ma
terials will have some inequitles
in it.
Auto Industry Complaints.
THE automobile industry has
been complaining bitterly about the
fact that it is receiving a smaller
percentage of the available steel
than it did prewar In addition to
this, the Big Three-General Mo-
tors, Ford and Chrysler-are receiv-
ing a smaller percentage Of the in
dustry's ALLEGATION than the smaller
producers. Although we would like
to have more steel, it is my opinion
that in time of shortage the pat
tern of distribution, as shown in the
automobile industry, is quite deslr-
able. 1 believe that any Govern
ment agency would have attempted
to give the smaller producers a
larger percentage of the available
supply and that is exactly what the
steel companies have done.
"The whole question seems to be
one Of whether some Government
agency, which would be of necessity
newly created organization, or
the steel industry, is going to allo-
cate steel. Although I am not thor
oughly satisfied with the amount OF
steel we are getting I would much
rather ALLEGATION be in the hands
of the steel industry than in the
hands of any Government agency.
-"I believe administration officials
should have their heads examined
If they permit themselves to get into
q program of Government alloca-
tions of critical materials. If they
think they have troubles now, these
will look minor compared with what
they would be up against then.
During the war, ALLEGATIONS were
probably necessary, but if the Gov
ernment were handling the steel
ALLEGATION program every company
which has greater sales possibilities
than available materials would be
in Washington with his Representa-
tive and Senator screaming to the
allocating agency for more steel.
Every time General Motors, ChryS-
ler, Ford or any other company is
forced to shut down or reduce oper-
ations because of shortage OF steel,
their unions would be creating big
disturbance with the Government.
I certainly would not want the job
Of heading up that operation"
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