Evening star., 1951-01-20
Home-Front Casualty

The name OF Alan Valentine will be listed
in the records as the first man to fall on the
Washington front in the Korean war. He entered
the Government service some three months ago
as administrator of the Economic Sterilization
Agency, and he became the Number man on
the casualty list yesterday when he resigned at
the wish" OF the President, and was succeeded
by Eric Johnston of Hollywood.
In sense, Mr. Valentine was his own worst
enemy in Washington. There is no doubt that
this former president of the University of Roch-
ester is an able man and strong man. He could
not be pushed around, and that is both virtue
and something Of a rarity in Government. If
this quality is carried to an extreme, however,
it can also become an Achilles heel. Mr. Valen-
tine, by his manner, offended some people He
also was lacking-if reports from the ringside
of the fight that has been going on within his
agency can be believed-in the ability to COM
promise.
Mr.. Valentine seemed too determined to
delay price and wage controls until they could
be set up an orderly basis and until a staff
to administer them could be assembled This
led to friction. One of his subordinates, Price
Chief Michael Di Sale, wanted to move faster,
and recently advocated 3O-day price freeze
Mr.. Valentine turned thumbs down on this and
at the time, apparently had the support of the
top man. Mobilization Director Charles E. Wilson,
There have also been reports of restiveness
among members of the Wage Sterilization Board,
who are said to feel that, under Mr.. Valentine,
they had little or no freedom of action.
Combined with this has been the pressure
of the public demand that something be done
and be done quickly, to stop the upward price
swing. For the moment at least, the people are
not so much interested in orderliness as they are
in action, and the chances are that this, more
than any other single factor, accounts for the
abrupt departure of Mr.. Valentine.
Whether this public mood will change is an
open question. Price controls, in the absence of
a sound plan and the staff to administer it, can
turn into a hornets nest of troubles There is
at least an even chance that if half-baked
control program is slapped on the economy it
will do more harm than good Mr.. Valentine
wanted more time, perhaps two or three weeks,
to prepare the ground for Inauguration of the
plan (evidenty rejected by Mr.. Wilson, that he
had worked out. He did not get it, but the last
word has not necessarily been spoken. If we are
now to adopt premature controls, as Mr. Valen-
tine suggested would be the case in his letter of
resignation, he may yet be able to say: II
told you So" $50,
There is one thing more that might be said
on this matter. Mr.. Valentine is not responsible
for the fact that we are in situation in which
time lag of two weeks seems so critical That Is
the Presidents fault. Bernard Baruch was ig-
nored in July when he called for all-out COM
pulsory controls, warning that the voluntary
system would not work. When Congress, in Sep
tember, gave the President power to impose con-
trolls, power which he had said he did not need,
Mr. Truman was slow to use it. Weeks of time in
which the planning could have been done and
the administrative staff recruited were allowed
to Slip away. That was not Mr.. Valentines fault.
1t was Mr. Truman's.