Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-11-13
u. 5. Considers
Mobilization.
Prior 10 War
Standby Controls
On Economy Urged
At Poriey Here

A drastically revised concept
of national mobilization-in
preparedness for instead of in
response to hostilities - APP
peared to be high in the minds
of administration and congress
sional leaders today.
The new concept was revealed
in remarks by a cabinet officer,
a presidential aide and a Re-
publican Senator at the opening
of the National Defense Execu-
tive Reserve convention at the
Sheraton-Park Hotel.
The reserve, created by Con-
'gress in 1855 to provide a pool
of executive talent for Govern
ment service in event of war.
is holding a two-day meeting.
"StOckpiles" Cited
Speakers who stressed the
need for readiness before war
instead of in response to war
were Secretary Of Commerce
Weeks. Defense Mobilizer Ger
don Gray and Senator Cape
hart, Republican of Indiana.
Mr.. Gray urged a new look
at "stockpiles," and told the
executives:
with the advent of new
weapons and ways of delivering
them, serious questions arise as
to . mobilization base such as
We have required in past con-
diets"
Addressing the opening ses-
sion of the convention. Secre-
tary Weeks urged industry to
support a Federal budget call
ing for more guns and less
butter.
And Senator Capehart called
on Congress to pass a law au-
Ithorizing price. wage and rent
controls to be put in effect
whenever needed.
The Indiana legislator
pointed out that it would
take Congress at least four
months to set up controls after
a war started. Inflationary
pressures would be greatest in
this period, he said.
Serious Challenge
Secretary Weeks told the
/ 200 businessmen assembled at
the Sheraton-Park Hotel that
"the Soviet Unions sensational
exploits in satellites have posed
the most serious challenge of
this tension-wracked age"
He added:
LAS President Eisenhower
steps up the campaign to mo-
Billie scientific and military re-
sources, American business
must move up into the front
line of defense"
Senator Capehart told the
group he personally opposes
governmental controls. But, he
explained, in the present situa-
ton the Nation must be real
istic enough to recognize that
"chaos would exist if war sud-
denly should be thrust upon us
without the legal framework OF
an organization to set up and
administer quickly the economic
controls that always are neces-
sary in wartime"
Cites Precedent
The Senator commended that
standby controls are justified by
precedent. The United States
is not militaristic, he said, yet
it maintains a draft law and
military reserve system ir
peacetime. Similarly, he con-
tended, the country would be
better prepared for economic
mobilization if the groundwork
were laid in standby controls.
Senator Capehart is the rank.
ing Republican on the Senate
Banking Committee.
Mr.. Gray, the other speaker
at the morning session. ques-
toned the usefulness Of the
present 81 billion strategic
stockpile built up in the post
war years.
THE stockpile." he said,
was /. built upon the expert
ences of World War I and
World War II. How relevant is
this stockpile in the face OF
weapons now in being or
shortly to be developed"
"Farsighted Move"
Mr.. Gray said he had no
doubt the program to acquire
the stockpile was a farsighted
move" at the time. But he left
the implication that it is made
quate in this space age.
Relocation sites for Federal
installations. now numbering
80 and planned to reach 300,
ARE neither adequately
equipped nor adequately pro-
tected from radioactive dam
age" he reported.
President Eisenhower plans
to speak briefly tomorrow after
noon to the executives.
The President had been
scheduled to address the group
today. but Cancelled that APP
pointment because of his mid
day departure for Oklahoma
City to deliver a major televi-
sion-radio speech tonight.
The White Touse Announced