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Show JameS Preston It is reported that even-tempered Robert E. Lee became tired of receiving instructions from so many sources at one point during dur-ing the Civil War, and humorously humorous-ly complained "that he had got a crick in his neck from looking over his shoulder towards Richmond." Rich-mond." The average business man with a defense contract is likely to feel a certain amount of sympathy with Lee's plight these days. Partly Part-ly because of the complexities of defense work, but even more because be-cause of the bureaucratic habits of Washington itself, it frequently looks as though there are more officials "more cooks than customers" cus-tomers" than there are occasions to officiate. Thus, one commentator observes, ob-serves, a regulation from the Office Of-fice of Production Management will be signed by five important officials and attested by another gentleman. Meanwhile, the labor division of the same OPM will announce an-nounce a "new and concentrated approach to the problem," which it immediately signalizes by naming nam-ing one man as a director of a particular branch to work in association asso-ciation with 12 other chiefs, chair-mans chair-mans and commissions! It all points to the need, often-reiterated often-reiterated here by experienced observers, ob-servers, for one man with a business busi-ness and executive sense who is permitted authority enough to clear up the defense program's ambiguities and divided responsibilities. responsi-bilities. Incidentally, all the cricks in industry's neck don't come from looking to Washington for "go-ahead" "go-ahead" signals. You've heard a lot about the growing power of labor union officials. Well, here's an actual ac-tual case where one wielded "life sumed that it was ready to go ahead and fill the defense order. But it happened that there was a trucking strike in the Pennsylvania Pennsyl-vania city that completely tied up operations. The company found that it would be permitted to submit sub-mit the priorities certificate to union officials, who would determine deter-mine whether the shipment of raw materials was sufficiently important impor-tant in their eyes to justify delivery! or death" authority over part of the defense program itself: A Pennsylvania company received receiv-ed a defense order from the army and found that it required certain cer-tain raw materials on which priorities priori-ties were in force. Having duly applied ap-plied to the local army ordnance department for a priority certificate, certifi-cate, which was sent to Washington, Washing-ton, countersigned, and returned to it, the company naturally as- The officials having concluded that it was worthwhile to have the defense equipment in question, they then gave the company a list of "approved" truckers and also presented it with the names of men whom it could hire to unload un-load the needed materials. Thoughtful people have already been greatly concerned over the manner in which defense strikes have hamstrung large parts of the defense program. But how would they react to the idea of local union officials entering into the realms of high military strategy and deciding whether army orders are important enough to be filled ? Washington Sidelights: Buried in the middle of Leon Henderson's Hender-son's recent gloomy report on sacrifices that lie ahead in the defense de-fense program was a real tribute to the efficiency of American industry, in-dustry, and its component parts skilled management and loyal workers. Henderson declared that we can out-produce Nazi Germany and its conquered territories by working three hours out of every eight on defense, although Germany Ger-many is working four to five hours out of eight to produce war materials. ma-terials. The price administrator didn't go into the reasons for this superiority, but they ought to be pretty plain private enterprise and a way of life based upon individual in-dividual opportunity! |
