| Show T Round Merry-Go-Round By DREW PEARSON and ROBERT S. S ALLEN WASHINGTON Nothing has been said Eald saida a about out it it publicly but the defense commission has persuaded the army to make a revolutionary revolution revolution- ary change in its purchasing methods It will mean juicy orders lo 10 hundreds of factories which never never had had a look in before The new system junks the old procedure of advertised bids and substitutes a modified plan of negotiated contracts Instead o of buying shoes shirts or raincoats in huge quantities from irom a afew afew afew few large concerns th the army anny will purchase these goods as far as possible within each of the nine corps areas This means that small local factories will have a chance cha ce to obtain a chunk of the army's business The new procedure works this way When the army anny needs pairs of shoes shoe it will not ask for bids on the total order Border order upon upon which only a afew few of the biggest f firms can bid In Instead Instead Instead In- In stead the procurement di divisions of the nine nirie army anny corps areas will e each ch ask manufacturers in their districts to submit a bid on as large an order as they can fill within a specified time The manufacturer m must st aLto also li make mak a a statement on the size plant type of equipment equipment equip equip- equipment ment number of wage levels working working working work work- ing conditions and other details about his methods At corps headquarters these offers ar are opened on a given day and hour but not publicly publicly pub pub- as in the past Instead the quoted prices will be kept pt confidential until the orders have been allocated Each corps abstracts the bids submitted and makes a report to the quartermaster general in Washington There the awards are decided on the basis basi of f lowest price price plus plus considerations of speed of delivery labor standards local conditions conditions condition con con- and other military factors Thus while price is important it is no longer important all-important in making the the- awards Procurement experts predict that the new system not only will speed up deliveries but also will eliminate many bottlenecks by dispersing dispersing dispersing dis dis- dis- dis persing production build up local industries and raise the general level of labor standards since plants with the best standards will be given preference I On the basis o of orders already ady granted under the new system experts say costs will be no higher than under the old procedure Winning Isolationists Very quietly the administration is waging 4 I campaign to win over midwest isolationist sentiment Most striking feature of this campaign campaign campaign cam cam- is the distribution of the Bullitt speech given gi at Independence hall in in Philadelphia This distribution has now reached the amazing amazing amazing ing figure of It w was s done by using the congressional frank of certain senators who wanted the speech circulated The printing was done by the government printing office but the bill was not paid by the government After his speech Bullitt received no less than letters and telegrams with contributions totaling more than This paid for distribution of the speech The mailing lists were made up largely of R RFD F D names a tactic which met the approval of Secretary Secretary Sec See HulL Three people saw the Bullitt speech before it it was delivered One was Stanley Hornbeck state estate department adviser on far eastern affairs who ho urged without success that Bullitt tone it down Another was Archibald MacLeish librarian of congress who was elated with it it The third person was the president Note Highlight of the Bullitt speech was the warning The United States is in as great peril today as was France a year ago ago Unless Unless Un Un- less we act now decisively to meet the threat we shall be too late Townsend Lost Overlooked in the surprise defeat of Anzona's Anzona's Arizona's An- An zonas zona's veteran Senator Henry Ashurst was the fact that h was beaten despite the blessing of pr Dr Francis Townsend age old pension czar czars This is 15 the second senatorial l trouncing for 1 Townsend this year He opposed Senator Charles Andrews of Florida who won by a thumping majority C Copyright 1940 United Feature Syndicate |
