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Show Farm Implement Industry Will Try 'Allocation Plan Manufacturers of Agricultural Machinery Placed Under Experimental System for Obtaining Necessary Raw Materials. XM) By BAUKHAGE National Farm and Home Hour Commentator. WNU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. By the time these words are printed the farmer ordering a tractor trac-tor or a dairy machine is going to be able to line ug at the counter right beside the generals and the admirals making their purchases of tanks and ships. This is the interpretation that can be put on the remark made by Donald Don-ald Nelson, head of the priorities division of the OPM, to the effect that he is going to make the agricultural agricul-tural implement industry a guinea pig in an experiment to remove the bottleneck which is preventing non-defense non-defense industries from getting the raw materials they need to operate. op-erate. Nelson admits that "priority lists" are not worth the paper they are written on in many cases and that a system of "allocation" is to be tried out. "Priorities" "allocation" wars always create new words as well as new meanings for old ones. In this case the word "priorities" covers, if not a multitude of sins and headaches, head-aches, at least a new meaning. When it became evident that there were not enough raw materials to supply defense needs and civilian needs both, the priority system was devised. The priority division of the Office of Production Management was set up to decide which order for which raw material should be delivered to what manufacturer. The materials most essential to defense production produc-tion were rated with an A, and graded in that category with numbers num-bers according to their importance. For example, A-l material topped the list. The highest rating for civilian defense materials was B-l, while others were fitted into alphabetical alpha-betical classifications and numbered in line with their significance in the defense program. This was the priority system. But it did not always work. For instance, in-stance, the manufacturer of a dairy machine requiring some essential product like aluminum or rubber might have the highest civilian rating, rat-ing, but when he tried to get delivery deliv-ery for that product he found that all he had was the letter "B" and the number "1" on a sheet of paper, and you can't make dairy machines out of paper. In Civilian Industries Also This was happening in many civilian civil-ian industries. It was also happening happen-ing in defense industries. In the latter cases the system was changed so that certain defense manufacturers manufactur-ers could get certain raw products (aluminum, copper, synthetic rubber, rub-ber, etc.) regardless of priority rating rat-ing but by "allocation." In other words, the government ordered a specific spe-cific amount of steel or copper delivered de-livered directly to the manufacturer. And now the farm implement industry in-dustry is to get its raw materials by the same method allocation if the plan being prepared by the priorities division at this writing is carried out. The priorities division explains that this is to be an experiment and that it is being tried so that experience experi-ence will be gained for applying the same method of providing raw materials ma-terials for other civilian industries. This is, of course, a vital problem since thousands are being thrown out of work because non-defense industries in-dustries are closing for want of supplies. However, there is another story behind the story of the guinea pig. It probably began with a terse remark re-mark by Gov. M. Clifford Townsend of the Office of Agricultural Defense Relations. He said: "The priority system works as well as writing a check on a bank with no funds in it." ' He was referring to the priority lists in general but he was thinking specifically about the farm implement imple-ment industry and thinking about it in connection with the new goals set for farm production. For what can the poor farmer do when he is asked to produce more with less labor if he can't buy the machines he is willing to pay for if the manufacturer manu-facturer can't get the essential materials to build those machines? Donald Nelson admitted that pri- ; ority lists were not worth the paper ! they were written on. Before Mr. Nelson made his admission. ad-mission. Dr. Townsend and a few other officials a few hundred be- i fore long in the department of agriculture ag-riculture got busy. The inter-bureau committees made a survey of the mechanical requirements of farm production as set forth in the new goals in the food for freedom campaign. cam-paign. This was in July. Survey of Requirements The department surveyed the needs in packaging and processing machinery machines to take care of the products after they were raised. And the county agents went right to the farmer himself and asked him what he would need to take care of the extra production-bearing production-bearing in mind that he would be short of human hands. A farmer with sons and hired help in the army or working in defense de-fense industries might make up for their loss if he substituted another tractor for a four-horse hitch. Self-feeders Self-feeders help, too, and machines for handling the products, like hay-hoists hay-hoists and, since the accent in the j farm program is now on dairy prod- : ucts, dairy machines are important. The latter take a lot of defense- ; precious aluminum, nickeled steel 1 and rubber. The poultry business was not so much concerned, for human hands have to do almost everything for the hens that the hens won't do for themselves. ; But how to get the machines? The manufacturers were all tooled up and ready to go. They were at the top of the priority lists but there were no priorities. The matter was laid before defense de-fense officials. Next Donald Nelson, in charge of priorities and once dependent largely on the farmer for a living (he has been loaned to the govern ment by Sears, Roebuck), started in to make good that "check on a bank with no funds in it." He be gan to plan allocations instead of priorities. Washington's Preview Of Winter For a while the other day, Washington Wash-ington drew a gray curtain over its bright autumn skies and gave us a preview of winter. It started with that painful moment mo-ment which, I daresay, you, too, have experienced oft in the chilly night when after dreaming you were stranded on an ice cake in the Polar sea in your shorts or something even shorter, you awake to find that the unfaithful blanket has left your bed. That happened to me. And when I had finally curled up to dream of warmer climes the alarm went off. It was still dark. So I let the clock buzz and tried to go back to sleep. It ought not to be dark, I reasoned. It hadn't been dark at that hour for months . . . When I reached the street I found a thick gray sky above, there was a chill in the air that set even Washington's Wash-ington's leisurely pedestrians scurrying scur-rying myself included. It did feel like winter. And when I had passed my second boarding-house cat, I was sure. These cats take their early outdoor loaf while the basement dining rooms are full. I suppose some of the boarders are subject to catalepsy or catallergy or whatever what-ever it is that makes people squeal and wiggle when a persistent pussy rubs their leg. Anyhow, these two particular cats are always loafing loaf-ing in the same spot in front of their respective boarding houses as I pass. Usually they merely look bored. This time they looked cold and bored. They were hunched up, like tight accordions a chilly cat always al-ways looks as though it were trying to pull its chin in to its own fur collar. Another sign of the false winter was an empty bench in front of the Masonic Temple. Usually it is full of girls waiting for the pal who picks them up and takes them to work, or at worst -a late bus. It is a convenient con-venient resting (place in the summer sum-mer under the shadow of a great sphinx. This time there was only one sitter. She may have had something on her mind or elsewhere that warmed her soul and prevented the cold stone from affecting the, shall we say, situation. There was one more sign the evergreens preened their needles with a look of satisfaction that they cannot muster when they have to compete with maple and magnolia. |