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Show t'--n WASHINGTON 'i WHO Corr.ipond.nl I WNO Washington Bureau 1616 Eye St.. N. W New 'Surplus' Law Gives Veterans Better Chance rESPITE the fact that congress has granted veterans of World War II a No. 1 priority on purchase of surplus war property, these veterans vet-erans are in for another disappointment disappoint-ment Much propaganda has gone out over this latest fiasco on disposal dis-posal of war property to veterans, but Gen. Edmund B. Gregory, administrator ad-ministrator of War Assets administration, adminis-tration, frankly states that only a limited number of specified itemi have been set aside for exclusive purchase by veterans. "All oi these items," he says, "are in extremely ex-tremely short supply and it follows that there simply will not be enough to meet veterans' demands." And that's the fly in the ointment, for the impression prevails that under un-der the new law the veterans will get about anything and everything in surplus and there won't be much left for the general buyer. Tha' simply is not true. All the new law does is to put the veteran in a little better buying position, and it is highly probable that there will be no marked effect on surplus disposal dis-posal as now conducted. The limited list is supposed to include certain types of automotive auto-motive vehicles, tractors, construction, con-struction, mining and excavating excavat-ing machinery. agricultural machinery, medical, surgical and dental apparatus and typewriters. type-writers. The priority does not apply to land or buildings. If past experience is to be any criterion, there wili be from ten to a hundred requests for every item offered the veterans under the new priority, because there is not a sufficient suf-ficient supply available and likely there never will be. Goods Will Be Allotted Veterans likely will be limited to a single unit of purchase. For instance, in-stance, a veteran likely will be permitted per-mitted to buy only one typewriter, but if he wants to buy a tractor too, his certificate may be modified to permit this, provided there is a tractor available. But apparently apparent-ly if he is in business he couldn't buy a dozen tractors or a dozen typewriters. General Gregory says that there will be no system of government retail outlets selling surplus direct to veterans, and congress has made it clear it intended no such enterprise. enter-prise. So if you are a veteran and make application to buy a truck, here's what will happen. Say there are 30 trucks available. The regional re-gional office has 100 certificates of application and 10 personal use certificates cer-tificates on file or a proportion of 1 to 10. Notification will be sent to the three applicants for personal use whose certificates bear the oldest dates, and the 27 applicants for non-personal use whose certificates bear the oldest dates. So 70 veterans vet-erans will be disappointed. As more trucks become available, however, the veteran who is unable to exercise exer-cise his priority on a personal use certificate will be notified a second and third time and then his certificate certif-icate will be placed in an inactive file. There has also come to the attention of the WAA some instances in-stances of veterans being used in connection with black market mar-ket purchases of surplus prop erty. Every effort will be made to ferret out these opperations where a veteran, either In collusion collu-sion or unknowingly, uses his priority to purchase goods intended in-tended for sale in the black market. Many Items Not Wanted How widespread this practice is, of course, is not known at this time, but veterans themselves are urged to help in ferreting out instances of such illegal procedures, since such purchases deprive deserving veterans of those consumer goods Intended for them alone. Some of these attempts to force surplus property into black market have Deen discovered through the type 3f goods purchased. For instance, experience has indicated to officials there are only a few types of goods n which a veteran is actually Interested, In-terested, even in the consumer category, cate-gory, and when priorities are asked .'or goods outside this class, officials ire likely to make an investigation 3f the transaction. Great quantities of surplus goods exist ajjd will continue to go on sale In which the veterans veter-ans have shown little Interest. For Instance, the WAA office of capital and producers goods disposal dis-posal have no veterans' problems, prob-lems, and neither has the marl-time marl-time commission, in its disposal of marine property. At any rate, the effect of the new aw will cause no flood of surplus to the veteran. There has never been enough to go around, and the new So. 1 priorities do not produce any more surplus goods. |
