Master Pattern

Another great, "final" reorganization of the U.S. war effort began to emerge. In Washington's high places, talk of an Economic High Command had turned from whether? to how? Even the men who are now top dog in their own fields, and must someday take orders from such a High Command, were ready to give up their prerogatives as the price of order, which is the price of victory.

One man who foresaw the need was handsome, silver-topped Paul Vories McNutt, who looked at his title of Manpower Tsar and found it meaningless. McNutt's job was to mobilize the nation's men & women for war, get them into the most productive jobs, keep them there. But for all his glamorous title and vast task, he lacked the power.

When McNutt sent a man to the West Coast to stop pirating of workers by stabilizing wages, he ran head on into two other war agencies. Wage Boss William H. Davis' man was there with a second plan. Price Boss Leon Henderson's man was there with a third plan. The conference fell, with a loud, painful thump, among the three Government stools.

Now McNutt's great worry was the nation's impending manpower shortage, heading toward a crux in the fall. To cope with it he might have to order nonwar workers to switch to new jobs, might have to "freeze" war workers in their present jobs. But until the U.S. had a sensible wage policy, reducing inequalities from plant to plant and industry to industry, labor would never stand for "freezing." And McNutt had no power over wages. Nor did Production Boss Donald Nelson, though he had all the responsibility for factory output.

Five Into One. Leon Henderson also foresaw the need and the inevitability. He had clashed with McNutt and Davis over wages, with Secretary of Agriculture Claude Wickard on farm prices. Economist Henderson well knew the unbalanced house-of-cards structure of the U.S. economy after two years of war strains and stresses. He had his own ideas on how to manage the economy. But he was willing to forget them, if somebody would lay down an over-all policy to which he could sensibly gear price control.

The nation had too many bosses. They got in each other's way, stepped on each other's toes, bumped and jostled like five men trying to get through a door at once.

In the five agencies lay the sections of a master pattern. The next step was a master hand who would put the jigsaw together. Once the nation had an Economic High Command--and a High Commander--the war effort might begin to make sense.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.