THE HOME-FRONT MOBILIZERS

Washington, gearing for war again, was a different place from the total-war days of just five years ago. Then there had been F.D.R.'s big, bickering collection of powerful organizations--WPB, 0PM, WMC, WLB, OPA and other alphabetical agencies devised for every new area and every crisis. So far, President Truman has reached toward mobilization in a more traditional fashion, through the regular Cabinet departments. So far in 1950, there are no home-front czars and caliphs grinding out firm and final decrees to a wage-stabilized, price-controlled, rationed public. But there is also a noticeable absence of vigor and purpose in the U.S. mobilization program, and in most of the men running it; there are no Charles E. Wilsons, "Bull" Jeffers, Bill Knudsens. These are the men who have been trying to catch up to galloping reality with a creeping mobilization:

William Stuart Symington, 49, is chief of staff for U.S. home-front mobilization, the nearest thing to its boss. As chairman of the National Security Resources Board, his responsibility, though not his authority, stretches across the spectrum of the U.S. economy. But he has a staff of only 300 and, in bureaucracy's jargon, he only "coordinates" the work of seven Cabinet members, refereeing their arguments rather than dictating to them. Still, in a mobilization pinch, Symington can move in as President Truman's personal representative, twist arms and bang more heads together than could any one of the compartmentalized czars of World War II days. Tall, handsome Stu Symington has a highly developed knack for getting along with people. Friend & foe agree that the phrase that best fits him is "smart operator." He is impetuous, forceful, dedicated; a doer rather than a thinker; a man adept at brain-picking. He made a comfortable fortune and a reputation as an administrator in industry (Emerson Electric), came to Washington as Truman's Surplus Property chief in 1945, later became the first Secretary of the Air Force. Moved to his present job last April, Symington for a long time was regarded as a calamity howler crying for more arms & men, but his pessimism was proved right by the defeat in Korea. While personally favoring more preparedness, he has loyally cooperated with the Administration's take-it-easy approach.

Charles Sawyer, 63, Secretary of Commerce, is keeper of the bridge connecting the Government with U.S. industry and business. Stiff and ambitious, he had hoped to grab the power that went to Stu Symington. He is responsible for much of the national production effort, e.g., he oversees the new National Production Authority. He also controls the nation's exports & imports and such enterprises as the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the U.S. Weather Bureau system, the U.S. highway system and inland waterways. He is a conservative lawyer with a long moneymaking record as promoter-businessman.

John Wesley Snyder, 55, Secretary of the Treasury, is mobilization's money man. He plots tax laws, runs the inflation-fighting U.S. Savings Bonds drive. Because he is an intimate member of the Missouri Gang and sees the President often, he helps evolve major decisions covering non-Treasury facets of Administration policy. A pinch-mouthed conservative banker, Arkansas-born John Snyder (who has long made his home in Missouri) is a hard worker and a beaver for tiresome detail. He hates heavy spending, high taxes and deficit financing, but as bookkeeper for the rearming U.S. is resigned to all three. Washington's respect for him has grown since his early (1946) days in the Cabinet. Even the old New Dealers concede that while he is no Alexander Hamilton, he is a better man than World War II's Treasury chief, Henry Morgenthau.

Charles Franklin Brannan, 47, Secretary of Agriculture, guards the breadbasket. Earnest, shiny-domed Charlie Brannan of Denver must see that the nation produces enough of the right things to eat and that factories get enough wool, cotton, soybeans and other agricultural products vital to defense production. He must, among other things, anticipate growing conditions and economic fluctuations. For the time being, it is not a tough assignment: U.S. farmers are producing at a record pace and huge Government food surpluses are on hand for emergencies. His controversial Brannan farm program is completely out the window.

Oscar Littleton Chapman, 54, the Secretary of the Interior, has more mobilization titles than anyone in Washington, is inclined to arrange it so that the Government can plan and do big things that most of the other mobilizers would leave to private industry. In short, he is an unreconstructed New Dealer and Big Government man. He is Petroleum Administrator for Defense, runs the Defense Minerals, Fisheries, Power and Solid Fuels Administrations. Oilmen balked when he proposed lumping all his mobilization powers into one Minerals and Energy Administration, forced him to set up a series of agencies, each heavily studded with industry advisers. It will be Chapman--and his advisers--who will decide if & when the U.S. must endure gas rationing, brownouts and other fuel conservation measures.

William Henry Harrison, 58, boss of the National Production Authority, is industry's King Solomon. He must determine, through priorities and allocations, who gets what strategic and scarce materials and how much. He works under Sawyer. His biggest material worries now are such metals as steel, aluminum and copper, of which there is not enough to supply both defense and business-as-usual needs. Ruddy, silver-haired William Harrison was formerly president of I.T.&T., and a major general in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in World War II. In his new job he wants to disturb U.S. business as little as possible, but has realized that considerable disturbance will be necessary to get production rolling.

Thomas Bayard McCabe, 57, is chairman of the Federal Reserve System's board of governors, who have the task of curbing inflation by "indirect controls." He moved too slowly in the fresh flush of inflation touched off by Korea in July, but under Symington's prodding he began clamping down with tough Regulations W and X, to curb installment buying of autos and inflationary housebuilding. He is a banker and manufacturer (Scott Paper Co.), opposes wage & price controls until there is all-out mobilization.

Alan Valentine, 49, is boss of the new Economic Stabilization Agency which must plan, impose and enforce price, wage and rationing policies when he, his friend Symington and the President, think it's time. The job is going to be rough & tough and Washington is not yet sure that nervous, hot-tempered, ex-University President (University of Rochester) Valentine is the man for it (TIME, Oct. 23).

Michael V. DiSalle, 42, is Valentine's price stabilizer, the man who must set maximum prices for the things civilians buy and, if price control is ordered, see that ceilings are not violated and black-marketeers are squashed. Roly-poly, jolly Mike ("Mr. Five by Five") DiSalle resigned as mayor of Toledo to take the job. He knows little about high-level economics, but those who know him, including many of Ohio's top industrialists, think he will make a good price administrator.

Cyrus Stuart Ching, 74, is Valentine's wage stabilizer. Giant (6 ft. 7 in.), patient Cy Ching, wise in the ways of labor, management and Washington, but glacier-slow in action, heads a nine-member Wage Stabilization Board (three from labor, three from industry, Ching and two others representing the public). The board is supposed to cajole labor into putting off new wage demands while Mike DiSalle persuades management to keep prices down. So far, he and his colleagues have done nothing, established no general policy. His board includes no top labor and industry men.

Millard Fillmore Caldwell, 53, is the man who must plot the protection of 150 million Americans. He is the new U.S. Civilian Defense Administrator. A lawyer, a banker, onetime Congressman and able governor of Florida, he must guide and help equip states, cities and villages for the disaster which would come if war should hit the U.S. mainland. He will work principally with the 48 governors, most of whom know and respect him.

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