Capital Comment

...Both plana include provision for a world assembly in which the small power* will be represented and an executive council controlled by the Big Four, Sine* the smaller nations will not be represented at th* conference, we ran easily foresee the form which th* prospective league will take...

...the August 15 deadline arrived and went here with no change in the Nelson order...

...Neither is accurate...

...is breaking down" is not true...

...These two views are extreme ones," Senator Hatch secured...

...The pressing problems—as our troops storm on toward the German border and as the Russisns psuse st the very edge of Esst Prussia—ar* those which concern Kurope...

...The Frerch underground fighters at last dare fight above ground...

...Capital Comment By JONATHAN STOUT Monopoly Wins on Reconversion Washington, d. C.—Wednesday of this week Hie Senate's Mead Committee (formerly the Truman Com' siittee) called an important secret session to determine what is the truth in the confusing...

...Peace dependa far mora upon the satisfaction of rational wanta than upon the existence somewhere of an overpowering military force ready to pounce down upon a recaloitrant country...

...Behind closed doors the committee hesrd the testimony of fctsj...

...That is behind the latest junket arranged by the War Department for labor leaders...

...A similar effort it being made to split Nelson's solid labor t'.tppert...

...In ap« proaching the essential problem of peace, our political leaders seem to be caught in a nightmare of slow* motion...

...The issue came to a head when Nelson issued an srder permitting, after August 15, the limited resump-tkm of civilian production wherever cutbacks, cancelled war orders or surpluses of materials and manpower guarantee non-interference with war production...

...But these European problems are urgent...

...A peaceful Europe must b* a productive, prosperous, contented Europe...

...We have among us...

...After a long, all-day session, the committee's acting chairman, Senator Carl Hatch (i)., N. M l, emerged lit* in the day and told an overflow crowd of waiting reporters that as a result of the testimony they had Jutt beard the committee wanted him to inform the pshlie: * 1—That any thought that "our general production progrmi...

...In every part of the world, in every imaginable sort of environment and with all the sorts of fighting tools that have been devised, the soldiers and sailors of the United Nations have achieved brilliant victories duiing these past weeks...

...Tae OPA blow at the Nelson plan obviously is aimed st splitting Nelson's business supporters by driving a pricing wedge into their ranks...

...President Roosevelt and the Russian Government have published very broad outlines for an international organization...

...The new Fiance is rising rapidly from the grave in which it was supposed to sleep forever...

...2—The brass hal-wsr contractor combine have w*m this lsteet skirmish for industrial control...

...It is, of course, a radical departure from the traditional pricing system which, unhampered by competition, ha* customarily been based on the principle of "get a* much as the traffic will bear...

...Our mechanized divisions in Franca move forward at the rate of twenty or thirty mil** a day...

...As the furore simmers down here in the latest campaign of the Army-Navy brass hats to retain their grip on the nation's Industrial life, two conclusions emerge: I—Donald Nelson did not win his light...

...And it seemed on the surface as though Nelson had won hia fight for a plaaned and unchaotic preparation for the return of peacetime industry...

...One, an okay by Nelson to resume civilian production in any industrial plant remains ineffective until it s spproved by the LAR Manpower Commission (whnh it controlled by the Army-Navy brass hats...

...The four—or rather three—great power* ar* thinking of their present ability to quell any possible uprising anywhere in th* world...

...The Mead Committee session capped a series of dramatic incidents in Washington as "free enterprise" forces led by Donald Nelson and "monopoly" forces , fronted by Army-Navy brass hats struggled for domi-nstioii in the rapidly emerging industrial reconversion airfare...

...Bat it wa* also figured that profits under such a system will appear so meager in comparison to the profits to be made on war contracts that it will serve as a powerful deterrent against any desire by poorly-finaneed small business producers to take a flier in the new civilian production market opened up by the Nelson order...

...Supporting the Nelson plan for an orderly and planned return to peacetime production has been a coalition of small business, organized labor and some big business producers who are not in the war contractor category...

...jveniform and their big business war contractors to alant the developing reconversion picture so as to establish new postwar industrial monopolies...

...It Was reliably understood that Major General Clay concurred in his testimony before the committee with the declaration of Donald Nelson that the WPB order lifting a ban against production of hundreds of civilian articles in non-critical labor areas where material is svsjltble "will in no way interfere with the war effort...

...and is still continuing to do do...

...But—and this is a sad confession—in the field of politics our record is much less brilliant...

...What to do about Poland, what position should be allotted to France, how to manage defeated Germany, how to go about restoring the economy of the entire continent — these are questions the answers to which cannot lis postponed...

...Whstever little preliminary thinking has been don* to peeper* for th* Washington Conference ha* remained too much" limited by considerations of military power...

...It is bad enough to have Europe'a fate settled by Russian, American and English diplomats...

...Hitler's divisions in France are reeling from well-aimed blows arriving from three directions...

...I—That excessive optimism as a result of the "mag-ajteent overall production picture," howevei, should be •Voided...

...Actually, it's nothing of the sort...

...Lucius D. Clsy, the Army's Director of Materiel on the Wsr Production Board, anil of Wl'll Chairman Donald Nelson...

...Using as their mouthpiece Lieut...

...Kvery triumphant headline, every published war map, every exulting radio broadcast canies a message of splendid achievement...

...as well as in England and Russia, countless experienced European statesmen and well-qualified experts of all sorts...

...Kxactly four years ago, German machines clanked over all Kurope...

...But what we ar* not considering is th* possibility of arrangement* which will satisfy the people of Franc*, of Belgium, of Holland and of other countriea which ar* now comparatively powerless...

...The latter represents a very clever attack on the Mels.«n move...

...Now we are teaching the German* what blitz really means...

...At the end of this month the great four-power conference will convene at Dumbarton Oaks...

...It is worse yet to have it taken up without any effort to consider it from the European*' point of view...

...Most of Kurope accepted defeat as final...

...He was surety permitted i» "ssve face...

...Need for Political Bridgeheads OlK fighting men, on land, on sea and in the air, are doing magnificently...

...But there I* no evidence that their contribution* will be welcomed at Dumbarton Oaks...

...In an extra-special press confei-Gen, Somervell two weeks ago gave the nation ¦'Hack picture of labor and supply shortages which, ••was pointed out in this space last week, was delib-*4*ely falsified...

...It must be a continent on which esch nation, no matter how small, feela reasonably content with it* fat* and hopeful for the future...

...And the Russian plan for th* division of Germany involves a complete denial of all th* lesion* of European history...

...It was figured, therefore—and, no doubt, correctly -that the public will joyfully welcome an officially en-forced change from the traditional pricing system to one In which the manufacturers is limited to a fair return above the actual producton cost...

...Every advance mad* by our men on the road to Paris moves them forward on the agenda...

...That's not good enough...

...A quick analyais by informed WPB sources the morning following the Mead Committee sessior concluded that any public optimism that the Nelson order means any easing soon of civilian products is entirely unfoundedThe Nelson older, it wss pointed out, has been reii-dered meaningless from a practical point of view l>y two flanking attacks aimed at it...

...They have outlined plans, furnished detailed studies, done all that they could to present Europe's case...

...reports on war production and alleged labor and supply shortages...

...IjLnd despite the efforts of tho Army-Navy industiial-•W-in-uniform to make it seem as though they ar* concerned for "The Boys Over There," it has H*5F' become proved that the men on the fighting ft»nts have va«t reservoirs of every kind of fighting •Vdoment overseas, that they lack nothing they need, »W that (he real motivation of the brass hats arises out of a cabal between the Army Navy industrialiat...

...Prosperous, democratic nation* are peaceful nation...

...Two, manufacturer...

...The invasion of southern France ten weeks after the descent on the coast of Normandy is a triumph of rapid organization...

...J. Withia a week the Somervell story began blow-Pg «P ia his face...

...French collaborators flee in terror...

...Brehon Somervell, Chief of the Army Service Forces which manages industrial production of war material for the armed forces, the Army-Navy industrialists-in-uniform tried to •top Ike Nelson plan...

...The Somervell "facta" on war production have •***« been exploded by both official and unofficial •earces aa deliberate distortions of (he truth, snd »'« been exposed publicly at a cynical propagands ***rt aimed to perpetuate the brass hst grip on fa* nation's economic snd indasliial machinery...

...But apparently Washington and Ixindon have no dynamic plan—their only plan is to restore the statu* quo ante bellum...

...Their form of blitz was triumphant...

...succeeding in resuming civilian production before the end of the war despite the obstacle* put in their way—will find the OPA establishing ceiling price* for their products based on a fixed percentage above production costs...