Little Man Running Around

Some strange wartime sagas could be compiled from the adventures of American businessmen with their Government, but most of the people involved consider silence the better part of discretion. This is one true story, of a small businessman from the West. He tells it himself, but prefers to remain anonymous.

Just after Pearl Harbor he got a thrill. The War Department told him that it badly needed a war product that he wanted to make. What's more, it promised to help him get a release on a German patent that was needed to build a plant.

On Dec. 18 he rushed to Washington to get the release, with recommendations from the War Department made application to the Justice Department (which has an Alien Property division left over from World War I). He waited in vain for results.

On Feb. 22 he read in the paper that the Treasury would be in charge of alien property, rushed over and filed another application. The Treasury told him also to file with his Federal Reserve Bank, so he went back West and did so. Again he waited in vain.

Fortnight ago he read that the President had appointed Leo Crowley Alien Property Custodian, and filed again.

Last week he heard Donald Nelson on the radio mention a shameful corporation that had delayed a contract 26 days. The businessman was furious: Twenty-six days? A bagatelle! The Government had delayed his war project more than three months.

He still didn't know the half of it: 1) War, 2) Justice, 3) Treasury, 4) the Federal Reserve Bank, 5) the Alien Property Custodian could all have told him that the Patent Office could have granted him the use of the patent at once. All he needed was a little letter from the War Department stating that his project was necessary to the conduct of the war.

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