CMP for Civilian Goods

Over the cheers of some businessmen and the jeers of others, Defense Production Administrator Manly Fleischmann last week announced that all of U.S. industry will be subject to the Controlled Materials Plan. Beginning Oct. 1, said he, producers of civilian goods as well as arms producers will have to get their steel, copper and aluminum through Government allotment.

In its first few weeks of operation, CMP had only applied to manufacturers directly engaged in the defense programs and to the so-called defense-supporting industries, e.g., freight-car building. Makers of such civilian goods as refrigerators and autos had been left to scramble for themselves. By putting the civilian producers under CMP, Fleischmann hoped to assure them a fair share.

Many businessmen, particularly small ones who had got crowded out in the scramble, welcomed CMP's extension. At best, they thought it might get them more supplies, at worst create no greater confusion than now exists. Others, who had seen CMP disrupt their long-standing relationships with suppliers, feared that the move would pinch them still more. "CMP is an impossible and ill-starred undertaking," said Ford Vice President Irving A. Duffy. "Who can judge how much steel should be allocated for manufacturing hairpins, bobby pins, ash cans and thousands of other civilian items? Who can possibly possess the Solomon-like judgment to allocate materials fairly?"

DPAdministrator Fleischmann, who had predicted confusion in the first stages of CMP, was more optimistic. After a few months, said he, things would settle down and DPA would have the staff to crack down on manufacturers who are now adding to the confusion by wanton over-ordering. To the suggestion advanced by Bethlehem Steel's Chairman Eugene Grace and others (TIME, Aug. 6) that CMP should be limited to direct defense production, Fleischmann had a quick answer: "Without CMP you will get lots of refrigerators, cars and so forth, but no tools. Direct military purchases are the smallest part of the mobilization program." But the unanswered question is whether, in a competitive economy, the Government has any business allocating for civilian industry. If businessmen had been left to fight it out among themselves, they undoubtedly could have nosed out their supplies a lot quicker than they will be able to do by Government order. Now, if supplies get any worse, businessmen who have been screaming at each other will simply do their screaming at the Government.

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