Protection Needed?

After Congress created the Small Defense Plants Administration last July, President Truman had a hard time finding a man to run the new agency. Last month he snagged Telford Taylor, 43, an old New Deal friend of Truman's, who has made a notable record as general counsel for the Federal Communications Commission, as a G-2 brigadier general in World War II and, later, as chief U.S. prosecutor at the Nuernberg war crimes trials. A Harvard Law School graduate ('32), Taylor left the Government in 1949, this year began his own Manhattan law practice.

As he was sworn in as SDP Administrator last week, Taylor got a cold welcome to Washington from Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer, who told an Ohio audience SDPA was unnecessary. Said he: "The work [of SDPA] could have been done by existing agencies effectively"--specifically, Charlie Sawyer's department, which now looks after troubled small businessmen.

Is SDPA really necessary? Telford Taylor thinks so. To insure small business "a full part" in mobilization, he expects to set up SDPA offices in Washington and around the nation, although he is "hopeful of keeping our Washington staff below 200." But small business, already in the arms program up to its-ears, hardly seems to need a protector. Of the current military spending, small businessmen are getting 21% in prime contracts, 35% more through subcontracts, e.g., General Motors alone subcontracts to 12,500 other companies. Companies with fewer than 500 employees are enjoying record rates of birth, survival and growth. Next year a tighter squeeze in metal supplies might throttle some small businesses. But SDPA is supposed to die by statute, next June 30--just when its wards might really need it.

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