Shakeup: Last Chapter

By setting up a new Conservation Bureau, Judge Samuel Rosenman last week virtually completed his reorganization of U.S. defense (TIME, Sept. 8). The new unit, part of the Office of Production Management, will replace numerous conservation agencies now scattered through Washington, will have full charge of eliminating frills on civilian goods and stopping waste of scarce materials.

Chosen as head of the bureau--on rec ommendation of Donald Nelson,* head of the Supply Priorities & Allocations Board --was Nelson's old private-industry boss: ex-Board Chairman Lessing Julius Rosenwald of Sears, Roebuck & Co. Shy, esthetic Lessing Rosenwald retired in 1939, since has administered his philanthropies (including the noted Rosenwald Fund started by his father) and pursued his hobby of collecting etchings. Last summer he went to Washington as head of OPM's commodity section on silk. He was once a member of the America First Committee and an outspoken Willkie supporter in the last campaign, but,many a bygone is bygone in Washington's 1941 emergency.

Although Robert McConnell, head of OPM's old conservation section, was passed over for the top job, he was by no means purged. He will continue as head of a new Engineers' Defense Board which will advise Rosenwald. Its first job: to knock unnecessary requirements out of U.S. building codes, thus save on materials going into construction.

* OPM's Bill Knudsen knew nothing about the Conservation Bureau until its organization was complete.

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