"False Pessimism"

War Watchdog Harry S. Truman took a bite out of the U.S. Army & Navy last week. The Missouri Senator's criticism: they are unnecessarily delaying the re sumption of civilian production.

Addressing the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, the chairman of the U.S. Senate War Investigating Committee said: "Some of those in the armed services have opposed any reference to the fact that many of our requirements either have been met or shortly will be met. They believe that the truth should be kept from the public in order to avoid overconfidence. This is a strange argument. ... I have noted that the armed services show little inclination to play down their military and naval accomplishments. ... If overconfidence is not caused by such disclosures, it will not come from telling the facts about war production. . . . The only result of a false pessimism about our state of war production will be to create a trough of inactivity in which our economy will lose momentum."

The Senator was equally blunt in opposing any plan that called for complete Government supervision of the cutback to civilian production. He wants surpluses of materials made available to all manufacturers who have no unfilled war contracts and are not located in a critical manpower area. Said he: "The experience of the past does not indicate that Government agencies, staffed with dollar-a-year men from industry, have either the experience or the ability to select from tens of thousands of manufacturers those who are to be permitted to produce, and from thousands of items, those which are to be produced. The decisions that would have to be made are too numerous, complex and interlocking, and there is too much scope for bias and prejudice." Five days after the Truman speech, the War Production Board announced a special committee, under its executive vice chairman Charles E. Wilson, to plan progressive reconversion.

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