238 ORGANIZING SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH FOR WAR 



laboratories. Provision was also made for obtaining materials under the 

 CMP. OSRD encouraged its smaller contractors to use the rating assigned 

 by P-43 since the WPB had promised that they would immediately qualify 

 for the use of the AA-i if working on an OSRD contract. Many of the 

 contractors working on NDRC projects, and all of those working on CMR 

 projects, did operate under this plan until the war's end with success. 



One important function of the priorities section was to maintain an ex- 

 pediting service to obtain out-of-line ratings on scarce items and to effect 

 the release of specially controlled materials. Whenever the production of 

 material or equipment did not meet the demand of those purchasers with 

 equally high ratings, the orders began to stack up and delivery would be 

 quoted at increasingly remote dates. Since research requirements were 

 seldom known far in advance, OSRD contractors were at a disadvantage, 

 for they would learn from suppliers that there were many orders with either 

 higher or equally high ratings ahead of them. The contractor would then 

 enlist the aid of OSRD in obtaining whatever relief was necessary to effect 

 delivery by the desired date. 



There were two major methods followed by WPB in handling these tight 

 situations. One was by the assignment of an out-of-line priority rating in- 

 cluding the emergency rating, and the other was by scheduling every order 

 for a particular product in each manufacturer's plant. Usually as a situation 

 became acute and it appeared that it would remain so, scheduling was insti- 

 tuted. In either circumstance complete information had to be presented to 

 the WPB industry division having cognizance of the item. If concurrence by 

 that group, and usually of representatives of the Army and Navy attached 

 to the division, could be obtained, an out-of-line rating could be secured or 

 the order scheduled for a satisfactory delivery. From the beginning of 1943 

 until the end of hostilities four expediters and a supervisor together with 

 secretarial help spent full time on this aspect of priorities work. Figures 

 available indicate that more than 10,000 separate requests for expediting 

 and special handling were received and acted on by the priorities section. 

 It is estimated that less than i per cent of these requests ended in failure; 

 those were usually because the request proved to be unjustified or because 

 the items requested were not being produced. 



Among the efforts to aid contractors in carrying on research and develop- 

 ment was the establishment of the Electronics Research Supply Agency. 

 Upon the recommendation of the Army, Navy, OSRD and WPB, this 

 organization was established in April 1943, to act for the Defense Supplies 

 Corporation as a central source of supply for electronic components and raw 

 materials required by Government, institutional and industrial laboratories 

 engaged in electronic research and development projects for the Army, 

 Navy or OSRD. Between June 1943 and September 1945, OSRD contractors 

 made substantial use of this additional source of supply. 



