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ignore cost and wastage. Experience has taught us that price 

 was an efficient administrator of civilian logistics. Costs and 

 wastage were kept at a minimum. It has not been demon- 

 strated that a regimented economy can keep costs and wast- 

 age at so low a level. 



The armed forces are a completely regimented economy. 

 If the civilian economy were completely regimented, certain 

 advantages would no doubt occur, but there would be many 

 disadvantages. Furthermore, regimented civilian logistics 

 runs counter to freedoms which civilians are unwilling sud- 

 denly to give up. 



Our national policy is to substitute a controlled economy 

 operating under priorities, subsidies, and ticket rationing for 

 the price mechanism. In a modern industrialized nation like 

 the United States, civilian logistics is as important as mili- 

 tary logistics, and certainly much more expensive, inefficient, 

 and difficult to administer. If civilian logistics becomes dis- 

 rupted, military logistics is likely to be hampered. 



Administrators Are Untrained 



The main disadvantage of a controlled economy is that it 

 is not likely to be successful. Men have not been trained to 

 administer such a system, and it takes a long time to train 

 them. Some contend that the difficulty is that we are not 

 using the experience which individuals have accumulated 

 over generations. That is true, but only a part of the experi- 

 ence acquired under a price economy is of value under a regi- 

 mented economy. 



American business does not place executives in charge of 

 its food industries until they are well trained and acquainted 

 with most of the details. Such experience requires the greater 

 part of a lifetime. It takes years to train the men who run 

 Swift and Company. No one would suddenly appoint an 

 economist or the manager of a corner grocery store, no mat- 



