( 232 ) 



should be centralized in the Fuel Administrator's office. 

 tTnder this type of organization, all phases of the food pro- 

 gram prices, production, distribution, rationing, subsidies, 

 incentive payments, and farm labor would be put in the 

 hands of one administrator. Reorganization merely silences 

 the verbal barrage for a day, and appeasement may only 

 delay the demise of that which Walter Lippmann 2 aptly 

 called "white elephants." 



There comes a day when it is generally recognized that 

 appeasement will not satisfy the increasing number of critics 

 and the administration must consider the basic cause of fail- 

 ure and devise ways of saving face. The Office of Price Ad- 

 ministration is a case in point. It is administratively impos- 

 sible for the many agencies to freeze prices, to roll back 

 prices, to ration part of the food, to subsidize this and that, 

 to grant hidden increases in income, to tax equitably, and 

 to prevent the accumulation of excess purchasing power ; all 

 done, presumably, to forestall inflation. One reorganization 

 after another is inevitable in the early stages of a regimented 

 economy and only the future can appraise the value of the 

 changes. 



Checks and Balances in a Regimented Economy 



The public complains that the food and price adminis- 

 trators have too much authority, and the administrators 

 complain that they have too little. Both may be partially 

 correct. The conflicting policies and conflicting personalities 

 in a regimented economy inevitably tie the hands of most 

 administrators. To the administrator, this presents an appal- 

 ling picture of chaotic administration. It seems ridiculous to 

 him to be appointed to do a job and then have his hands 

 tied so that he cannot do it. 



2 Lippmann, W.: "Last Days of a White Elephant," New York Herald 

 Tribune, Thursday, May 27, 1943, page 21. 



