WAR FRONT: SPAB, OPM & Chaos

The Supply Priorities & Allocations Board—set up last August as a cure-all for the bickering and delay in the U.S. defense effort—has itself bogged down in a morass of divided authority and red tape.

This was the sad conclusion last week of many a defense expert. Intended as the brains of defense, SPAB has turned out to be just another feeble tentacle of the hydra-like monster. Donald Nelson, its executive director, has no vote in its councils. Moreover, Nelson has two conflicting jobs. As SPAB director he is boss of William Knudsen's Office of...