U.S. War policies policies commission. War Policies Commission C225 HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMISSION APPOINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF PUBLIC RESOLUTION NO. 98 20.J 1931 TO PROMOTE PEACE AND TO EQUALIZE THE BURDENS WEDNESDAY, MAY 13, 1931 SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, The commission met at 10.30 o'clock a. m. Wednesday, May 13, Senate Office Building, Washington, D. C., Hon. Patrick J. Hurley (chairman) presiding. Secretary HURLEY. The first witness is Hon. Frederick H. Payne, Assistant Secretary of War since May 6, 1930; major of ordnance and district procurement officer, 1918; member of the Bridgeport district claims board, 1919; and now lieutenant colonel of the Officers' Reserve Corps. STATEMENT OF HON. FREDERICK H. PAYNE, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF WAR Secretary PAYNE. The responsibility of the Assistant Secretary of War under the national defense act involves the Army's business or commercial activities both in peace and war. That act specifically charges the Assistant Secretary of War, under the direction of the Secretary of War, with "supervision of the procurement of all military supplies and other business of the War Department pertaining thereto and the assurance of adequate provision for the mobilization of matériel and industrial organizations essential to war-time needs." This statutory mission involves the development of a suitable organization and systematic methods for purchasing promptly and economically the enormous quantities of supplies necessary to the Army to permit the rapid expansion a grave emergency would require. Procurement of Army supplies remains a responsibility of the War Department in peace and in war. The law also imposes on my office the responsibility of evolving plans designed to assist a war-time President in mobilizing our economic resources and in unifying our national industrial effort. This task is obviously one that can not be carried out by the War Department alone. The Navy Department in particular must share equally with us this duty. Through cooperative effort, the two departments, assisted by many other agencies and individuals, are developing plans that we believe are adequate to the purpose. These plans include provisions for setting up an organization, basically civilian, through which the President will be enabled to carry out this duty. The War Department, in an emergency, will turn over these particular plans to the civilian organization so set up, which will then, under the President, have full responsibility for their execution. The intimate relationship existing between these tasks and those features of the commission's work that involve profiteering and the distribution of war's economic burdens is apparent. In recognition of this relationship, my office, upon request of the commission, last February furnished to each member a copy of a general plan outlining the basic principles and considerations observed by planning personnel in the War Department. That document is the basic guide upon which are built up the many subsidiary plans of the Army's supply services, and as such is in constant and daily use. As stated in that study, the details of the organization and methods proposed therein were not to be considered as expressing the final opinion of the War Department, but rather as representing the conclusions reached up to the moment the general plan was assembled. Since that date, based upon suggestions received from many sources, a limited revision has been made to clarify some portions of the text, and to modify certain others. In view of this, if the commission so desires, my office will be glad to replace the copy now in the possession of each member by a copy of the later edition. This edition, like the former, will continue subject to revision whenever the desirability therefor is indicated. As At this point I want to emphasize the importance of constant revision in the development of plans for industrial mobilization. War Department operation, with respect to supply in war, would be limited to the design of equipment, and to the contracting for, inspecting, paying for, and distributing the items needed. stated emphatically in all our plans, industrial control in its larger sense can be no part of War Department responsibility. Whatever governmental control is exercised over industry in war must be a function of the Chief Executive, acting in accordance with the wishes of Congress, and through the organization I have already indicated. As a consequence, unless plans for industrial mobilization reflect substantially the current opinion of Congress, of the President, and of industry, labor, and finance, they would be obsolete when an emergency arose and would be cast aside. They can not be the product of a cloistered body of students; they must represent the composite thought of national leaders. They are intended to meet the conditions of the moment they would hardly apply to the conditions of the remote future except as they are sound in general principle. To carry out this idea we offer our plans and proposals to every authority that will criticize them constructively. Any change in trend of thought as to basic organization and methods applicable in war will therefore be immediately reflected in revisions in our detailed plans. From While the proposals of my office are closely related to the economic questions to be considered by this commission, yet they are but a part of the complete War Department program, which naturally affects the human as well as the material burdens of war. the department's viewpoint, supply is subsidiary to military requirements, and in support of military effort. Plans for procurement of material are based upon those for procuring men, and one side of the program can not be presented or considered intelligently except in its relation to the other. For this reason General Douglas MacArthur, Chief of Staff of the Army, will present the War Department proposals as a unified and complete program, explaining alike the appropriate plans prepared by the General Staff and those developed in the office of the Assistant Secretary of War. Secretary HURLEY. That completes your statement? Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Secretary, I should just like to ask you one question: The function of this office of Assistant Secretary of War that you fill is now generally spoken of as "procurement planning," is it not? Secretary PAYNE. That is one of the features. Mr. COLLINS. That is the principal feature of it? Secretary PAYNE. Yes. Mr. COLLINS. The idea of having an Assistant Secretary to attend to these particular duties is by no means a popular one in the War Department, is it? Secretary PAYNE. I have never seen any signs but what it was. If it is an unpopular idea, it has been concealed from me very completely. Mr. COLLINS. Are not there a large number of officers in the War Department who feel that this work ought to be handled by the General Staff? Secretary PAYNE. Not to my knowledge. Mr. COLLINS. You have never heard of it? Secretary PAYNE. I have never heard it expressed. (Witness excused.) Mr. COLLINS. Mr. Chairman, I have a letter here from Bishop McConnell, of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America. It seems that this same letter was written to the other members of the commission, and along with it was sent a statement regarding the conscription of life, labor, and capital. I should like to ask that the secretary of the commission read that accompanying statement for the record. Secretary HURLEY. I see no objection to that. Mr. MONTGOMERY. It is headed "Statement regarding the conscription of life, labor, and capital. Adopted by the administrative committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, April 24, 1931." In view of the fact that the joint Cabinet Congressional War Policies Commission is holding hearings and that it has stated that it will be glad to listen to the views of all who are interested, the administrative committee of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America deems it desirable at this time to reaffirm its action of April 9, 1926, namely, "that any program of war-time conscription should be put into force only by act of Congress with reference to a specific emergency. The committee records the strong conviction that whenever human life is subjected to conscription material resources should be conscripted with equal thoroughness and rigor." The administrative committee also makes the following additional affirmations of its convictions: 1. While recognizing the necessity for reasonable national defense and for maintaining international order and international justice, we believe that the people and Government of the United States should concentrate thought and effort on the development of the spirit and of the institutions essential to world justice, mutual confidence and good will, common security, and world peace. 2. We believe that the supreme need of the world is to make the peace pact of Paris thoroughly effective. The United States and all the nations should take every practicable step to accomplish this and should unitedly stress the functions of the World Court, arbitration treaties, and other institutions of peace |