Bright Pattern

The U.S. War Department spent a grand total of $14,000,000,000 on war materials delivered during World War I.

Last week, the War Department announced that in World War II, the Army has already canceled $13,000,000,000 in war contracts. The real news was not the whopping figure, but the speed with which the Army has paid off on some 13,000 of 19,000 contracts. Average time from the filing of claims: three and one-half months.

Oil the Machinery. These speedy settlements were due largely to the well-oiled machinery set up by handsome Brigadier General Albert Browning, 54, ex-president of United Wallpaper Factories, Inc. of Chicago (TIME, Aug. 30). This machine is now managed by Colonel David N. Hauseman, 49, grey-eyed, soft-spoken director of the Army's Readjustment Division. Born in Pottstown, Pa., Colonel Hauseman graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, was a lieutenant in World War I. He liked the Army, stayed to become an ordnance expert. On various sabbaticals he collected degrees from Massachusetts Tech (Bachelor of Science) and Harvard (Master of Business Administration). Temple University contributed an honorary science degree. In the '30s he blueprinted much of the Army's present program as chief of the planning division for army ordnance. Later, as boss of the Philadelphia Ordnance District, he boosted production of ordnance to $2,500,000,000.

Until last September, General Browning handled contract cancellation, along with his job of fly-specking every Army contract to make certain the U.S. got its money's worth. But General Browning, like many another top businessman, is in Washington only for the duration. So Colonel Hauseman was called from Philadelphia to take over. Now he puts in an eleven-hour day in his Pentagon Building office, smoothly settles canceled contracts at the rate of $1,000,000,000 monthly.

Make It Run. Colonel Hauseman is well aware that the present speed of cancellation is no guarantee that the avalanche of contracts at war's end -- perhaps $75,000,000,000 -- can be settled as easily.

He believes that the job can be done more expeditiously with legislation, such as the George-Murray bill (TIME, Feb. 21). For many contracts being settled now are merely bookkeeping transactions. The Army will cancel one contract and let a new contract to the same company for about the same amount.

But enough cancellations entailing all the knotty problems of inventories and half-finished products have been handled to set an encouragingly bright pattern.

On the average, the Army has paid out 80% of the dollar value of claims. To Colonel Hauseman this is an eminently satisfactory percentage. If it were much less, some would quibble that contractors' claims had been exorbitant. If it were much more, the Army might be suspected of too lax a hold on the purse strings.

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