Wilson's No. 2 Man

Mobilization Boss Charlie Wilson got a No. 2 man last week. He is: 42-year-old Manly Fleischmann, who has been administrator of the National Production Authority and who now becomes boss of the Defense Production Administration as well. In his new two-headed role, Fleischmann will have the job of translating Wilson's policies into weapons by getting arms makers the materials they need, by regulating overall production and by controlling defense loans and plant expansion.

The new setup is a bureaucratic compromise. As a policymaking agency, DPA stands directly below Wilson's Office of Defense Mobilization and a notch above NPA, which is under the Commerce Department. When William H. Harrison resigned as DPAdministrator two months ago, Charlie Wilson wanted to do away with DPA altogether and put NPA, which is actually straw-bossing the defense program, into its place. But Commerce Secretary Charles Sawyer objected; he wanted to keep control over part of the mobilization program.

Now, as chief of both DPA and NPA, Fleischmann becomes Sawyer's boss on matters of policy, Sawyer's subordinate on production and allocation of materials. To keep his two heads from whirling,

Fleischmann will need all his savvy about business and bureaucrats.

After graduating from Harvard in 1929, Fleischmann worked his way through the University of Buffalo Law School. With two brothers, he set up a law firm in Buffalo, went to work for the War Production Board in World War II. In 1943 he joined the Navy as a lieutenant, led a 100-man OSS mission into Burma to organize espionage.

In NPA Fleischmann fathered the Controlled Materials Plan (TIME, April 23), convinced Charlie Wilson and doubtful businessmen that CMP was needed to keep defense and civilian production rolling. About his latest appointment, still to be confirmed by the Senate, Fleischmann has some good-natured misgivings. Says he: "Secretary Sawyer says he wants to see me daily. Mr. Wilson says he wants to see me daily. And Congress will probably want to see me daily. I won't have any trouble keeping busy."

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