Untangled

In the U.S. rearmament program no job is more important than assuring a flow of strategic raw materials. Yet no job has been more thoroughly bungled, chiefly because it has fallen between the stools of at least six different agencies. For example, the Defense Minerals Administration, charged with boosting the prospecting for metals and approving loans for mining companies, was so snarled by red tape that in six months it managed to clear only 50 of 450 applications for tax write-offs and not one of its 500 applications for prospecting loans.

When Mobilization Boss Charlie Wilson heard about the tangle he worked out a plan, went straight to the White House. Last week Harry Truman acted. He set up the Defense Materials Procurement Agency, transferred to it powers from all over the mobilization map. To boss DMPA (already being called "Dumpa" in Washington) he appointed Jess Larson, 47, ex-boss of the War Assets Administration and since 1949 chief of the General Services Administration.

In that job, Larson, an Oklahoma-born lawyer and World War II artillery colonel, has proved that he has resourcefulness and shrewd bargaining ability. Last December, when natural rubber soared to 78-c- a lb., Larson took over the buying of all U.S. rubber imports, then resold the rubber to private industry at a loss. By so doing, he drove the import price down to its present 46-c- a lb., but Larson is selling to industry at 52-c- until the Government's loss on the purchases is recovered, As head of DMPA, Larson will be responsible to Charlie Wilson for finding, buying and expediting the production of 93 critical materials ranging from aluminum and cobalt to mica and sperm oil.

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