Industrial Division, OC CWS

CWS responsibility for safety in its arsenals and plants became crystallized in July 1942. From then until the close of the war the service had responsibilities for plant protection, which included accident and fire prevention as well as measures designed to prevent sabotage and espionage, at the CWS arsenals and plants and at designated contractor plants. To supervise these functions throughout the CWS a Plant Protection, Safety, and Labor Branch was activated in the Industrial Division, OC CWS, in mid-1942. This office was headed, for the duration of the war, by Col. James C. Sawders. 

Interv, Hist Off with Col Lester W. Hurd, 18 Mat 57. (2) Conference, Commanding Officers, Chemical Warfare Districts, Industrial Division, OC CWS, 3-4 Mar 43, pp. 19-23. CWS 314.7 Procurement File. 

Under the new plan the Industrial Division, OC CWS, assumed the role of a staff rather than an operating agency. It prepared procurement schedules of end items for the installations, based on the Army Supply Program, In preparing these schedules the division consulted frequently with installation officials. Three weeks after the schedules were drawn up, a meeting of representatives of the chiefs office, the arsenals, and the districts was held in Washington for the purpose of arranging the manufacture and delivery of components which the installations could not procure within their own confines. 

History of the Boston CWPD, vol. 9, p. 23. (2) Interv, Hist Off with G. H. Titcomb, 7 Nov 56. Titcomb served as both civilian and officer in several protective equipment assignments, including Chief, Protective Equipment Section, Industrial Division, OC CWS. 

In January 1945, meanwhile, Estes called the attention of a CWS procurement conference to the terms of the Erie Basin contract, terms which enabled the contractor "to pay higher salaries, buy 500,000 worth of equipment from an affiliate, and within half a year write off half of his shell production facilities, in addition to paying 250,000 rent to another affiliate. These remarks attracted the attention of Brig. Gen. Charles E. Loucks, Chief, Industrial Division, OC CWS, who had been making some observations on his own on the "fantastic prices in the Garsson contracts, General Loucks deputized Colonel Sanson of his staff to review those contracts for the purpose of revising them downward, and early in 1945 this was done. ... 

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