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Show k VV I A& DREW PEARSON -.-. .''.'V . m t Irri gV'l I E Washington, D. C. SUBCONTRACTOR PROBLEM Every train to Washington brings a group of small business men with rumpled collars and bulging brief cases. They've heard high officials declare that the defense boom should be evenly distributed. They've read about a subcontracting subcontract-ing program for the smaller firms. So they come to town loaded with blue-prints and inventories of machine ma-chine tools. The visitors wait patently in defense de-fense offices to ask the same question: ques-tion: "When do we get contracts or subcontracts?" Then they go home empty-handed, cussing the "bureaucrats running the defense program." What they don't know is that the issue of subcontracting is being fought over daily, and with increasing increas-ing bitterness, at the inner conference confer-ence tables of the Office of Production Produc-tion Management. The question is whether OPM should crack down on the big primary contractors and force them to farm out their piled-up piled-up orders. The powerful big industry clique says "No." It argues that forced subcontracting would be costly and unreliable. Bob Mehornay, a liberal 11 I in nVlOffTa nf Small DUSlIieSB UlUH Ul i-uaific ui. subcontracting, hotly denies this and is battling to overrule them. The cold facts are that although 200,000 firms are available for defence de-fence contracts, 90 per cent of the orders awarded during the last half of 1940 went to 600 large concerns. And 114 of them got 95 per cent of all contracts over $100,000, amounting amount-ing to $6,686,800,000. a ARMY MORALS Genial Mark McCloskey, the Federal Fed-eral Security agency's recreation expert, has the soldier's moral lapse figured down to one crucial hour. This hour is the one during which he waits for a bus or train to take him back to camp. McCloskey, whose job it is to worry wor-ry about such things and work with the army and navy, has doped out that if time drags heavily during that hour of waiting the soldier may make for honky-tonks and who's to blame him? "The smart thing to do," McCloskey McClos-key says, "is to brighten up the terminals. Give the boys a place to shoot pool, get some good chow at low prices, and read new magazines. maga-zines. Some pretty waitresses for the boys to kid won't hurt any either." He doesn't think a tour through the museum of art or a brisk walk do much to combat temptation. Instead In-stead he'd like to see every town near a camp organize an honest-to-goodness information bureau for the men. "If the boys want to go to dance, get a date, visit with some patriotic family, or see a ball game, the community ought to arrange ar-range it for them," contends McCloskey. McClos-key. a He beams when he mentions the 200 girls at the Tom Huston peanut pea-nut factory at Columbus, Ga., who volunteered to act as hostesses host-esses for soldiers at dances and social so-cial events. ACTION ON HOUSING Housing for civilian defense workers, work-ers, one of the most muddled phases of the' defense program, now looks as if it is going somewhere thanks to the quiet intervention of Mrs. Roosevelt and Frederic A. Delano, uncle of the President and chairman chair-man of the national resources planning plan-ning board. Both exerted their influence through FDR, himself. The First Lady told him of shocking housing conditions among defense workers which she had seen in several cities, and warned that there would be serious se-rious consequences unless something was done quickly. Delano urged Roosevelt to get behind the C. I. O.'s plan for prefabricated homes. WILLKIE CAN WEAR SHOES Much water has gone over the dam since Secretary of the Interior Ickes labeled Wendell Willkie a "barefoot Wall Street lawyer." All is sweetness and light now between Willkie and the New Deal which includes Mr. Ickes since Wendell's outspoken support of the lend-lease bill. However, one inquisitive reporter at a recent Ickes press conference wanted to be absolutely sure. "In view of recent developments," he queried, "do you still think Wendell Willkie Is a Wall Street barefoot boy?" Replied Ickes: "I think anybody has a right to wear shoes in Wall Street in this kind of weather." MERRY-GO-ROUND That $l-a-day wage increase asked by the United Mine Workers was a compromise forced on John L. Lewis. Looking for trouble, he wanted want-ed to demand $2 a day, but other UMW leaders, at the secret policy meeting, voted him down. Although his re-election is still 18 months off. Rep. Bob Ramspeck's denunciation of the bill in the Georgia legislature to ban strikes in defense industries already has brought out an anti-labor candidate against him. |