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Show CAPITAL GLEANINGS BY l-ttenryDworshakd I YOUR COnGRESSAVAN j mm ! nuinitiona and aircraft at a cost of $43,000,000. In his letter of transmittal, the president promised anew that this country would help Britain defeat the axis powers with a steady now of materials, and added: 'We will see to it that these munitions get to the places where they can be effectively ef-fectively used to weaken and defeat de-feat the aggressors.'-' In furtherance of this objective, there has been much speculation in the capital as to what moves are now being planned. The Atlantic patrol is functioning, although no definite reports are available. Several Sev-eral large ships have been procured procur-ed for transport use, guns are being be-ing placed on merchant ships, and coast guard surr experts are now training enlisted men how to make a landing from ships. All of this leads to conjecture, but censorship is already invoked to withhold information, not only from the public, but also from congress. con-gress. Alsop and Kintner, columnists column-ists dose to the While House, this week; released an article declaring that "the president, all his most important advisers, and the war and navy departments hope, Bow-ever, Bow-ever, that the patrol will produce an incident to serve as the pretext for really effective action by tiis country." This same article reported report-ed an alleged attack by an American Ameri-can destroyer on a German submarine sub-marine in the North Atlantic, and Tl,e house on June 13 approved ,n appropriation of $SSG.OOO.Oi0 for be work projects administration in the fiscal year beginning July 1. Spared with $1,350,600,000 this war, or a decrease of 30 per cent. Average employment the past 12 montlis of 1.700.000 workers will be jured to an average of 1,000,000 U the next year. The WPA average aver-age employment peak was reached l the fiscal year of 1939, with 3,-0H.O0O. 3,-0H.O0O. Despite the industrial ac ,ivity resulting from national defense, de-fense, it is estimated that the average av-erage unemployment in the next year will be 5,500,000. The house defeated an attempt to earmark $60,000,000 of this appropriation ap-propriation for the surplus-food program, which would have reduced re-duced the number of employees on WPA. by 58,685. The president on June 11 reported report-ed to congress that $S5,202,425 of war materials have been transferred transfer-red to the democracies since enactment en-actment of the lend-lease law, and that $4,277,412,S79 has been allocated allo-cated for further aid out of the seven billions provided by congress. Of the allocations not yet delivered, ordnance is given $S80,1S6,S63; air eraft, $1,938,823,489; tanks and other vehicles, $318,502,800; vessels ves-sels and water craft, $551,414,140; and agricultural and industrial commodities, com-modities, $280,314,697. The president presi-dent also reported that in June, 1910, the British government received re-ceived about $300,000,000 worth of week for the army, Representative ICngel proposed an amendment to outlaw the cost-plus-fixed-fee policy of awarding contracts for army camp construction. The -committee adopted it, hut Majority Leader Mc-Corniack Mc-Corniack rallied adminisira'.oii forces and, on a roll call vote in the house, the amendment was defeated de-feated 179 to 175. Cost-plus is the form of contract which lias resulted re-sulted in an estimated waste of about $250,000,000 in the construction construc-tion of cantonments; or more than the total icost of army camps in 1917, which amounted to $206,500,-000. $206,500,-000. Representative Engel had conducted con-ducted an investigation of camp construction, and recently presented present-ed figures to show that a standard U3-nian barracks, built on a competitive com-petitive bid basis at Fort Dix, N. J., with a high wage scale, cost only $9.S22; while the same barracks bar-racks on a cost-plus-fixed-fee plan cost $15,000 at Camp Edwards and Camp Devens, Mass., and $18,304 at Camp Meade, Maryland. Economy Econo-my and efficiency must be sacrificed, sacri-ficed, contend war department officials. when an inquiry was made of Secretary Sec-retary Knox at a press conference as to the truth of the Alsop article, Mr. Knox retorted: I wouldn't tell you if I knew it to be true!" Mr. Alsop, is a cousin of the president, and was commissioned a naval reserve re-serve officer on June 2, being sworn in by Secretary Knox himself. him-self. When the house appropriateu another an-other ten billion dollars the past . Defense Oil Co ordinator Harold Ickes this week suggested cooler homes next winter, reduced car speeds, and other economies to save oil for our battleships and to avert an acute shortage on the Atlantic At-lantic seaboard, because a large number of oil tankers "have been drafted for the battle of the Atlantic." At-lantic." All of us can give up some pleasure driving, said Ickes, who has even threatened "gas-less" Sundays. In the meantime Canadian Cana-dian resorts are advertising in eastern east-ern papers that tlie dominion has no gas shortage, and that "business as usual" is in order. The president nominated Associate Asso-ciate Justice Harlan Stone to be I he 12th chief justice of the Supreme Su-preme court, and named Senator Byrnes of Socth Carolina and Attorney At-torney General Jackson to fill the two vacancies on the court. This makes seven appointees of the president in the past eight years, all of whom are recognized as being loyal new deal partisans. This does not maintain the traditions oT insuring in-suring a proper balance of the deliberations de-liberations of the highest court. Westerners had hoped that one of the recent appointees migh be a jurist who understands the peculiar problems of the west, as no justice is from west of the Mississippi. |