Show tabor labor draft s bid U for support of veterans legislation would signify full backing of war effort see servicemen as powerful political group by news analyst wid and commentator service union trust building Washing Wash loffton tono D 0 it if the president really intends to cracks crack down and jara jam this national service bill through congress congress one ona thing la Is certai nhe intend to run for a fifth term that statement made 6 by a seasoned old timer who Is a very good political weather prophet started me off all on a journey of exploration which disclosed a number of interesting observations concerning the presidents plans tor for the next four years which can be reduced to four main points J 1 whether or not the president dent believes he owes a debt to labor for the activities of tho the CIO political action committee in the tha last election he intend to pay such a debt 2 lie ile has found a better ole lole and ho he intends to make uso use of it I 1 if ho he can namely ar another iother much more important pressure group which will probably bo be getting up steam long before tho the next election but 3 mr roosevelt Is not interested in the next presidential elect election lon for himself because 4 ile he has much larger fish to fry before and after 1948 and some things cooking right nov now how can the president afford to overlook the tha support of 0 labor point 1 and hunt a better ole lole point 2 27 7 because the most powerful pressure group the country has ever known Is now in the making the veterans of world war 11 II eleaf election ion indicates vets influence it instill Is still tow too early for the mew men and women in the military service to wield much direct political power but judging from the vote cast in the last election and th efforts made both to prevent and to obtain it the predl importance of veterans cannot be entirely overlooked alre already ady there are a number 0 of f very clear signs ot of the stirring of tremendous potentialities of the veteran in the postwar political cai world at pre present preheat seAt three hundred thousand haye have already joined the american legion we are not allowed because of security reasons to print the number of men already discharged tb arged but as of some live months ego ago it was a million and a half the legion does not take any but those with honorable discharges and that would mean that world war aldis II 11 dis charlees char gees are joining up at about tho some same rate that world r war II I vet erana became legionnaires the legion has haa nearly a million and A halt half duis dues paying men members ibers out of the three million who served in the last war it tho the same proportions were maintained we tan can edvi slon a future veterans organization either the tha legion or a anew new group numbering at least five million persons and that calculation is if based on an the armed forces as of today by the tha time the war is over the number of those who will have served will bo be much greater that Is looking at the potential ial strength of the world war II 11 veteran pressure solely in terms of numbers another highly important factor must be considered there Is much evidence indicating that the present day fighting man Is much more politically conscious than wo we wore ere in 1911 and 18 this is seen r in n the discussion orientation groups walh are carried onby on by the tha army and navy sill all over tho the world by the I 1 tremendous amount of news which reaches the troops even in remote corners of the world by their constant call bormore for more and bythell by their very emphatic and continued gripes about how the civilian front Is being run I 1 iliavi have talked with one of the editors of the present stars and stripes with the head of tho the legislative division ol al the american legion and witha with a member of the veterans administration who keeps in close touch with current veteran affairs all agreed emphatically to the tha thesis that the men and women in the fighting forces will come back with a keen interest in how the country is to be run and with a firm intention of seeing that they are going to have their say in the running T this his feeling is paralleled by the demands in every liberated country by the people who carried on the resistance against the tha enemy who in every case demand strong representation sen tation in the new governments vets demand all out effort wo we can see that any man with his eye on the political Icil future will have to woo the veteran and that brings us back to tho the national service bill now one of the chief gripes of at tho the serviceman is tho the tact fact that he is drafted to tight where and when ho he Is told but tho the men who work in the war plants do not have to take orders from anybody the ne sorest spot on the GI 19 s soul is the tha strike of the minors miners last year naturally lie he thinks a labor draft law should bo be passed that is the kind of news the president wants to get out that Is one of the reasons why he wants a national service bill passed ile he knows its importance to the morale of the fighting men as wen well as to the production of supplies that Is why he be Is willing to risk the anger of labor pressure against the measure he knows that the morale of those boys now will affect their attitude toward the government when they return and their confide confidence hee in tho the leaders of the country but where then does point 3 mr roosevelt Is not interested in the next presidential election come I 1 in the answer is in the bigger fish he has to fry point 4 when an american reaches the presidency it is usually considered that he has hit the ceiling and from the there thereon roon on there is ni I 1 place to go but down true the united Stat states esle Is a pretty big outfit to boss but what about the united nations biggar whether or not the united states puts its weight behind a UnIt united edNa nations organization to prevent future wars ware will depend on the verdict ot of them the men who know more about war than anybody else in the world the men who are fighting this one and anyone who champions this undertaking whether he isi Is finally chosen as its leader or whether he merely goes down in history as the mun man who made it possible he will have halve to ba confidence and the support of the veterans veteran whose opinions on the subject will receive general ac it Is conceded ced ed e incidentally another roosevelt figured in one of the most ambitious efforts at international i organization for the tha preservation of peace teddy having prompted nicholas 11 II of russia to call the second hague peace conference ot of 1907 here to is a little human interest story thit that will interest you it you have a boy in the service or it if you are a psychiatrist my friend joined me in the thai i club ile ho was obviously feeling very proud and happy about something ile he told me he had just had a telephone call from his boy who was training to be a paratrooper it is something to be allowed to take the train ingall all are volunteers itis a lotmore lot more to make good well the boy had made his first brat jump from a plane it was he be had phoned his father just like riding on a roller coaster the real hard jumps he said were the first at about 33 feet from a tower with a cable attachment and tho the fifth jump from the plane thatis that Is the one that ends a lot of careers some of the tough toughest eat alb ered boys cant make that one even it if they have gone through efio those se preceding including the first tower jump then they are washed up as the say ing goes and they disappear but a lot disappear after the first jump men who have come back with mith medals for bravery in action sometimes stand there the tears streaming down their cheeks because they just cant dive oil off into nothing but my friends boy said it was like a roller coaster and as tho father sat there you could see that thai meant a lot to him and at last he revealed why 1 I help remembering he ha sold said when the boy was about five and his older brother had just jus climbed up on a chair and jumped oft off ile he got upon up on the tha chair but he just make the jump now hes done dona it |