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Show THE PROGRESSIVE OPINION . . - 'Price Premium' Battle Grows in Importance War Food Administration Faces Increasi-ngly Difficult Problem of Getting 'Bashful' Beef Cattle to Market. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. r ; f ' ; !f WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. The fight over subsidies pardon me, I shouldn't use that word sub-sidies, the New Deal doesn't like it the fight over "price premiums" on farm products is once more the chief concern of the administration and the members of congress who do not see eye to eye on this painful ques-tion. The smoke of the battle over the veto of the subsidy ban included in the Commodity Credit corporation bill has settled, and since then there was another veto (the tax bill) that didn't fare so well. But the Farm Bloc members are not so overopti-misti- c as to believe that the Presi-dent and congress are still far enough apart on the subsidy question that another veto could not be sustained. In the senate, the cooler heads of ' the opposition know this and are not - willing to go through the same futile process again. In the house, it is a different mat-ter although this is not likely to change the final picture. House Leader Joe Martin, while conceding no jot or tittle to the administration that he can withhold, has made it plain that price control is neces-sary, and he isn't going to allow too much delay on the part of those who want an rider at-tached to the OPA bill. He has other plans of his own. War Food administration officials are quoted as admitting that the case of the bashful beeves is one of their greatest problems. Concrete-ly, they have the job of enticing two or three million head of beef cattle off the ranges and into the butcher shops during early spring and sum-mer. And the only thing that they know of to make the cattle move is the good "old reliable" that makes the mare go cash money. Since the administration is sitting on the ceilings and refusing to allow prices to the consumer to go up, Uncle Sam will probably have to make up the difference again, If congress will let toim, in the form of a "price pre-mium" to the stockmen. The Banker's Stake I And the government is wondering about something else besides a few meatless Mondays or Tuesdays or Wednesdays. It is worried about the banker who has a stake in steaks, as well as the cattleman and beef-eater. Cattle on the ranges have in-creased beyond the feed on the ranges. The average livestock population of America in the years 1922 to 1942 was 69 million head. Roughly let's say half of this was dairy cattle. Mow the estimate is 82 million head and the ratio of eating cows to milk-ing cows has increased alarmingly In the last few years. And the beeves are now home on the range because there isn't a price Incentive to lure them to slaughter, rhe government feared this; feared 5rst the famine and then the flood. It now looks as if the famine was :oming and the flood is not far And this is where the banker comes knocking at the door. He re-members other gluts when the Jrouth, for instance, sent all the cat-li- e to market at once, ruining the Industry, making the banker's notes tust so much wallpaper. But how, the simple citizen asks, ;an there be a price drop when the government has placed a floor un-der prices as well as a ceiling over them? Well, see what happened to our friend, the hog. The farmer rought his pigs to market. The fixed the price which the packers were bound to pay. But so aiany pigs arrived that the packer couldn't pack them and the law Jidn't say he had to buy what he ;ouldn't use. So the farmer, rather than pick up his pigs and carry home again, sold them off at iisgracefully low prices to the smart soys. Finally the smart boys got the floor price, the butcher got his :eiling price which the consumers rvith full pocketbooks and empty stomachs were glad to pay. All the farmer got was mad. This happened why? The govern-nen- t says simply because some farmers, seeing as how there was going to be such a good market for nogs, exceeded their quotas got too loggish Cone district in Iowa, I was iold, increased its pig crop by 53 per cent, when the figure the govern-ment had set was 15 per cent). More about that later. And so the War Food administra-tion is afraid the same thing might happen to the cattle market. And the banker is afraid. It would be bad enough if we ran into a glut like the hog-ja- but, as one WFA live-stock expert put it, "we shudder to think what might happen if an early drouth developed. There would be a great stampede to move cattle to market. Transportation and process-ing facilities might not be able to handle the movement. The result might be the loss of thousands and thousands of head of cattle." R. M. Evans, member of the Fed-eral Reserve board for agriculture, who is a former agricultural adjust-ment administrator, is urging the bankers in the cattle industry to do their share in coaxing Ferdinand off the range. About 'Elastic' Prices Of course, the cattlemen have been among the most violent critics of the price control administration and their representatives have main-tained a steady battle here in Wash-ington in an effort to remove the ceil-ing prices from beef (or, as they say, make the prices elastic) so that prices would rise and fall in accord-ance with the seasonal demand. The cattlemen's viewpoint as pre-sented by Joe G. Montague of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Rais-ers association, boils down his plaint to a simple statement. "Cattle just provide the frames to hang beef oh. The Lord knows we've produced the frames but somebody fell down on the job of hanging the beef on "em." Mr. Montague told me the other day that the weights have gone down faster than even he expected al-though he predicted the glut and the promised famine ever since the fixed price was made last October. They have gone off 27 to 28 pounds a head and he expects this will con-tinue until July when grass feeding begins again,. "I'm trying to get the cattle oft the ranches but I can't do it. The feed lots are not taking them be-cause there isn't any feed. I could sell thousands of pounds of feed to-day if I could get my hands on it. The government reports show that there's a lot of feed somewhere but we can't find it." Hoarded Corn There is plenty of feed in the shape of corn in the country but the farm-ers with their government-assure- d prices on hogs are hoarding it they are transforming it into pork. The government "asked for this" when it put a premium on as we have explained. But many farm-ers, poultry and dairy farmers and others outside the corn belt need feed. Not only farmers but industrialists who need corn for their chemicals, are complaining. The army and navy who need their products have echoed their pleas. So the government is smack up against the problem of prying this feed (corn) loose from the farmers who are keeping it to feed to their hogs. The only way they can shake the kernels loose is to increase the price of corn. The only way they can do that without breaking through price ceilings is to subsidize corn in other words, buy it at a price which will make it more profitable to the farmer to sell it than to feed it to his hogs. Montague's argument is that be-cause the cattle business is seasonal you have to have flexibility in price. If the price is nailed down, the cat-tleman will sell his grass-fe- d cat-tle in September, instead of holding out for higher prices in the spring, and save going through the anguish of zero weather. Of course, under price control, the theory is that the flexibility is provided by the sub-sidy excuse me again by the gov-ernment offering a price premium which gives the cattleman enough for a fair profit but doesn't increase the price to the consumer and start inflation. But the cattlemen don't want e premiums. They want prices to rise and fall in the good way. And that is where the issues in the fight over the proposed amendment to the OPA bill are neatly joined. BRIEFS. . .by Baukhage Six hundred former seamen and of the American merchant ma--in- e who had been inducted into the U. S. army from shoreside employ-ment in the last eight months have seen released to return to sea. The American Red Cross, pur-chased more than 2,760,000 pocket-size- d books last year for free to servicemen. Many letters to seamen are be-ing improperly addressed, often in fiolation of national security rules, the War Shipping administration re-ports. The address of a steamship company, a specific street address ar a place name of a foreign coun-try should not be given. The proper torm to be used is: Seaman's name; Name of ship; co Postmaster San Francisco, New York or New The return address should ippear in the upper left corner; the lame of the steamship company in Ihe lower left corner. United States mints last year turned out nearly one-tent- h as many coins as have been produced in the past 152 years. Nazi Minister of the Interior Hein-ric- h Himmler, in ordering the regis-tration of a new class of German girls for labor service, ruled that all applications for de-ferment will be useless. The victory corps at Ensley high school (Birmingham, Ala.) spon-sored "Tin Can Alley," a variety show featuring student and faculty acts. Price of admission was 10 tin cans, and proceeds filled a large truck. The Stockholm newspaper Social Demokraten says that Germany plans to employ children as young as 10 years of age in farm work this summer since the country finds it impossible to spare a single sol-dier or worker. ffetTTERNS 1 tilt Pinafore Girl. Wl ' ' II I II Y-- 1 EVJ? RI yun? ,man likes to s. f II 1 I 1 girl in a fp I I 1 1W l i A ??afTi LTk your loveliest' I I f ! s bit Yjffpf I l house dress charm! lit ft I 11 Pattern No. 8580 Is In sizes 10 12 Of tl I ill 18 and 20. Size 12, with sleevei r'sr' 1;. 3," yards material. OCOO I Due t0 an unusually large demand .. OOOCJ current war conditions, slishtiy morr- 17.42 I is required In filling orders for a ic'.'! ' the most popular pattern numben. SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DF.PT 149 New Montgomery Street San Francisco Cjj Enclose 20 cents in coins for e;n pattern desired. Pattern No Size... Name , Address Maternity Dress. A GOOD - LOOKING, comfort-abl- e maternity dress which can be made in any color any fabric. The pointed yoke, soft turn-ov- er collar and the tie belt with long ends give it most pleas-ing charm! Pattern No. 8589 is in sizes 12, 14, 16, 18, 20; 40 and 42. Size 14 requires 4',i yards material; yard for con-trasting collar. f You breath" tr7 It most instantly llfii'l"i 2 drops PeMr.i ;. II UYr?vW Er0P3 oprnvourc .i II II dosged nose to f.: f WAIT JIiZom neaIi ccld Caution: Use o I' JJr directed. 25c, T 83 much for PenetroKoieJiu Gas on Sic.:: j Relieved in 5 minutes or double money When excess etomaeh acid closes ca ln(r fras, sour stomach and hcancu-rr- t: prescribe the mnivr-- , , :t symptomatic relief medicines like tni :j Tuhfeta. No laxative. brm,-- Jiffy or double your money baci od re:.ro .1 .. a to OS. 25c at til druggist. WM I ill1 CLABBER GlRigoes wlllT ' Z') the best of everything, for bolting ggS.-- M'liiniiiiiitW.fcnnVi,, .j.. J fi " "" ff . S! BUT I FEEL ' r --c o ;jj a autsoz:: C Z TODAY" U'i 1 kntiFTfin DON'T LET aehing muscles keep W'fl you off the job-- if soretone can SOOtheS taSt nelp boretone Liniment contains H MEfT methy sahcylate, a most effective 1.11 II pam.k.lling agent. Soretone's cold U llM"1 Wactionspeedsblessed.comiort. flpTllV I. Quickly Soretone IlU I I J act. to en-- hmce local circulation. in cow of ' MUSCULAR LUMBAGO ,p rc"ce local swelling. oacK2? fastest action, let mb MUSCULARPAIN5 Kn?f" m SORE MUSCl d"' " r ,,., ffiMINOR SPRAIN- - 'W McKesson makes it" I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS WFA Sees Ample Civilian Food Supply During Coming Year; Production Up; Allied Forces Battle Japs in India; Congress Votes Role in World Relief (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) i Released by Western Newspaper Union. J TEiEFACT OF EVERY 10 AIRPLANES V NOW PRODUCED IN THE U. S. TU ARE COMBAT PLANES 14 TRAINER 1 TRANS & UAISON PORT BIG BUSINESS: Report Incomes With war orders accounting for 66 per cent of the business, Inter-national Harvester had gross income of $448,035,041 and profit of $!:, oi)A-94- 4 for its fiscal year ending October 31, 1943. For the 12 months ending July 1 1945, the company has been authorized to use 20 per cent more material for farm machinery. Overcoming merchandising dif-ficulties, America's No. 1 mail or-der house, Sears, Roebuck & Co., took in $852,596,706 and cleared $33,-86- 6 087 in 1943. Although shortages of goods has im-proved prevail, the quality in recent months, President Arthur S. Barrows said. In reporting sales of $552,000,000 and profit of $7,403,000 in 1943, Wil-son & Co. disclosed extensive de-velopments in new meat prepara-tions and packing, such as boneless beef and dehydrated corned beef, which should have wide markets after the war. JAPAN: Organize Workers Again Premier Gen. Hideki Tojo told the Japanese parliament that the war situation was critical, but this time he underlined its gravity by calling for the establishment of military discipline in industry, un-der which an entire factory group could be punished for a single work-er's offense. Under Tojo's plan, workers would be organized under a system of mil-itary rank, with superior officers having the authority to punish em-ployees from the boss down. Heretofore conscripted for labor service for only four months of the year, all Japanese high school and college students will now be subject to such duty for any necessary peri-ods. TVA: Under Fire Tennessee's lank Sen. Kenneth McKellar took his battle against present TVA financial policies to the floor of the senate, demanding that the big one billion dollar government power project be compelled to op-erate altogether on direct appropri-ations from congress and turn over its revolving fund to the U. S. treas-ury. Long at odds with TVA's Chair-man David Lilienthal because of the latter's alleged political activities against him, Senator McKellar said PACIFIC: Japs Invade India While Adm. Louis Mountbatten's Southeast Asia command coped with a strong Jap drive into eastern Bur-ma, Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff concentrated on weakening the en-emy's hold on New Guinea with heavy aerial attacks against ship-ping and gun positions. Springing unnoticed from the jun-gle, a Jap force pressing far inland into India pointed at Imphal, key to the communications line feeding Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stilwell's Chinese- -American troops opening a new supply route to China in northeast-ern Burma. While the Allies maneu-vered to weather this charge, two other Jap columns aimed at Imphal farther to the north. In New Guinea, Allied planes ripped the northeastern coastal ship-ping route while Aussie and U. S. doughboys advanced northward toward the big base of Madang over craggy foothills. EUROPE: Take Over Balkans Germany made her final prepara-tions for an anticipated double-barrele- d attack against the continent by the Allies by integrating Hun-gary, Rumania and Bulgaria into the Nazi war machine to provide a common pool of men and resources. The Nazis' incorporation of the Balkans came as the Buss drew closer to the Hungarian border by stabbing deeper into prewar Poland and surged onward to the Rumani-an boundary by chewing off Ger-many's last grip In the Ukraine. As Germany moved to utilize the Hungarian, Rumanian and Bulgari-an armies of over a half million men and draw upon the agricultural and industrial resources of these countries, Nazi troops streamed eastward to take up the fight along the newly organized battlefront. Jerry Tough While the Germans moved quick-ly to mend their fences in the Bal-kans they more than had their hands full in Italy and the west. Around Cassino Jerry clung stub-bornly to his ground to block the broad highway to Rome, fighting i ( 1 4 - AGRICULTURE: Food Supply Civilian food supplies during 1944 should be the same as last year with farmers continuing record breaking performances, War Food Administrator Marvin Jones sajid, but stocks of milk, cheese and fats may be slightly less. At the end of 1943, the U. S. had the largest livestock inventory in history, Jones said, with 19 per cent more hogs and 3 per cent more cat-tle, although sheep and lamb num-bers were down 4 per cent. With farmers urged to cultivate 16,000,000 more acres than last year, they still face manpower problems, Jones related. The outlook for pro-duction of farm machinery and fertilizer have improved, he added. Revealing $350,000,000 was spent for supporting farm prices in 1943, Jones said they served the double purpose of offering incentive for pro-duction and holding down consumer costs. Postwar Outlook Addressing the National Associa-tion of Mutual Insurance companies In Chicago, Secretary of Agriculture Claude R. Wickard declared post-war America's exportable surplus of farm commodities would be 15 per cent of production. Asserting the figure resulted after estimating increased domestic de-mand for consumption and industry, Wickard said: "Again we are either going to have to extend credit or give agricultural products to other nations, or we are going to have to accept goods and services in ex-change." Advances in agricultural produc-tion will pose a major problem in postwar America, Wickard said, re-marking that with only moderate de-mand and usual educational meth-ods, yields will jump up 40 per cent in six years. WAGES: Peg Sticks Testifying before the senate bank-- ing committee considering extension of rice control after June 30, War Labor Board Chairman William H. Davis declared' that the WLB in-tended to stand by its "Little Steel formula" limiting wage increases to 15 per cent over January 1941, lev-els, but only if living costs remain relatively stabilized. To assure such stabilization, Davis recommended continuance of con-sumer subsidies. Prohibition of sub-sidies would result in appreciable rises in basic commodities and make present wages inadequate, Davis said. Davis opposed suggestions that wages be limited, declaring such ac-tion would work against promotions and upgradings, and discourage shifts to industry. WORLD RELIEF: Authorize UNRRA By overwhelming vote, congress put itself on record for participat-ing in world relief by authorizing expenditures of $1,350,000,000 for the United Nations Relief and Rehabil-itation administration to help the people of occupied countries get back on their feet following their liberation. J Although UNRRA will feed, clothe and restore essential services in the stricken countries, it will do so only for the purpose of getting the people started in rebuilding their ag-ricultural and industrial economy. Matching the U. S. contribution, 43 other United Nations will put about $650,000,000. : ? l V?. .... ' - . t . "V". i . ' ; r v - j K ' 'u:' ,LX ( ' ' - i $ " ' - ; David Lilienthal and Sen. McKellar congress should retain supervision over TVA funds to determine their proper expenditure. Taking up the cudgels for TVA, Alabama's Sen. Lister Hill argued that acceptance of McKellar's pro-posal would mean congress would have to pass on all of TVA's tech-nical operations, complicating pro-cedure with possible paralysis of service. SOUTH AMERICA: Uruguayan Nationalists With the ejection of d ministers in the Uruguayan cabinet of President Gen. Higinio Morinigo and ardent nationalists' seizure of control of that country, ultra-neutr- Argentina's isolation in South Amer-ican politics appeared at an ending. Action of the Uruguayan nation-alists was aimed at promoting closer relations with Argentina, which has resisted pressure to go to war against the Axis, insisting on its sovereign right to regulate its own foreign policies. But like Chile and Bolivia which also have recognized the Argentine regime, Uruguay sought to remain on friendly terms with the U. S. as well, and leave no grounds for a break by any illegal changes in gov-ernment. RECONDITIONING: Heal Quickly To heal the wounded quickly and well and restore them to suitable military duty, the army has expand-ed its reconditioning program, uti-lizing education, occupation and rec-reation. Point of the program is to prevent the patients from deteriorating men-tally while recuperating physically, as is often the case even in civilian treatment, and to instill them with the knowledge that they are keeping pace with their buddies in con-valescing. Establishment of personnel reas-signment centers at Camp Butner N. C, Fort Sam Houston, Texas' and Camp White, Ore., assures the recovered soldier of placement in a position more suitable to his con-dition. SYNTHETIC RUBBER America's productive capacity for synthetic rubber is now so great that the United States can now hold its ground in dealing with British and Dutch organizations that d the East Indian plantations before the Japs' invasion, William Jeflers, former U. S. rubber control-ler- , declared. Jeffers predicted that American tire manufacturers would eventually be able to turn out a synthetic rub-be- r tire that would have all the en durance of the natural rubber. POTATO ALCOHOL In an experiment to determine whether alcohol made from potatoes is satisfactory for indust" al use the War Production board has ordered four distilling com panies to use up 19 carload grade dried potatoes. The disTi? leries, located in Ulinois and Ken-tuck-expect to complete the test runs within two weeks. The potatoes are part of the 1941 crop surplus and have been dried on" " dUrr Nazi Prisoners in Italy. desperately in the hilly country to dominate the heights from which he could pour his deadly artillery fire upon Allied troops maneuvering be-low. In the west, the Allies sent fleets of bombers against France and Ger-many to rip defenses and railways over which troops and supplies could be shuttled and blast factories turn-ing out Axis armament. HIGHLIGHTS . in the week's new$ BOWLING: Fewer perfect scores were bowled this season than for a good while back, the American Bowling Congress reports. In 1940 there were 284 perfect games in ABC sanctioned competition, the e high. In 1942 the score dropped to 225, and in 1943 it slumped to 137. This season there were only 84 perfect games, although 1,675 more teams were accredited. POST OFFICE: Forty-thre- e thou-sand postal employees are now serv-ing in the armed forces. FRUIT BY AIR: A recent uni-versity survey indicates that eventu-ally fresh fruit and vegetables can be flown in freight planes at a cost of about 15 cents per ton mile. Aver-age hauls of around 2,000 miles from West coast points to the Midwest and East would be usual. It would take several years after the war ends to put such transport on a paying basis. GOLF BALLS: About 400 tons of balata, the tough gum used to cover golf balls, has been released by the War Production board. It is show-ing signs of deterioration and is un-suitable for war purposes. Manu-facturers of golf balls say that ,they do not have materials for centers on hand and not much for windings, so the balata does not mean any new balls in the immediate future. USED PIANOS: Disturbed by the irregular and high prices at which used pianos are being sold, the OPA is holding a series of meetings with representative dealers in big cities to discuss establishment of ceiling prices and rentals. CASUALTIES: American casual-ties have reached 165,061 according to the latest figures released by the Office of War Information. These include 38,846 dead, 58,964 wounded, 35,521 missing, and 31,730 prisoners if war. Lifesaving Maps Maps that chart the seas are part of the equipment on life rafts. They are printed on waterproof fabric which withstands salt wa-ter. Not only do they carry in-formation vital for survival but they can be used as head cover-ings, and for catching rain water. Supported by oars, "they serve as sails. |