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Show THE PROGRESSIVE OPINIOy , - l 'L :wT44 5f"''7 MAiT ""''''"''a1 'A Season of Surprises' And Still More to Come I; ' Government Control of Railroads and National Service Act Complete Surprise In Many Quarters. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. t.. iaaasa WNtJ Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. -- This is the season of surprises I j won't mention at this moment the , big one. which will cause your eye-- , ' brows to go up at an early date (if ' they haven't already). I'll mention two others on the la-bor front since they represent two of the neatest problems with which congress still has to deal and which are particularly full of dynamite be- - cause of the Coming elections. And elections are bound to color the acts of every public man from now until the ides of November. We are used to lit now because it happened some time age, and the effects were not visible to the naked eye but one big surprise that shook Washington as the year ended was the sudden announcement on a balmy Monday evening in Decem-ber which ordered the army to take over the railroads. All over Washington the day be-fore, that day too, as a matter of fact, you could have collected fine odds against such a thing happen-ing. Not that people were betting on that subject itself; what they were betting on, those who ought to have been (and I still believe were) in the know, was that there would be no railroad strike. The second big surprise is still having its sharp repercussions al-though it happened not so much more recently than the other event to which it was closely linked. National Service Act pretty hard to be really objective. Anyone who has watched political campaigns in the making, has a hard time not to attribute a partisan motive to any act or word spoken in Washington in an election year. As far as taking the railroads over goes, that might have been prompt-ed by a real and honest fear that transportation would have been in-terfered with at a moment when it was as vital to the war effort as a division of fighting men. What pos-sible excuse could there be for let-ting such a thing happen? Again, whether or not there was to be a strike, there was a strike threat. At the same moment, there was a strike threat in another vital industry steel. That was called off by putting pressure on Phillip Mur-ray, head of the C. I. O. But could that pressure have been applied un-less Mr. Murray could have been told: "Remember, the chances of acceptance of your demands by the steel men will be a lot better if they are afraid the government will take their industry over too. The railroads are a warning." And then, if you want to take one highly unofficial explanation from a nobody as far as officialdom goes, but from a man who has fought in his own little sphere for things he believes in, I'll throw it in for good measure. The comment was applied to the President's call for a national serv-ice act, not the seizure of the roads, but it applies to both. This observ-er observed: "Politics? No. The guy just wants to win the war." And come to think of it, that might have had something to do with it too. Notes From a Broadcaster's Diary The following two viewpoints re-ceived recently are interesting. Here is the first: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted shall exist with-in the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." from the Constitution of the United States. The President swore to uphold the Constitution the national service act or the labor draft is involuntary servitude or human slavery. That's what he called it in Berlin and Tokyo and he wants it here. What are we fighting for? And now for the second viewpoint! General Eisenhower said we can win the war in 1944 but everyone must do his part. Something must be wrong some-where for him to say that. He knows it is not the armed forces. So it must be on the home front. For the armed forces operate on a function-al alignment from commanding of-ficer down, orders are given and obeyed. Servicemen cannot bargain with their commanders as to wages, hours, fighting conditions or make contracts on a cost-plu- s basis. Their objective is to win battles. But on the home front, the objec-tive is to make money (see Truman Report). Ships, planes, tanks and guns are secondary. We can have a functional opera-tion at home by installing total con-scription of men, machines, materi-al and money. These boys were conscripted to die. Then why not conscript the ones at home? If it's good enough for the armed forces, it's good enough for the rest of us. Who can say he is entitled to more? The first, I discussed in a recent column in connection with the seiz- - ure of the railroads. Then the sec- - ond, the President's demand for a national service act as a part of his legislative program outlined in that annual message, came tumbling aft- - er, and we haven't gotten over ei- - ther yet. One astute and neutral observer of affairs in Washington an r, who sees parties come and go without loss of sleep over his job, said something to me after the roads had been seized that I have had occasion to ponder upon often since. He is one of the men who was ready to give odds that there would , be no strike and he knows all of the people who participated in the con-ferences, employers, union heads, officials, by their first names ex-cept the President, of course, whom nobody but his mother as far as I know, perhaps his wife when she is here, first names. One just doesn't first-nam- e Presidents. Anyhow, this friend of mine, aghast at the suddenness of the seiz-ure of the roads, remarked: "Do you realize this? Overnight, Instead of being the object of all at-tacks for babying labor, the Presi- - ;; dent suddenly is in the position now of defending the people against la-bor?" That was the quick reaction of a technical man to whom politics is only an Interesting sideline. When the President's message was droned out by the reading clerk in congress and the President came to point five in his five-poi- legisla- - tive program, there was a sharp in- - take of breaths. You recall the first reaction. Hardly anything but a frigid reception for the suggestion for what was immediately called "the labor draft." Cynics' Reactions Then came the cynical observa- - tion of the poli- - ticians. It sounded a little like the comment of my d observ-er except that it was flavored more ' heavily with party tabasco. "Pure politics," they sneered. "He had no labor program. He knew it. So now he tosses the hottest con-troversial question on the boards labor draft into congress. He prob-ably hopes we won't pass it. If we don't, he'll say: 'See, I give them a labor program and they turn me down!' " Well, there are the two surprises which are scheduled to breed others in their trail, and you and every body else will interpret them in terms of your or their prejudices, sharpened to a knife-edg- e of devo-tion or hatred in this year of the ballot. What is really behind these two sharp and unexpected moves? It is . I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS House Votes $300 Discharge Bonus; U. S. Bombers Rip Nazi Supply Lines; Red Army Continues Push on Baltic; Peace Rumors Spiked by British Press (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.) Released by Western Newspaper Union. AGRICULTURE: Hog Permits With thousands of hogs remaining unsold after marketings, a permit system for shipments was imposed at the Chicago stockyards. Under the procedure, commission firms were allotted weekly quotas based on a percentage of the total volume they handled during the first 11 months of 1943, and farmers were to be advised when to sell. Through the permit system al-ready in operation in other centers, it is hoped to limit shipments to packers' capacities, cut feed bills, and reduce shrinkage, bruises and death losses. Drouth Producer of winter wheat, the great plains area of the Midwest has been suffering from an unheard of seasonal drouth. Centered in Nebraska, the drouth has extended to the Rocky Mountain and western states, where the stor-age of snowfall for spring and sum-mer irrigation is much less promis-ing than at this time last year. Good rains in the late wintered early spring could largely offset the effects of the drouth. STRONG U. S. A.: After War ". . . Proposing ... a realistic point of view, that the tendency to war is inevitable, just as the human tendency to disease is inevitable," War Production Board Vice Chair-man Charles E. Wilson called on government and industry to co-operate in promoting a strong arma-ment program after the present conflict. Said Wilson: "I am convinced that we must begin now to set the machinery in motion, while it Is still possible for us to measure the cost of any other course." Wilson suggested 1) the program should be the government's respon-sibility; (2) congress must sup- -' port it; (3) industry's role should be to cooperate; (4) some government-- ! owned plants should be held in re-serve, with equipment kept to date. Outwits Hoodlums DISCHARGE PAY: House Votes $300 Arguing that higher payments would represent a soldier's bonus which should be left for later discus-sion, the house passed a bill provid-ing for mustering-ou- t pay of $300 to discharged vets .with 60 days' serv-ice and $100 to those released be-fore 60 days. With 15,000,000 vets including those already discharged standing to benefit from the measure, total cost of payments was estimated at ZVi billion dollars. After passage by the house, the bill was sent for approval to the sen-ate, which previously enacted legis-lation providing for maximum pay-ments ranging from $500 to vets overseas for 18 months or more, to $200 to those' with less than 12 months' service in the U. S. Unless the senate okayed the house bill, parliamentary procedure required the two chambers to get together to work out new legislation. EUROPE: Pound Supply Lines U. S. bombers ripped rail lines supplying German troops In south-ern Italy as American and British forces pressed against the Nazis' winter-lin- e centered on Cassino, key to the road to Rome. With two of three main rail lines temporarily put out of use, the en-emy was forced to route supplies over bomb-pocke- d highways, some of which were snarled by the wreck-age of bridges. As U. S. artillery laid down a cur-tain of thunderous fire over German defense emplacements before Cas-- j sino preparatory to the infantry's charge forward, British units to the west engaged Nazi troops along the Garigliano river. Along the Adriatic coast to the east, Canadian forces were held to short gains in hard, close-i- n fighting. U. S. HEMP: Cut Production Because of the improvement In Imports from the Caribbean and Mediterranean areas, the govern-ment's hemp-growin- g program in the Middle West will be cut to one-thir- d of 1943 production, and only 14 of 42 processing plants will be kept in operation. Raised on contract to the govern-ment, farmers found hemp profitable last year, their net yield per acre being larger than from any other crop in the nation, in some cases reaching $200, it was said. In seeking to relieve a threatened hemp shortage after the outbreak of war, the government undertook con-struction of processing plants in 42 communities, and arranged for farmers to grow 4,000 acres of the fiber In each of the districts. The plants were erected at an estimated cost of $100,000 each. LABOR DRAFT: Pro and Con While Secretary of War Henry Stimson told a senate committee "' tmmasm"Mmmmmvm'"' 1 is?'. rf in nwinumnr tt mrif. irrii . .wiWrtl When four hoodlums attempted to rob Seaman Fred Stark of Saginaw, Mich., of his money, he talked them into hand-ing over their gun and letting him join the gang in holding up a tavern. But after they had en-tered the tavern. Seaman Stark held the hoodlums at bay with the pistol and ordered the bartender to call police to arrest the gang. New Britain Marines wade through swampland on New Britain front. (See: Pacific Front.) PACIFIC FRONT: MacArthur to Stay JJ. S. medium and heavy bombers ranged widely over the Pacific, blasting Jap bases supplying hard pressed enemy troops, and hitting installations and airfields in the stra-tegic Marshall islands. As U. S. armies were pinning the foe back in the South Pacific area, Secretary of War Henry Stimson announced in Washington, D. C, that General MacArthur would not be retired when he reached the age of 64 on January 29. Retired at his own request in 1937, MacArthur was recalled to active duty following the outbreak of World War II. In New Guinea, U. S. bombers smashed at the Jap base of We-wa-above American positions at Saidor; and in New Britain, explo-sives were dropped on the big feed-er center of Rabaul, and on barges carrying supplies along the island coasts. RUSSIA: Baltic Push Preceded by a thunderous barrage of heavy artillery, Russ infantry pushed into German lines below Len-ingrad, and cut the enemy's rail communications farther to the south, 70 miles from the Latvian border. The Reds were reported to have thrown 250,000 men into the battle on a 250 mile front, and units of Russia's Baltic fleet stationed near Leningrad were said to have par-ticipated in the bombardment of German positions prior to the big push. Stiffening German resistance slowed the Reds' progress on other fronts, with the Nazis reporting con-tinuance of Russ efforts to break through in the prewar Polish area of White Russia. Peace Rumors With the Allied world still wonder-ing over Russia's semi-offici- pub-lication of a rumor that two former British statesmen had discussed a separate peace with German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop, Stalin per-mitted reproduction of a London newspaper's story that Britain had received specific peace terms from Hitler under which the Nazis would withdraw to their 1939 prewar bound-aries. Although Britain remained indig-nant over the Reds' implication that she was double-dealin- and the U. S. continue puzzled over why Stalin should have allowed publica-tion of the rumor, Russia's man in the street was led to suspect British Intentions. AIRPLANE PROGRAM: Bigger Types No. 1 industry of the U. S. today, aircraft plants will set their sights on production of more than 100,000 planes of heavier weight in 1944. More than 50 per cent of produc-tion will be of combat-typ-e planes, with a decrease in output of trainer and obsolete craft. Facilities now being used to turn out the latter two types will be converted to man-ufacturing parts for other models. The swing toward heavier planes marks a trend toward production of craft carrying bigger guns and bomb loads. Total weight of planes is expected to approximate 1 billion pounds, compared with 750 million pounds in 1943! i i --4. that a labor draft would equalize sol-dier and civilian sacrifices, the exec-utive council of the American Federa-tion of Labor, head-e-by William Green, said that the organization would never surrender the basic freedom of the country's workers. Likening a labor draft as a shot in the arm for the na-tion's patriotism, Stimson said the first flush of enterprise excited by the Pearl Harbor attack has worn off, and now "the stern voice of law" is needed to "keep up the patri-otic emotion." Declaring that in freedom there is MILK SALES: Bottles or Containers Chicago's big battle to determine whether milk shall be sold In paper containers as well as glass bottles still has not gotten out of the courts, even though the state Supreme court ruled that paper containers could not be used under the wording ol the city's disputed ordinance govern-ing distribution of the product. At present, Chicago dairies will continue to package the milk in pa. per containers pending filing of a motion for a state Supreme court rehearing of the case. Since the courts have declared no Interest in the sanitary aspects of the question of bottling, but have merely con-fined themselves to the wording of the city ordinance, a rewriting of the law would permit legal use of paper containers. BURMA: Allies Attack With U. S. bombers blasting a path, American trained Chinese troops under Lieut. Gen. Joseph Stil-we- ll gained ground in mountainous western Burma, while farther to the south units of the British Fourteenth army fought Jap counter-attack- s to stall their own offensive. The Chinese were fighting to clear the way for engineers constructing a new supply route to China, since Jap conquest had closed off the Bur-ma road. To hamper enemy opera-tions, U. S. bombers dropped 20 tons of explosives on a Jap troop en-campment In the rear of the battle-fron- t. - ' Stimson and Green strength, the AFL council asserted that the "amazing speed with which free American workers have won the battle of war production against the enemy within two years upholds the truth of that principle." Chance for passage of the labor draft dwindled with the house's pigeon-holin- g of the measure. DRIED MILK Army quartermaster corps labo- ratories have developed a method of drying and preserving whole milk so that it will keep for a year even under tropical conditions. Dried milk made by methods now in use will become rancid in the tropics. In the army formula, the water content of the milk is reduced to 2.25 per cent, and an inert gas is introduced into the airtight contain- er as a preservative. The new method could bedbme a profitable industry, it is said. WEDDING RINGS Jewelers' supplies are dwindline so fast that wedding and engage! ment rings may soon be unobtain-able- , New York trade experts say Government restrictions on precious metals, scarcity of diamonds, and shortage of skilled workmen have combined to reduce the supply Less than half the usual quantily of go d and palladium is being allocated 0 manufacturers, and platinum u banned entirely, it is sald- - monds are now advanced about $100" a carat in price. J INTERESTING patchwork ' ki" your doing. Arrowh ht'! color and white are held 01 by diamond bouquets af''Sft over the joinings. different-i- t's the Indfan l1' head pieced quilt. rt0- Pattern Ko. 29594 Sixty-fou- r blocks and a k make a quilt of size ern with accurate cutting jmj"' jomplete directions may be had . , 15 cents. Send your order to: AUNT MARTHA 207W Westport Rd., Kansas cu, M Enclose 15 cents fr eacb. desired. Pattern No Name Address MISERIES C? Baby's Shir: Now . . . here's wonderful hom. proved medication that vtorij 2waysatonc torelievedistressoi child's cold even while he sleeps! Rub throat, chest and back with Vicks VapoRub at betae, Instantly VapoRub starts to re-lieve coughing spasms, muscular soreness or tightness, and ima restful sleep. Often by morn.: j, most of the misery is gone. For baby's sake, try VatioR';b when colds strike. It must be gocd, because when colds strike it is what! t , most mothers use. V VirunjtJ IMiWiii' When KIDNEYS need When overstrain or other cause slows dou-- k: function, the back may ache p::n Naturally, urinary flow may be lesser. frequent but scanty often sraartiog. ting up nights" may ruin sleep. To relieve such symptom!, yoo r quick stimulation of kidney action- - To ; attain this, try Gold Medal Capsol" ' e diuretic has been femou over 30 years for such prompi fc- 1 Take care to use only as directed on r; age. Only 35 at drug stores. Mc subsutute. Get the genuine Gold 4"-- " Capsules today. They scti( SNAPPY FACT3 ABOUT A Wisconsin truck drive' re-cently received o tribute fro" the Office of the Rubber because he risked ti to save th. tires on the trail" unit he of a tractor-trail-was driving, the "0,le caught fire, but the "' jacked it up and removed tn tires while It was oblaie. The Influence of rubber situation will b W ated when It Is known " 110 to 40 of the motor vehicle-- made In this country were service In December, 1941. than half of then) were by families with Incomes ot than $30 a week. -- 3,,,., M BEGoodri'j Who's News This Week By Delo Wheeler Lovelace Consolidated Feature..-W- NU Release. YORK. On the day General NEW invasion barges bump against the channel-washe- d walls ol Hitler's fortress, the invad-ers' air May Now port will be Depend Upon an commanded Ol Umbrella Man Leigh-MaUor- His initial job will be to raise a cover of planes through which Nazi bombers and fighters cannot thrust at Allied infantry and tanks down under. On his record Leigh-MaUor- y Is as good as he had better be and the business of raising an aerial umbrella Is not new to him. He raised a fine one over Dieppe. Some of the fruits of that hair-raisi- raid were sour but the air marshal's parasol was beyond criticism. Besides smoke-scree- laid and the gun positions knocked out, his bomb-ers and Blenheims and Bostons, his Hurricanes and Spitfires fought so furiously that Nazi plane losses were set at 191, against a British 98. And 30 pilots of the 98 were saved. Entering the last World war as a private after coming down from Cambridge, Leigh-Mallor- y finished as a flying officer with the D. S. O. He had planned on law, but re-mained in the army and the start of this war found him commanding the British Twelfth fighter group. He also organized and directed the Polish a'ir force in England, and for his achievements has been made a Commander of the Bath. Of all Britain's commanders none looks more British than the air mar-shal. He has the wide jaw, the trim, thick mustache, the strong nose, the closely buttoned mouth glorified in cartoons. He is 51 years old. e ' THIS is just a luncheon pick-up- ; there isn't a true word in it. Sir Stafford Cripps was traveling with a Great Man. After dinner the Great Man Maybe Mr. Cripps hauled out Isn't as Austere a couple of AsYarnSuggests terrific g "Smoke!" he urged. "I never smoke," said Cripps. The Great Man turned himself into a chimney, poured a stiff brandy, poised the bottle over a sec-ond glass and raised eyebrows in a convivial invitation. "I never drink," said Cripps. The Great Man had several stiff ones. Ten o'clock came. At the first chime Cripps checked his wrist watch. It was ten, right enough, "G'night!" he said briskly. "I al-ways go to bed at ten." . Britain's minister of aircraft production probably isn't as se-vere as all that. But he can be grim; as now when he warns rosy optimists that 1944 will be the Allies' toughest year. He took on aircraft production late in 1942 and some said he had been demoted. It did seem a come-dow- n from the post of lord privy seal, and certainly less rewarding than his earlier ambassadorships to China and Russia. Fifty-fiv- Sir Stafford is an aristo-crat, a baron's son, but he runs with He is M.P. for Laborite Bristol and works to allay distrust of Communism. GERMANY'S Iron Cross comes In three grades; the Nazi special police come in three grades, too. And it couldn't be just a coincidence Executes Hitler's Orders to Letter wears the And to the Death Iowest grade of the one and commands the lowest grade of the other. Hitler's own Elite Guard, the swaggering SS and the Gestapo, Himmler's pets, both rank above Schepmann's troopers. Since Schepmann took over after tough Victor Lutx died In that automobile accident last May, his task has grown enor-mously. There are 12.000,000 re-bellious aUen workers In the Reich now, and if these are to be kept at work along with the bombed natives, the SA must turn the trick. Fifty now, Schepmann was born In the troubled Ruhr. In the first World war he won his Iron Cross in the Infantry and survived three wounds and at the end was a lieu tenant. With peace he spent much time in the headquarters of the budding Nazi group at Dort- mund and finally Hitler mad. him a full time SA leader. When the Nazis at length'came aWnenr '33. Hitler ordered sThep? Dortmund There was a lot of op- position Communists These all vanished, howler f?chePmann,s Militia caugM uo Schepmann was awarded the emntv a distinction he must BCCepted h ted often of late H regret" was not at aU re' That tas so seldom tltTeT S3y he gives orders unless I " 6Ven st. Hitler's orders Automatic Oxygen Masks Unlike all other oxygen ma-t- . which must be regulated by T wearer, the latest type, now ing made for United States H-ilary airmen, works automatical and eliminates a great deal of worry, and guesswork, says Co' tier's. At all altitudes up to 38,000 fEet it supplies the flier with the pro mixture of air and oxygen Bow of both being regulated 1 valves which, in turn, are cot trolled by atmospheric pressure" i Mechanical Chrisiener One of the shipbuilding firms oa the eastern seaboard now u. s a bottle-swingi- machine v.;.:i has been nicknamed "Christine" in the christening of its sniper vessels. Jottings From May through September, 1943, various government agencies placed 2,706,000 volunteer farm la-borers to help harvest the nation's crops. During 1943 Massachusetts home-make-canned fruits and vegeta-bles which were worth an estimated 900,000,000 ration points. Every ton of scrap iron and steel used in our blast furnaces saves two tons of our reserve of high-grad- e iron ore. I HIGHLIGHTS ... in the week'$ news I SPRINGS: ' Now that the govern-ment has released a quantity of steel wire for springs, it is expected that furniture with coils can be coming out of the factories within, two or three months. DEBT: National debt of Great Britain amounted to 77 billion dol-lars on December 31, the chancellor of the exchequer has reported to the house of commons. DOGS: Wild dogs, running in packs, are taking a heavy toll of livestock in northern Illinois. In Lake county alone, 205 sheep have been killed, and 29 injured. Other losses reported were four cows and i calf, and three turkeys. PERILS: So far in this war, the nome front is the more perilous place to be. The National Safety council states that since Pearl Har-bor 190.000 persons have been killed and 18,500.000 injured in the United States, compared with 139,858 casu-alties of all sorts among the expe-ditionary forces. . PLASMA: Use of blood plasma has reduced deaths among wounded men to three-tenth- s of 1 per cent in the Pacific area, a naval surgeon recently returned from the front said. HOUSING: War ravaged Europe will require construction of at least 100 million homes, it is said. In the United States from 15 to 20 mil-lion new housing units will be need-ed in the next 10 years. LUMBERJACKS: Deferments for loggers and other workers in the pulpwood industry are being urged by Representative Philbin of Massa-chusetts. He contends that the sup-pl- y of paper will be endangered if these men are called to the armed forces. SHOES: Leather shortages are becoming so serious that the War Production board is considering the use of pigskin in making civilian shoes. A decline in hide production, coupled with the tremendous de-mand for military footwear, is given as the cause of the acute situation. BRIEFS . ... by Baukhage Through a series of phrase books supplemented by phonograph rec-ords, American troops are learning to speak the essentials of as many as 30 different.la.ng.uages. Peasants of France have been asked in a broadcast from Radio France at Algiers to save city children from famine by adopt-ing " them. ... An urgent appeal to all except qualified war workers to stay away from war industry communities on the Pacific coast has been issued by Corrington Gill, director of the Pres-ident's committee for congested pro-duction areas. . Panama is launching a program to reestablish thousands of farm laborers who mi-grated to the Canal Zone to work on wartime construction and who won't be needed when construction j' stops The armed forces of the United States recently received approxi-mately 53,000,000 pounds of coffee from Brazil. This gift, freshly roast-ed, now is going to the American soldiers stationed in all parts of the world. ... Mexico is expected to supply 75,. 000 workers to the United States in 1944. ... The remarkable achievement of the American farmers during the last two years will go down in his-tory as one of the glorious contribu-tions to the winning of the war, says Louis Bromfield. That is evidenced by their record-breakin- g production in the face of l.abor shortages. Iceland has seven times as many books per capita as the United States. It has almost no illiteracy. School children must learn four lan-guages besides their own English, German, French and Danish. |