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Show The Cost of Living There does not seem to be much question that Leon Henderson was removed as price-rationing administrator adminis-trator because a powerful bloc felt that he was too tough. This is neither to agree nor to disagree dis-agree with that sentiment, but merely to point out that Mr. Henderson's successor suc-cessor is walking into an unenviable spot from which he, too, may some day be carried away a political corpse. Last mid-May, with disastrous inflation infla-tion beginning to build up, Mr. Henderson Hen-derson was given the task of holding prices down. His authority was limited lim-ited to two basics He had no control over wages or over farm prices. Since that time the costs of clothing '. ii f -I- i uiiu nouse lurmsmngs nave risen one-tenth one-tenth of 1 per cent cent; the cost of miscellaneous mis-cellaneous items has gone up eight-tenths eight-tenths of 1 per cent. Rent has fallen one-tenth of one Der cent. These things were under OPA control. The cost of food, uncontrolled in the main, rose 7.8 per cent durina the same period. . , These figures come from Secretary of Labor Perkins, and can hardly be susoected of anti-administration bias. The National Industrial Conference Board reports that between February and November food prices rose 11.3 per cent, women's clothing 4.9 per cent, men's clothing 4.6 per cent, hous-ing hous-ing 0.4 per cent, sundries 3.2 per cent. On different bases for different periods the two sets of figures check closely. They indicate that when Mr. Henderson was given his thankless task prices were rising; that he stopped the increase for items under his control, con-trol, while others continued to go up. That is to say: Mr. Henderson did exactly what he was told by the President Presi-dent to do. He was a success. So he has been retired. What, then, is it that we want from his successor? Do we want hard-boiled hard-boiled results from wishy-washy methods? meth-ods? We can't have that. Neither Leon Henderson nor Prentiss Brown nor Joe .Doakes can hold prices down without with-out depriving producers and distributors distribu-tors of income. If the new price administrator lets prices go up he will have failed in his trust. If he holds them down he will offend the same interests who were aggrieved by Mr. Henderson. The only question is, whose eggs 'ere oina to be broken in making this anti-inflation, anti-hoarding omelette? PROVO (UTAH) 'MONDAY, JANUARY 18. 1943 an on Black Market to You Explains Edson Up jBig Business r To those who live in settled com- tmunities it may seem as though war 'pjioritiqs had completely stopped residential resi-dential construction. The yearend re-.port re-.port of National Housing Administrator ;Elanfcrd shows that this is far from correct. There is, in fact, tremendous activity in that field. During 1942 278,000 housing units capable of accommodating 600,000 -war workers' families have been built. ; Approximately as much more are under un-der constructoon, and 340,000 addi tional units are to be started during the first half of 1943. .These are for war workers, but many are intended to be permanent. ' Approximately half are government "properties. Uncle Sam is getting to be :big business in many fields. The period of our defensive attrition in the Pacific is passing. Now our aim is to force the Japanese to fight. Last year we stopped them. This year we intend to advance. Pres. Roosevelt. If-these beasts (Japs) are. .oihg to be made to give in they must,-be attacked at-tacked from all directions. From the mainland of China. and from the Pa- cific. They are going to be made to wish they had died when they were "babies. Adml. William F. Halsey. ' ' We have no intention of allowing ; Germany ihe opportunity once again to. bring disaster upon the world. We can therefore forecast our .answer to " any premature peace. nroroVak now British Ambassador Lord, ftaliiax. B- PETER EDSON Daily Herald Washington Correspondent Whether or not the United States can escape serious inflation in this war may depend largely on how successfully the public, the price administrators and the rationing boards can prevent de-veloomet de-veloomet of a black market. ThP nflrsillel to that can be observed in prohibition. No one ever made any accurate survey of the number of people who abid ed bv the (prohibition law, but even if it ran as high as 90 per cent, still it was the 10 per cent who patronized the bootlegger that made the law unenforceable The same thing goes for the black market. If 90 per cent of the people buy only within their ra tioned allowances of foods, gasoline gaso-line and fuel oil, price control and rationing: schedules can still be broken down if 10 per cent start buying: bootieggea supplies The black market, rationing officials believe, doesn't consist of individual trades between families over the back fence. Rationing systems have to be set up on the principle that everyone consumes pretty much the same quantities of the rationed Items, wnemer ne does or not. Administratively, it would be impossible to set up any rationing svstem that would take into con- eHrloratinn tTio varviner tastes Of every Jack Spratt and his wife and his neighbors and in-laws. From a practical standpoint, therefore, the basis for every ra tioning scheme is the assumption that everv citizen is entitled xo the opportunity to get his equal share of everv item rationed. It isn't a case of "Come the revolution, you'll take coffee, and you'll take sugar in your coffee and like it." though every person holding a ration card is entitled, to his pound of coffee and nis Dound of suerar when the time rolls round for a ticket to be due Swapping Is Okay So, if the family of Dick Diabetic Dia-betic doesn't use sugar and the family of Ike Insomniac doesn't use coffee, there is no objection on the part of the Rationing Boards if the Diabetics draw their allowance of sugar which they don't use and swap it with the Insomniacs for coffee which they have drawn and don't use. That isn't considered a black market operation. Where the black market comes into the picture is when some Sam Slicker organizes a route, makes the rounds to collect whatever undistributed supplies he can lay his hands on, then goes into the business of selling these surpluses at fancy prices and without benefit bene-fit of ration stamps. They have to be fancy prices because the black market operator has to pay the going retail price to build up his stocks, cover his costs of oper- atin and still make a profit. The money is there for paying the fancy price. Income is up The supply of goods to buy with that income is down. Not just the things like automobiles and refrigerators and radios and toasters toast-ers which aren't being made any more, but things like towels, candy, infants' wear and the essential es-sential foods like butter, meat, and canned goods. Comes the Breakdown When that situation obtains, you have the makings of a black market. First price ceilings are broken, then rationing is broken. Going back to the piphibition parallel, one of the reasons bootlegging boot-legging thrived in that era was that everyone was prosperous, making more money than he knew what to do with, and therefore perfectly willing to pay outlandish outland-ish prices for terrible hooch. Policing a black market is almost al-most as impossible as policing prohibition. Enforcement of price and rationing regulations is in The iBudget Figure AUNT HET By ROBERT QUILLEN "You can tell when Saturday Sat-urday comes. By that. time everybody's meat ration is used up and our whole onions." ' JiCA Sarvic. Inc. Book Circulation Drops Librarian's Report Reveals In the wartime rush people take a little less time off to read books, as evidenced by the annual report of the Provo public library released re-leased by Georgia H. Forsyth, librarian. li-brarian. During 1942, the library circulated circu-lated 110,523 books, or 10,240 few er than in 1941. Of these, 19,160 or 17.8 per cent were non-fiction. A total of 8745 books was loaned to persons living outside the city, not including B.Y.U. students. There were 382 pamphlets loaned loan-ed during the year. Eighty-six magazines are taken by the library. In addition, 50 free and trade magazines "and 22 newspapers come regularly to the reading room. The library issued 1389 adult borrowers' cards while 600 junior cards were issued. A total of 1210 adult and 236 junior cards were expired during the year, so that on December 31 tkere were 8144 adult and 3741 junior cards in file. Book purchases for the year totaled $3262.34. Books added included in-cluded 2986 volumes purchased. 777 donated and 37 added by binding. bind-ing. Number of volumes withdrawn with-drawn totaled 1237. The number of volumes in the library increased from 29,574 as of January 1, 1942 to 32,137 as of the end of the vear. There were 164 pamphlets added in 1942 and 2392 books were rebound by the staff. The library is an official war information center, although to date there has been no great demand de-mand for such services. The community art gallery sponsored by WPA, which occupied occu-pied the southeast room of the the hands of less than 2500 paid officials, whereas enforcement of prohibition was the work of a million or more law enforcement officers. . Enforcement of rationing and price regulation begins really with every housewife who goes to market, mar-ket, every clerk behind a counter. If the country escapes inflation it will be only because the people at home won't put up with a black market 9 , Side Glances I i; - - ! i .. ' Strife v 'Pai j - vfe;; . COM. BV nth SEWVICg. WC. T. M. WfG. P. . PAT; Of. - ' f-t8 basement, was closed December 31 with ending of the WPA projects. "Its closing will be a cultural loss to the city," the librarian stated. Expenditures of the library for 1942 totaled $10,902.85, this being for salaries, books, insurance, lighting, heat, etc. The library board includes J. W. Howe Jr., president, Mrs. Hannah Han-nah Cardall, vice president, Dr. W. T. Hasler, Prof. J. M. Jensen, Dr. T. Earl Pardoe, Dr. J. C. Mof-f Mof-f itt, Clayton Jenkins, Mrs. Fred R. Taylor and Mayor Maurice Harding. !op Q Only seven states are not saving metal by keeping their old license plates. . Can you name them ? A The seven are Colorado, Illinois, Mississippi, South Carolina, Caro-lina, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming the OPA reports. Q How many heavyweight champions have attempted comebacks come-backs to regain their titles? A Five. James J. Corbett, Bob Fitzsimmons, James J. Jeffries, Jack Dempsey, and Max Schmel-ing. f THE WASHINGTON lERRKIMlOUl A Daily Picture of What's llZZrZ r ti! i yt it s. Alien on wing oil in lxanonai ixucais active dnt ) WASHINGTON Ed Flynn's appointment as Ambassador "in the Southwest Pacific" and Minister to Australia was just about as much of a surprise to most of the Australian Lega tion in Washington as it was to llT-mformea White House secretaries. Reason was that the President had cleared the appointment personally per-sonally in a phone call to Winston Churchill. This was necessary, first, because FDB wanted to appoint the Democratic ex-ChairmalK as ambassador, and ordinarily there can bef only one ambassador from the United States to the British Empire. Also. FDR knew that Churchill was acquainted wih Flynn personally. As a matter of fact, the British, aside from the Senate furor over Belgian paving blocks, ' which they don't understand, are not unhappy over Ed Flynn's appointment. This is chiefly because Ed is Irish in fact very Irish, having been educated in Ireland. And the British need more Irish ties, not only among Irish-Americans, but among Irish-Australians, of which there are many. Also the British know some of the backstage back-stage support Flynn has given them and the President's foreign policy. Back in 1940, when foreign policy was really tough, FDR called Ed down from the Bronx to help him get the neutrality act changed so he could begain aid to Britain. Flynjn sat in Majority Leader John McCormack's office, summoned a steady stream of isolationist Democrats many of them fellow Irish and persuaded them to go down the line. Those British who know the inside of that fight, haven't forgotten. GOOD NEIGHBOR GETS RAW WELCOME . Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie ' King , as popular in this country as he is in Canada makes many unheralded trips to Washington and the south without ever getting into the newspapers. Of one of these recently, his pri-' vate car was standing in the Washington rail road yards about a mile from the Union Sta tion wnen tnere was a sudden the car window ' Q What is the fastest-flying bird ? A Either the duck-hawk, an inhabitant of the U. S., the merganser, mer-ganser, a duck-like water bird, or the swift which inhabits the Himalayan mountain region. These birds are credited with speeds up to 200 miles an hour. Q Who was the first president of the American Red Cross ? A Clara Barton, who presided from 1881 to 1904. Q For what sociological work is Jane Addams best known? A She established the famous Hull House Settlement in, Chicago, Chi-cago, in 1889 together with Ellen Gates Starr. 1 AM A MURDERER' b. ,rdS MARKEY COPYRIGHT. 14. NEA SERVICE. INC. "Honestly, my phone hasn't rung of an evening long I. jiggle it every night to make sure it's not v: ': " : ; order r for so; out of THE STORY ThU 1m the tory ' i tke "perfect crime" the murder mur-der of Col. Wefeler Hope Merrl-vrether Merrl-vrether in the library of his Lome Ialand estate -lind of the eventa leading; up to it. At the moment the Colonel' daugrhter, Cynthia, has just flnlnhed telling the story of her life to Vauehan Dunbar, a foreign correspondent and a new acquaintance how she was taken from a California con-vent by the Colonel when she was lO, and how little she known of the Colonel's life before then. Meanwhile Mean-while two attentive friends. Fred West and Henry Prentiss, have vainly sougrht her company at a dance that evening. SECRET MISSION CHAPTER XII XfAUGHAN DUNBAR regarded her for a considerable moment before he replied to her. Then, more quietly than ever, he said, "May I, please? You see, Cynthia, Cyn-thia, I have gone far over the world, into many places. I have seen a great many human beings. And all of them, of whatever land or breed or station in society, have one thing in common: It is easier for them to talk to strangers than to friends. The stranger, you see, will be gone tomorrow, and all secrets, all confessions, are gone with him. -The stranger is the ship that passes in the night, and when the ship drops down behind the horizon, the ocean is the same old place." . She laughed suddenly and very gaily, and said, "You make me want to giggle." But then, in the flight of an instant, she was grave again. . "That's what's the matter with me," she said firmly. "Every thing seems such a huge joke, and it should not be like that. Since you came here, telling lis about Bill Stewart and all the important work he is doing, and telling us the things that are really going on in this terrible world, well, I feel so worthless and useless. And everybody here, everybody at Gull oint, seems worthless too peo ple living in a cozy dream." 1 She stood up and stretched her hands toward the stars. ;I want tq do something," she cried softly fI want to be of some godd m ithe world. How can I? Tell me, itell me, please, how can I?" His voice had a touch of -cyn icism when he answered. "Your complaint is not unique, you know Men and women all over the world, my dear, are asking, What can I do? How can4 I work to make the earth a more decent rlace to live? . . . ' "What can they do? What can I do? You know. You must Know Please. TellmeV He shook his head, and now his voice sounded sad in the dark ness. 'I have told you," he said 'that I am the ship which passes In the night. Soon, I shall be cone. and I assure you that I shall be J gone forever to return never again. If my passing by leaves anything of value to you, let it be this-" He took her hand, and held it quietly, and was silent for a while. No matter what happens, and perhaps things will happen to change your way of life a great deal but no matter what happens, hap-pens, let nothing on earth disturb your loveliness and your rare, fine honesty. Demand of all the world about you that it meet you with that same hosty and fairness and lack of guile which you are so ready to give. That is enough, my dear, for you to do in this world of men." CHE seemed moved, and when she spoke at last her words came low and slowly. "You are always talking about going away." "Rather soon, now, I am afraid." "Where to?" "I can't say." "How do you know you will never come back?" "It is so ordained." "But," she laughed a little, "you talk ih such riddles. I know. You're on a secret mission." He turned his head away from her and looked over' the water toward the rising moon. "Yes," he said, "I may call it that. A secret mission. And tonight, for the very first time, I doubt a little Whether it is worth carrying out." "Oh," she cried, "but you will not waver! I know you Will let nothing stop you." He seemed quite shaken for a moment, and walked away from her along the pool's edge. She moved to 'follow him, and suddenly sud-denly called, "Hey looka! We're getting a fine spell of thetgloomsi Let's drop it and tool off to the dance. Come on!" . Shecaught his arm and turned him about and started toward the house. "Sorry," he said, walking beside her "I can't make it to the,danoe. Must get back to the city." 1 . Tut, my fine friend. I'm show ing you on te those cats tonight, or I'm not my favorite snob," "You, can't know how sorry I am. If you will get your wrap I'll drop you at the club. There will be people f o see you home again." She was disappointed to an extreme ex-treme degree but he did not re lent. He let her down from his open roadster at the porta cochere of the Broken. Hill clubhouse, &d bent over her hand iri the Euro-Dean Euro-Dean fashion, saving that he' would telephone her the following day Then Fred West was at the lop of the porch stairs, calling to them. "Steo on it Via. holding that table for you." Others whom they knew were moving about, and calling to them. Three or four approached to smile at Cynthia and shake hands with Vaughan Dunbar and urge them to come in. Behind Fred West, they could hear the voice of the professional master of ceremonies as he prepared to introduce the entertainers on the cleared dance floor. For a moment, Vaughan Dunbar seemed to hesitate. "Come on," Cynthia said in a whisper. But he straightened very quick ly, as if he had reached a decision. He bowed again, said good night, and stepped immediately into his automobile. "pRED WEST and his cousin A Anne, and Mitchell Grace had a table near the dance floor, and there was wine in a silver bucket hard by, and people waved at Cynthia as she stood looking about her for a moment before taking her chair. She nodded, and smiled, and sat down, and, of course, dropped her cigaret case on the floor for Fred West to retrieve. There was the show. It took an hour for the show to be over. Then lights were up again, and people were dancing. The course of Cynthia Merriwetber and Mitchell Mit-chell Grace as they, too, danced, carried them to the farther corner of the huge, barnlike room, and there they came upon Henry Prentiss. Pren-tiss. He leaned against a pillar. He was disgracefully dressed in one of his tweedier jackets and a pair of his roomier trousers, though he did wear a cravat within the collar col-lar of his white shirt. Cynthia stopped dancing and looked at him a little wearily. . "Slumming again, I see." "Sorry." He grinned mightily and held up his bandaged hand. "Couldn't hianage the right buttons but-tons to be correct." "Lucky you could make a knot in that thing you have around your neck." He laughed, and with his good hand yanked the necktie away from his collar.. It was one f those made-up affairs held In esteem es-teem by motormen on nights out "Invalid's delight,", he said. "Made in two tones, also right and left-handed, . by a world renowned re-nowned haberdasher and on sale in exclusive shops everywhere." "Sort . of a puff for Woolworth, Isn't it?, Mitchell Grace said, "People are, dancing.. I just thought you might not have noticed."- Cynthia ' smiled. at hhn, and tucked her arm closer into his. (To Be Continued) crash against Mackenzie King, who had been sitting beside be-side the window quietly reading, was so surprised sur-prised that he jumped up, cried, "Assassin!" But he found it was only an urchin heaving heav-ing a rock at his car window. Afterward, the portly Prime Minister got down on his hands and knees and searched the floor to pick ud pieces of glass. H VVILLKIK AND THE CENSOR JVnde" Willkie . sent a hot telegram to Chief Censor Byron Price the other day protesting pro-testing that his speeches some of them critical crit-ical of British imperialism were so long de- Lere,b le Ce.nfr that thev couIi not be published adequately in British newspapers. Two of WilLkie's important speeches fhSk. Toronto and before the N. Y. Herald-Tribune Forum, were delayed by the Censor until after around, 11 P'- mr b Which time " wS mi 3 m- m on and too late for publication m morning newspapers. Since British Brit-ish morning papers are the ones which publish speeches at length and which really carrv pefehes18 m?ant the VirtUal bIanketinS of his When Willkie took this up with the New York Censor it was explained that no speech Tents m?nf JT deliwy becaule N5 agents might pick them up from radio trans- m ssion wave-lengths and then broadcast : replies re-plies to the speech while it was beindeUvered Wlllkie accepted this, until Vice PrsidAnf-Wallace PrsidAnf-Wallace delivered his famous speech on to leaTn Then ws amSed to learn that Wallace's speech was cabled in large part to England tw5 days in advance Immediately Willkie wired Byron Price inquiring in-quiring why this happened. "Do members oW IhtA dimstra Vn enJy a different rule thanM that which applies to me?" he asked Byro,n.Price wired back that the Office of War Information had cabled Vice President Wallace's speech to London in advance, and that with U CensorshiP had nothing to do To this Willkie replied; "The Question i secIhatdgwSment genCy transqmon: speech and which government agency prohibited prohibit-ed transmission of another. The question f, whether it is the policy of the AdSSSSSSuon to permit one person's talk to be transmitted t0 London press i time for real us? and prohibits the other." e' and WILLKIE VS. BRITISH That's the end of the debate over the transmission trans-mission of Willkie's speeches. However, that is not the end of the debate over British Imperialism. Im-perialism. Willkie very definitely intends to keep this up. He realizes that he may be misunderstood mis-understood , by the British, especially when they read his speeches only in brief excerpts. But Britishers who have talked to him go away feeling that they have one of the best friends in the world so far as the British people are concerned. Regarding the British colonial system, however, it is something else. "I do not believe," Willkie has told friends, 'that the colonial system, whether British French, German, Portuguese or D'utch, is a thing which those fighting for freedom can be particularly proud of." Willkie also says that he is completely opposed to the promises being made by Secretary Sec-retary Hull to return piece by piece the French xumjure io rance, such as French Ihdo-China. b ueueves mat no promises of should be made at this time. if or, he explains, "we may have a Fascist Fasc-ist government in France after the war" "I do not know what we are fightins- for lli7e &If not f ting for freedom?" Willkie 2minftJ?ld not lojS 8o. "And l' think we will win the war easier and quicker if we keep our colors clean and bright. Maybe I am all wrong, but I really telieve the things T say ftTSS5U?d Sannot watch e Nation Na-tion from principle without saying so " That is why Willkie Is goin to keen n 82F t mh imPeriafismf and hoping ?tiL?f iS fPf.ches across th v" f cauy Deueve in mnAHaUn i ' this kind either. 3EERRY-GO-ROUND The State Department now discloses that when li. S. naval vessels shelled Casablanca, they sunk two French ships known as "economic accord vessels," which were ready to sail under a diplomatic agreement to exchange commodities commodi-ties between the U. S. A. and North .Africa . . . It's a .sign of the times that a temperance society puts out two million copies of an anti-liquor anti-liquor magazine "Signs of the Times." Principal theme is that "armies can't run on alcohol". . . ' The Germans have ordered confiscation of all church . bells in Holland, to be melted . down ' for the German war Indusry. In every . munici-pality munici-pality one small bell will be left to sound airr v raid alerts. . Xft (Copyright 1943 by United Feature - Syndicate, Inc.) t |
