Show NEWS REVIEW REVIE W laborites keep power th T h ask oil coal ration LE LABOR TEST clean slate in great britain the labor party had been worried over the outcome of the by election in the southern town of gravesend Grave send richard acland a rich baronet was carrying the labor party s banner against frank taylor an ex furnace stoker the conservative candidate A seat in parliament was not the only thing at stake the election was of major importance as a test of strength between the two parties it was a hard fought battle and acland the labonte laborite was elected to parliament by a majority of 1675 1 votes a clear cut defeat tor for the conservatives the british people the labor party announced retained their confidence in their government nevertheless the 1675 1 vote mar gin of victory was considerably smaller than the 7 vote labor party margin that had been piled up in the same district in 1945 labor was still in the driver s seat but clearly had lost something of its original strength however the party had kept its slate clean it had not lost a single by election since it first was swept into power perhaps one reason tor for the labor party s continued popularity was that despite all else it was doing a good job of distributing equally what food and other goods were available in britain the f food 0 0 d ra eions of the poorer people were ap proximately the same as those of the rich and that tact fact continued to carry a lot of weight with the mass of voters OIL RATION anti inflation when president truman in his celebrated 10 points against iffla tion address to congress asked for limited authority to impose ration and price controls on basic corn com modi modifies ties it was taken for granted that they were food commodities alone first indication that this might not be a correct interpretation of mr truman a proposal came when the department of interior asked congress for power to fix price con and rationing on coal and oil as part of the anti inflation pro gram oscar L chapman under secre tary of the interior told the house banking and currency committee that grave shortages and price ad vances were threatened in the two basic fuels there was no way of bellm telling h he said whether such controls actual actually would have to be imposed but he insisted that the government should have authority to do so just in case it is not probable that congress will give the government power to control oil and coal but the inci dent serves to reflect the current point of view of the administration that a return to wartime rationing and price controls is the quickest and most effective way to buck in fla nation tion president truman disclosed the policy first in his speech at the open ing of the special session of con gress the interior department departments s re quest for control of coal and oil probably was a planned follow up postmaster hannegan out robert E hannegan has eased himself out of the public political eye little more than a month after he had quit his job as democratic na dional chairman because of III health he turned in his resignation as postmaster general to replace hannegan as head of the nation s post office president truman named 62 year old jesse M donaldson first as distant postmaster general who has had 42 years in the postal service it was the first time a president ever had dipped into the ranks rank s of postal career men to L fill the top lob job in the department donaldson donaldson is one of the me men who came up the hard way his career with the service be gan with his appointment as a city letter carrier in shelbyville Shel byville IU III in 1908 hannegan meanwhile had no in tensions tent ions of going into retirement he has purchased a substantial interest in the st louis cardinals |