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Show m Vt ri . . . WTS 'iTlr. th-nrl! i i-ihiw Washington, D. C. TERRITORIAL BASES The island bases of the Unitec States are now considered our bes safeguard against invasion. Bu army and navy brasshats get 1 scorching rebuke in a report pre pared by the house appropriation! subcommittee that inspected terri torial bases. Written by Rep. James G. Scrug ham of Nevada, chairman of th group, the report recommends th immediate creation of an "hide pendent air force." This would be intended to correct two chiel abuses: (1) The location of army and navj bases almost side by aide in flat, unprotected country, thus "invitinj destruction by enemy bombs." (2) Failure to build hangars, repaii shops and other facilities underground. under-ground. Regarding the first criticism th Scrugham report states: "Thli policy of concentrating highly essential essen-tial military or industrial structures struc-tures in very limited areas cannot be too strongly condemned, and may constitute an error of gravest consequences. This is as true in our territorial as well as our continental defenses. "The lesson of the destruction of the Polish air force by the Germans at the beginning of the war seems to have gone entirely unheeded (by the aeronautic bureau chiefs responsible). re-sponsible). In a fiat country, protected pro-tected air facilities may be impractical, imprac-tical, but where there are adjacent hills, it seems inexcusable to deliberately delib-erately build . . . bases invitingly located for bombing attacks, and so close together that an enemy plane can hit one if it misses the other. "Everywhere the story is the same, from Hawaii to Puerto Rico, from Alaska to the Virgin Islands, Jamaica and Trinidad. Also, no adequate plans have been formulated formulat-ed for water reserves, except to contract con-tract for drilling a few wells, with grave uncertainties as to quality and quantity." Scrugham's conclusions are that "tragedy of the first magnitude" may develop unless immediate steps are taken to rectify conditions at the territorial bases. His solution solu-tion is the centralization of all military mili-tary air forces under a single head with cabinet rank. ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR AIR One of the significant differences between the war and navy departments depart-ments is the hostility of navy brass-hats brass-hats to civilian scrutiny and control of their operations. Deciding that the vastly expanded army air corps needed a central directing di-recting head, Stimson and Patterson Patter-son selected Robert Lovett, New York banker and World war ace, for the Job and had the President appoint him. There was no interference inter-ference from the generals, and air corps chiefs are working harmoniously harmoni-ously and effectively with their new civilian boss. Navy brasshats, on the other hand, are fighting tooth and nail to block a similar civilian intrusion into their gold-braided realm. Through high-powered lobbying operations op-erations in the house, the admirals wormed into the $3,500,000,000 navy appropriation bill a provision that would make it impossible to name an assistant secretary for air. The prohibitive clause is a very slick piece of axing. On its face it has no connection with the proposed pro-posed .civilian appointee. It merely bars the expenditure of navy funds "for any additional positions . . . at a rate of compensation in excess of $5,000 a year." The pay for an assistant secretary is $8,ooo a year. TOUGH DRAFT BOARDS The problem of industrial manpower man-power has become so acute that defense de-fense chiefs have complained to selective se-lective service officials that some local boards are "too tough" about granting deferment to skilled workmen. work-men. Ohio draft boards, for example, are ordering the induction of craftsmen crafts-men badly needed for the crucial machine tool program. Similar complaints have been made against Michigan draft authorities for taking tak-ing specially skilled men needed by the Packard plant, now producing Rolls-Royce airplane engines for the British. From Virginia have come reports that the draft is hampering the vast naval and shipbuilding program at Newport News. The problem of labor supply Is also hitting agriculture. Agricultural Agricul-tural officials fear that so much labor is being drained off farms that some of them want to bar any more defense plants in midwestern dairy and pork sections. MERRY-GO-ROUND TalL fast-moving Rep. Lyndon Johnson is going to let no grass grow under his feet in his campaign for the seat of the late Sen. Morris Sheppard of Texas. The young New Dealer, who has the public blessing of the President, plans 208 speeches, an average of three a day. George Brooks, executive assistant assist-ant in the OPM labor division, is able to keep two secretaries bjsy taking dictation and at the same time carry on a teVphone conversation. |