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Show Wrfngfdn Washington, D. C. WARY GRAVY-TRAINER You can write it down that Secretary Secre-tary of Agriculture Claude Wickard is going to be very chary about using us-ing that gravy-train veto power the farm lobby voted him in the price control bill. He knows that the White House is still sputtering over his unauthorized endorsement of this lobby scheme at a crucial moment in the senate fight over the legislation. Also, that if he attempts to exercise the power he is liable to be slapped down even harder than when he fronted for the lobby. Actually, under cover, Wickard has promised in effect to be a good boy. It didn't leak out at the time, but during the secret deliberations of the joint senate-house conference committee com-mittee on the bill, he wrote the committee com-mittee a letter repudiating his previous pre-vious endorsement and saying ha didn't want the veto power over farm prices. larm prices. Wickard wrote this letter under White House pressure. He knew he was in bad and he tried to square himself. But for the administration, the backdown was too late. The damage dam-age had been done, for the amendment amend-ment was in the bill and the lobby's pals on the joint committee were in a powerful position to stand pat. In this final bitter fight, two Alabama Ala-bama Democrats and a Michigan Republican were responsible for the retention of the gravy-train provision. provi-sion. They were Sen. John II. Bank-head Bank-head and Rep. Henry B. Steagall of Alabama, and Rep. Jesse P. Wolcott of Michigan. As the amendment originated in the senate, under the rules, it was necessary for the house conferees to propose deletion. Steagall, chairman chair-man of the house group, publicly makes a great show of being a red hot Administrationite. But behind closed doors of the committee room he adamantly refused to heed Roosevelt's Roose-velt's pleas for elimination of the lobby amendment. Backed by Wolcott, who fought the vital war bill from the start, and with Bankhead running interference in the senate group, Steagall forced the retention of the provision. Note: The administration's fight was made by Sen. Prentiss Brown, Michigan Democrat, and Sen. John Danaher, Connecticut Republican. Another Row. Wickard's fronting for the farm lobby in the price control bill isn't the only row he's had on this score with inner administration leaders. The papers are full of stories about a big crop expansion program this year to meet the food needs of U. S. war allies. Frequent press releases re-leases issue from the busy publicity staff of the agriculture department about grandiose plans. The real inside is that Wickard didn't get busy on these plans until he was practically ordered to do so by Vice President Henry Wallace as head of the Economic Warfare board. Wallace sent Wickard two sharp letters demanding prompt action to expand crop production and only then did Wickard bestir himself. Certain farm elements are against crop expansion, on the ground that scarcity makes for better prices. Working through politically minded Triple A officials, who have a lot of influence with Wickard, the anti-expanders kept him on the fence until Wallace jarred him off. Note: Secretly, the AAA politicos also had a lot to do with Wickard's endorsement of the gravy-train amendment in the price bill. The AAAers are jealous of Price Administrator Admin-istrator Leon Henderson's authority, want to elbow their way into the war set-up as big shots. F.D.R. AXES LEWIS The inside reason why John L. Lewis was not named a member of the three-man C.I.O. peace committee commit-tee was because President Roosevelt Roose-velt personally blocked it. When he and C.I.O. President Phil Murray discussed the counter plan that scuttled Lewis' blitz scheme, Roosevelt advised that the new A.F.L. and C.I.O. peace committees be limited to three members each. That would avoid turning the joint committee into a "mass meeting," he explained, and also make it easier eas-ier to keep hostile Lewis out of the picture. "If you have too large a committee, commit-tee, Phil," the President added with a smile, "you may appoint Lewis." "I guess you're right. Mr. President," Presi-dent," laughed Murray. Note: Lewis intimates say he would not have accepted appointment appoint-ment to the committee if it had been offered him. GENERAL MARSHALL You weren't seeing things if you saw the news picture of Gen. George C! Marshall, army chief of staff, attired at-tired in the uniform of an air corps officer. It was him all right and he had on an air corps uniform. Marshall is not a flier. He is an infantryman. But outside of the air corps, he is the flyingest officer in the army. Whenever possible Marshall always travels by air and is an authority on planes and aerial tactic? |