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Show I WLEXLY NEWS ANALYSIS OPA Clears Way for Rent Hike; CIO Goes Slow on New Pacts; Soften Attitude Toward Reich. Released by Western Newspaper Union . (KDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's new-i analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) CAPITOL HILL: Atomic Talk The atomic bomb, with all its explosive military and political import, im-port, was back in the news in Washington Wash-ington again. In the senate, Brian McMahon (Dem., Conn.), chairman of the joint congressional committee which formulated legislation for domestic atom control, called for a showdown show-down with the Russians over international inter-national regulation of nuclear power pow-er and warned against disarming before then. If the Russians are sincere in their demand for international atomic control, McMahon said, let them accept his compromise proposal. pro-posal. Under it, the world court would pass upon accusations of violations of agreements, and the security council would act against a country found guilty. As McMahon spoke, Chairman Designate David E. Lilienthal of the domestic atomic energy commission com-mission found himself in hot water at a meeting of the joint atomic energy committee considering President Pres-ident Truman's nominations to the domestic regulatory body. Due for confirmation, Lilienthal was charged with excluding military officers from commission meetings. Explaining that the officers had been kept out to permit free discussion dis-cussion within the commission, Lilienthal Lil-ienthal promised that no vital information, in-formation, would be withheld from the army. GAMBLERS : On Run New York authorities maintained their pressure on the gambling com- L " '! Egged on by Giussepe Vtttona, Communist Com-munist secretary of Workmen's confederation, confed-eration, Romans mass tn Piazza del Po-polo Po-polo to protest against high cost of living liv-ing and lag in reconstruction program. Recent U. S. loan of 100 million dol-. lars is designed to prime key Italian tti-dustrtes tti-dustrtes and relieve unrest. I r if -r .itiiir v.v munity by probing prob-ing the conspiracy conspir-acy to have middleweight mid-dleweight Rocky Graziano throw a fight to Ruben-Shank, Ruben-Shank, a fistic nobody out of Denver, Colo. By getting odds of 4 to 1 on Shank, the gamblers figured fig-ured to clean up RENTS: Boosts in Order Small property owners rather than large operators will profit from relaxation of rent control, government gov-ernment officials hinted. Liberalization of rent ceilings came in the form of an OPA order making it easier to obtain rent increases in-creases in hardship cases. Previously, Previous-ly, small landlords had found it difficult dif-ficult to secure rental readjustments unless they had kept books and could provide documentary evidence evi-dence that costs had cut income. Under the new setup, OPA offices were instructed to take a liberal view of landlords' applications for rent increases and to consider local costs in determining the reasonableness reasonable-ness of charges. Meanwhile, Republican Senators Hawkes (N. J.), McCarthy (Wis.), Cain (Wash.) and Malone (Nev.) proposed a general 15 per cent rent increase and removal of controls off of new buildings and premises not let out in 1946. LABOR: Go Easy With the public fed up on crippling crip-pling strikes and anxious to satisfy the need for many goods, the" CIO top command has wisely chosen to go slow on demands for new 1947 contracts. The United Steel Workers, headed head-ed by CIO chieftain Phil Murray, pointed up the new approach in extending ex-tending their old contract with U. S. Steel corporation to April 30 to permit per-mit additional time for bargaining. Shortly after, United Auto Workers extended their pact with Chrysler for 30 days for the same reason. There were indications that the Steel Workers and Big Steel would come to terms amicably and head a woman and held prisoner for over 24 hours, Windham was told that he was being detained as a hostage for Gruner.- Significantly, he was released after the British military commander in Palestine postponed Gruner's sentence to permit his attorneys at-torneys to appeal to the highest court in London. Windham returned to his comely Irish wife of three months rumpled, unshaven but unharmed; but the Jewish underground had demonstrated demon-strated its solidity and daring in its fight for a Jewish homeland. GERMANY: Neiv Tack When U. S. occupation troops in Germany received their indoctrination indoctrina-tion booklet for 1947, they found a significant change from 1946. They read: There is to be no kicking around of the German people. Authority is being exercised at the government level and the individual soldier has no right to take the law in his own hands. Further, harsh and cruel treatment makes the democratization democrati-zation of the Germans more difficult. dif-ficult. There have always been Germans Ger-mans who opposed Hitler. In the last general election of 1933, the Nazis received only 17,000,000 votes of 40,000,000 cast. Many older Germans Ger-mans with democratic sympathies can be expected to provide a bulwark bul-wark for free government if encouraged. encour-aged. Young Germans are still in their formative years. Given proper social so-cial and economic environment, they can be converted to a democratic way of life. Treaty Problem What to do with postwar Germany? Ger-many? France, for one, has definite idelas; so has Poland. And although the two plans vary, they both possess pos-sess the common desire to leave a future Germany impotent to strike across its eastern or western border bor-der for aggressive war. Thrice attacked by a unified Germany, Ger-many, France has proposed that the Reich be split into a loose confederation con-federation of states, such as existed exist-ed before Bismarck in 1870. Without With-out a strong central authority, the French argue, Germany would be unable to muster full strength for aggressive enterprises. Well remembering that Bismarck Bis-marck rose to power by satisfying satisfy-ing the German desire for national unification, Poland opposes any loose division of the reich with the contention that it would only provide pro-vide an opportunity for another Bismarck. Bis-marck. BRITAIN: Exports Lag Thanks to the U. S. loan, Britain managed to balance exports with , imports last year, but a considerable consider-able increase in overseas trade must be achieved in future months if the British are to stay heavily out of foreign debt and maintain their living standards. Because of its own limited resources, re-sources, Britain must import materials ma-terials for home consumption and fabrication for resale overseas. With Britain owing many countries for war goods, government sources estimated esti-mated that exports would have to be boosted by 75 per cent to help pay off these debts and still receive imports for domestic use. While exports rose 17 per cent in July, they dropped off to only 3 per cent above the prewar level in December. The slump vas attributed attrib-uted to a scarcity of essential materials ma-terials and manpower. Graziano $500,000 if Graziano Grazi-ano took a "dive." Exposure of the attempted Graziano Grazi-ano bribe came hard on the heels of the conviction of Alvin Paris, 29, for trying to get two New York Giant pro football stars to throw the championship game to the Chicago Chi-cago Bears and the indictment of three other alleged members of the grid gambling ring. Graziano, who ranks as the No. 2 drawing card in pugilism today, found himself on a hot spot as the district attorney pressed the probe. On the one hand, Rocky faced lifelong life-long suspension from boxing if he failed to come clean on the conspiracy con-spiracy while on the other hand, he courted the wrath of the gamblers gam-blers if he talked. When he refused to throw the Shank fight for $100,-000 $100,-000 and withdrewfrom the bout on a plea of illness, it was said that he had been given a beating by several sev-eral men in an alley. FRANCE: To Release POWs As a result of heavy pressure from the U. S., the French agreed to release re-lease German prisoners of war turned over to them by America for reconstruction. Under international law, the U. S. remains responsible for the Germans Ger-mans captured by American troops, even though they may be turned over to other nations for forced labor. la-bor. With the European war over , for almost two years, the U. S. pressed France to release the 620,000 POWs out of humane considerations i and Germany's own reconstruction I needs. ; . Because of rankling French hatred for the Germans and France's great need for labor, the French were none too anxious to fully comply with the U. S. request. A compromise was reached: The Red Cross would ' supervise a drive to recruit POWs for work in France under fixed working work-ing conditions and pay. Germans choosing to go home would be allowed al-lowed to do so. INDUSTRY: Record Production The No. 1 producer of farm equipment equip-ment in the U. S., International Harvester Har-vester had its biggest peacetime year in history in 1946, with record sales of $482,328,000. Profits amounted amount-ed to $22,326,000 or 4.6 per cent on total capital. Motor trucks, service and service parts constituted 35.9 per cent of the total sales, with farm implements and service parts accounting for 17.3 per cent. Although strikes and material shortages hindered production in 1946, the end of the year saw output of many items at a record high. Additional increases were predicted predict-ed for 1947 if the mounting flow 0f materials continues and no labor difficulties are encountered. LIFE INSURANCE: Life insurance investments made during war years were widely dispersed dis-persed geographically, with the result re-sult that there is an even broader national distribution than before the war, a study made by Life Insurance Insur-ance association of America shows At the start of 1946, total investments invest-ments in the North Central states amounted to $11,391,000,000, Whne ! those in the Southern states totaled ' $10,150,000,000 and those in the Mid- I die Atlantic states were $9 393 000 000. Phil Murray, CIO chieftain, and John A. Stephens, vice president of U. S. Steel, agree on contract extension. ex-tension. off a disastrous strike, such as the one which resulted in a month-long walkout last year. Negotiators already al-ready have agreed on standardization standardiza-tion of wages and reduction of job classifications in the five subsidiaries subsidi-aries of U. S. Steel. As a result of the elimination of intra-plant inequities, the union estimated esti-mated that 175,000 workers would receive hourly pay boosts of from 1 cent to 29 Cents an hour. Retroactive Retro-active to January 4, 1944, the cost of the wage readjustments was set at 32 million dollars. PALESTINE: Bold Game The Jewish underground continued contin-ued to play a bold game in its bid for increased Jewish immigration to Palestine and the establishment of a Zionist state. As lawyers strove to save 33-year-old Dov Bela Gruner from hanging following his convictionfor an attack on a police station, the terrorist underground organization, Irgun Zvai Leumi, abducted Judge Ralph Windham of the Tel Aviv district dis-trict court and two other Englishmen. English-men. Whisked right out of his courtroom court-room by a dozen armed men and Scientists Await Eclipse The total eclipse of the sun on May 20, which a National Geographic Geograph-ic society-army air forces expedition expedi-tion will observe in Brazil, bears special importance for scientists because be-cause it will be the longest for eight years to come. During the brief eclipse the observers ob-servers will work rapidly but precisely pre-cisely to take photographs, make a host of measurements and record all possible details of the phenomenon. PRODUCE: Several cities are drafting plans for new produce supermarkets to help get perishable foods from farms to dining tables faster, cheaper cheap-er and fresher. In New York City, plans are now in an "advanced stage" for the largest larg-est wholesale produce market in the world. In Cincinnati, the planning plan-ning commission is working on a plan for a similar market to serve a wide area in Ohio. Indiana, Kentucky, Ken-tucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. |