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Show NEWS REVIEW Inflation Worry Grows; CIO Seeks Pay Raises i 1 ment, that the CIO's move for another an-other pay raise grew out of his and other CIO leaders' moral certainty that congress would do nothing to halt inflation and its continuing and dangerous impact on the American worker. He hoped, he said, that "it won't be necessary to have strikes." The decision was not entirely unexpected. un-expected. Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach had ;een it in the cards :arlier when he predicted such a levelopment and warned that pres-;ure pres-;ure for general vage increases was nounting with ris-ng ris-ng prices. Meanwhile, con- INFLATION What's to Be Done? Administration pressure to force the adoption of President Truman's proposed anti-inflation panacea involving in-volving wage and price controls was increasing steadily. Latest in a procession of cabinet members testifying before congressional congres-sional committees in favor of price controls was Clinton P. Anderson, secretary of agriculture. He bluntly warned the house banking and currency committee that unless rising meat costs are halted price controls on that commodity com-modity would be necessary by early spring. Describing meat and grain as foodstuffs in which early shortages short-ages can be foreseen, Anderson pointed out the likelihood that early 1948 would see fantastically high prices of meat. There was a profusion of thinking on the inflation problem which so far had done little except to promote pro-mote widespread disagreement and uncertainty among the people. The administration, congress as a body and private citizens remained re-mained at odds concerning what should be done. Robert S. Nathan, former government economist, called for an immediate 20 to 25 per cent rollback in prices and predicted pre-dicted a "bust" next year if the situation remains uncontrolled. Secretary of the Treasury John Snyder issued a direct challenge to congress to come up with some workable idea of its own to combat rising costs of living. Earl Bunting, president of the National Na-tional Association of Manufacturers, epitomized the attitude of private business and industry in general by calling for greater production per man per day, reduced taxes and a curb on exports. What it amounted to was this: You either were in favor of price and wage controls or against them. You pay your money and you take your choice; but in any event, with inflation a predominant condition of the economy, you pay your money. gress, dissatisfied Schwellenbach with President Truman's Tru-man's 10-point anti-inflation program, pro-gram, continued working on cost-of-living problems with two cabinet officers under orders to draft specific spe-cific bills to fight inflation. LEAGUE: For Politics Ever since the Taft-Hartley act outlawed the spending of labor union un-ion funds for political purposes, the unions have been busy setting up special agencies through which they can apply political pressure in 1948. Most recent such political league has been organized by the International Interna-tional Association of Machinists (IAM) ; it is called the machinists' non-partisan political league, and will "aid working people exercise their right to vote more effectively," according to Harvey W. Brown, IAM president. In 1948 it will "concentrate on replacing re-placing the pro-employer Taft-Hartley congress with one composed of those who will consider the interests of all groups in our country rather than the narrow interests of a single group." Other leagues of similar political bent are the CIO political action committee, the AFL labor's educational educa-tional and political league, the railroad rail-road unions' railway labor's political politi-cal league and the communication workers' group. iv. WARFARE: Plastic Tanks Tanks, as we know them, may be for the memory only in a few more years if the prediction of Maj. Gen. James M. Gavin is sound. In the event of another war tanks made largely of plastic and light enough to be. flown from one front to another will play a decisive role, the military expert said in a copyrighted copy-righted article in the Armored Cavalry Journal. Gavin, who commanded the parachute para-chute assault troops in the Normandy Nor-mandy invasion, said the heavy tank of World War II is so outdated it "belongs in the Smithsonian institution." in-stitution." "Either we develop the means that will enable us to fly everything we need for combat or another nation na-tion will," he asserted. "If another does well, we've had it." WAGE DRIVE: Third Round Since there apparently Is no way of eliminating inflation in the foreseeable fore-seeable future, the CIO decided, the best thing American labor can do is to string along with it. That was the philosophy behind CIO President Philip Murray's announcement an-nouncement that the labor organization organi-zation would seek general wage increases in-creases for its six million workers in basic industries. It presaged a new series of labor difficulties which probably will reach a crucial peak next March and April. More than that, it was the development most feared by economists frantically trying to combat inflation official launching of the third general round of wage demands since the war. Murray, seeking to justify the decision, de-cision, claimed that since the war workers had suffered a net loss of 18 per cent in the purchasing power of their weekly earnings despile wage increases. He added, in a tone of disillusion- |