OCR Text |
Show NEWS REVIEW Laborites Keep Power; Ask Oil, Coal Ration 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. Richard Acland, a rich baronet, was carrying the Labor party's banner against Frank Taylor, an ex-furnace 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 Laborite, was elected to Parliament by a majority of 1,675 votes a clear cut defeat for the Conservatives. The British people, the Labor party announced, retained their confidence in their government. Nevertheless, the 1,675-vote margin mar-gin of victory was considerably smaller than the 7,058-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 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 food rations ra-tions of the poorer people were approximately ap-proximately the same as those of the rich, and that 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 Inflation" Infla-tion" address to congress, asked for limited authority to Impose ration and price controls on basic commodities, com-modities, it was taken for granted that they were food commodities alone. First indication that this might not be a correct interpretation of Mr. Truman's proposal came when the department of Interior asked congress for power to fix price controls con-trols and rationing on coal and oil as part of the anti-Inflation program, pro-gram, Oscar L. Chapman, undersecretary undersecre-tary of the Interior, told the house banking and currency committee that grave shortages and price advances ad-vances were threatened in the two basic fuels. There was no way of telling, he said, whether such controls 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 Incident 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 end most effective way to buck inflation. in-flation. President Truman disclosed the policy first In his speech at the opening open-ing of the special session of congress. con-gress. The Interior department's request re-quest for control of coal and oil probably was a planned follow-up. g ? Current Events ? The following five question! were rejected by )2 radio quiz shows because be-cause they didn't have enough refrigerators re-frigerators to go around. If you can answer them, take the correct answers, an-swers, plus tMO, to your nearest electrical appliance dealer and vou will receive a brand-new refrigerator. refrigera-tor. tfT '"''Z'"W"""T 1. It was clearly a case of "They went thataway" when the above pictured horse opera hero and his leading lady announced that they would be married New Year's eve. Who are they? 2. Within the space of one week crisis-ridden France had three different premiers. Their names? 3. What three titles did King George of England confer upon Lt. Philip Mountbatten before bis marriage to Princess Elisabeth? 4. Gen. Omar Bradley will replace re-place Gen. Dwlght Elsenhower as army chief of staff. Who will replace General Bradley as head of Veterans' administration? 5. At a recent meeting In New York the subject of oncology was discussed. Would you say oncology oncol-ogy Is the study of (a) shells, (b) tumors, (c) fossils, (d) snails? ANSWERS L Roy Rogers and Dale Evans. I. Paul Ramadler, Leon Blum, Robert Rob-ert Schuman. S. Duke of Edinburgh, Earl of Merioneth, Merio-neth, Baron Greenwich. 1. Carl R. Cray, vice president of theChlcago and Northwestern railway. S. (b) Tumors. POSTMASTER: Hannegan Out Robert E. Hannegan has easeo himself out of the public political eye. Little more than a month after he had quit his Job as Democratic national na-tional chairman because of ill 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- ' lir'; slstan postmaster general who has li ' Vs had 42 years In the it -fell Psta' ervlce. It U ' K WB toe first time y $n present ever 'H. ft ha( d'PPe(l mto fyJJ' ranks of postal fiTr 1 "career men" to I AIL 1 I flU the top, Job in the department Donaldson Donaldson Is one of tbe men who came up the hard way. His career with the service began be-gan with his appointment as a city letter carrier In Shclbyville, 111., in 1908. Hannegan, meanwhile, had no intentions in-tentions of going into retirement He hss purchased a substantial interest in the St Louis Cardinals. |