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Show 3ro - 'I I WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS 1 fi Administration Asks Vast Powers 'B In New Agriculture Support Plan; F Labor Legislation Gets Priority r i 1 , (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those of ' ' Western Newspaper Union's news analysis and not necessarily ot this newspaper.) ani LIDICE: Nothing at All It was hard to tell where possible Communist machinations began and truth left off, but if the charges ol a Czech official that not one dollar of five million raised in the U. S. to rebuild Lidice was used, then the American people and humanitarian-ism humanitarian-ism generally had taken the worst rocking in years. JAN VODICKA, secretary-general of the union of fighters for freedom in Czechoslovakia, said the collection to rebuild the city razed by the Nazis had been made "among our compatriots in the United States and the rest of the American public, and the union has information that of the five million dollars collected, 30 per cent was taken by the collectors and nearly 70 per cent by the administration." There was a quick denial. In New York, Dr. Jan Papanek, resigned re-signed Czech U. N. delegate, said the Lidice memorial committee collected col-lected "$5,000 at the maximum" from Americans and never got a chance to apply any money to Lidice. LIDICE, as too few probably will remember, was the village near Prague which was completely destroyed de-stroyed by the Nazis in retribution for the assassination of the German "hangman" Reinhardt Heydrich. All the men of the village were killed and its women and children dispersed. ' ' -' -f t, j ?, fi . . ' J v t $ v - - Nf I f ? I v r f w 4 ... r- S ; W I - v. i If V p" $ ; &C " 1 I NICE TRY! . . . Like a round peg in a square hole, Officer George McPherson of the San Francisco humane society became stuck in a narrow light well into which he crawled to rescue a cat. It took fellow officers several minutes to dislodge him. The cat was removed through a window opening onto the bottom of the light well and is being held by Officer George Warren, at right. CHILD LABOR: Law Is Strict Summer vacations were coming up and there would be hordes of youngsters seeking work during the long holiday. But if the wage and hour and public contracts division of the U. S. department of labor had its way, all child labor would be done strictly according to law. FROM Cleveland, the director, William S. Singley, issued a reminder remind-er to all employers of school boys and girls under 18 that age and employment cirtificates for such workers must be on file. He pointed out that these certificates certifi-cates "are considered as proof of age and serve to protect employers from unwitting violations of federal laws regulating the employment of children." Under the fair labor standards act, the minimum age for most jobs is 16, but in occupations declared de-clared to be especially hazardous for young workers, the minimum age is 18. Baldness "Cure" Buried on inside pages of most newspapers was a story which, if true, would have rated banner headlines in the eyes of those it concerned. FOR, from Een, Holland, there came a claim that Meinheer J. Van Rooyen, a bewildered little barber, could cure baldness no fooling. The news leaked out, and the little barber shop was thronged with visitors. Letters poured in by the thousands. The meinheer started it all himself him-self by trying to stop his own thinning thin-ning hair from growing thinner, experimenting with various lotions and use of infra-red rays. ACCORDING to reports, he finally final-ly hit upon a combination that made his hair grow. Tried on others, it succeeded. Now he is treating 160 people, working 13 hours a day. 1 FARM PLAN: I More Curbs Asked Critics and supporters alike of Agriculture Secretary Charles Bran-nan's Bran-nan's 1949 farm support program " were surprised when Brannan asked Tr sweeping new powers to control 01 the nation's agricultural produc- tion. IH THE latest Brannan proposals were contained in the full draft of the administration's farm program which was laid before congress. In that program, the powers requested re-quested would mark the first time in the history of the nation not excepting ex-cepting wartime when farmers and their activities would be so completely com-pletely under federal control. For example, Brannan asked that rigid marketing quotas, now usable on only six major crops, be applied on the great bulk of farm products, including meat animals, milk, poultry, poul-try, eggs, fruits and vegetables. It was a bold stroke on the part of the administration and one that was gambling with farmer good will over the nation. For it was quickly discernible that, if enacted, this program would put the American farmer under federal fed-eral control from the moment he arose to feed the chickens and other stock in the morning, until he tended his vegetables and worked his crops, milked the cows and fed the stock again in the evening. The big question was: Would the farmers stand for that, even if congress did enact the law? Farmers Farm-ers would be given a choice because , under the Brannan proposal, they I would have to vote adoption of the program by a two-thirds vote of all producers. Brannan envisions a condition where prices would be allowed to move freely in the market with farmers getting a payment covering cover-ing the difference if and when market mar-ket prices fell below a predetermined predeter-mined "fair" return. MINE SAFETY: Lewis Wants Law Attacking state regulation of mine safety codes, John L Lewis, leader of the United Mine Workers, demanded a federal safety law to "prevent coal miners from being maimed, mangled and killed." CHARGING that the "nation's coal is stained with blood," Lewis produced figures to show 1.25 million mil-lion miners have been injured or killed in the past 19 years. Lewis' charges were hurled before be-fore a senate labor subcommittee in support of a bill which would give federal mine inspectors right to' close mines they think dangerous. danger-ous. Under present conditions, while the federal bureau of mines makes safety inspections and recommends rec-ommends safety measures, all control con-trol is exercised by the states and there is no way to implement federal fed-eral suggestions and recommendations. recommenda-tions. Lewis contended that states are falling down badly. LEWIS' testimony chiefly carried car-ried the tneme that the states have failed to enforce safety regulations and that the mine operators are not going to pay any heed to safetr unless forced to do so. Remember Him? U. S. JOBS: Could Be Cut A contention that the government cut its civilian employe rolls by 10 per cent and "accomplish exactly the same purposes" was made in Washington by former President Herbert Hoover. Declaring that this could be done if the government were organized properly, Mr. Hoover said the savings to the taxpayers tax-payers might reach four or five billion dollars a year. MR. HOOVER'S statement must have carried some weight, . but there were only an optimistic few who believed anything might be done along the lines he pointed out. The former President was speaking speak-ing with authority because a commission com-mission of which he had been named the head a fact-finding body to uncover just such things as he had uncovered had exhaustively studied government functions and processes and had reported its findings. A 200,00o cut in federal personnel person-nel would require no wholesale firings, he said. He added it could be accomplished through normal turnover, which now runs about 500,000 a year. BERLIN: New Issues The meeting of the big four council coun-cil of foreign ministers had developed de-veloped one fact discussion of German Ger-man unity under current conditions was futile So, it appeared attention atten-tion would be turned to Berlin where som major problems yet remained unsolved. Berlin presented concrete issu. which many hoped could be resolved re-solved or, at least, discussed more profitably. The western powers were understood as ready to insist upon written agreements concerning concern-ing rights in Berlin to replace oral understandings that alone have given them any rights in the immediate im-mediate past. It was also believed they would urge a single elected city council and retention of occupation status for their zone. It was believed inevitable in-evitable that the question of four-power four-power authority which led to a deadlock over the veto right when the whole of Germany was discussedwill dis-cussedwill arise again in relation to a Berlin regime. x J i jr. - h 1 LABOR LAW: Gets Priority With domestic issues having been given the green light over foreign affairs, the U.S. senate was committed com-mitted to wrestle out a new labor law or repeal Taft-Hartley before be-fore adjournment. The importance of the labor question ques-tion to the administration was indicated in-dicated in the senate's shelving discussion dis-cussion of the North Atlantic security secu-rity pact until the troublesome labor issue has been disposed of. THE reason was rather obvious. Organized labor, worried by an apparent ap-parent disinclination of congress to go along with the President in repealing re-pealing Taft-Hartley and fearing further delay, was pushing the administration to get going. There was constant reminder behind the scenes of the President's campaign pledges to scrap the present overall over-all labor law and labor wanted action. The 1950 congressional races weren't too far off and the administration evidently felt it had better deliver or face labor's antagonism an-tagonism at the polls next year. MAJORITY LEADER Scott Lucas declared that if all major legislation legisla-tion were not disposed of by July 31, "we shall extend the length ol I the session until we have dealt with I the most urgent proposals." How many will remember the gentleman shown above? Well, the question is hardly a fair one for his public always saw him in fight trunks, not street togs. He is former heavyweight fighter Buddy Baer, whose engagement en-gagement to Hollywood columnist column-ist May Mann, put him in the news. TOBACCO: Less for Farmer For farmers who grow tobacco, the take was just about half as much as Uncle Sam collects in taxes from the product. This admission ad-mission came from the U. S. department de-partment of agriculture itself. IN a review of the tobacco situation, situa-tion, the department estimated that combined U. S. and state tax receipts re-ceipts from tobacco would approximate approxi-mate 1.75 billion dollars during the fiscal year, which would be a record. |
