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Show SCANNING THE WEEK'S NEWS of Main Street and the World Small Business Casualty of Defense; Heat Price Rules Confuse Consumer THE FOUNDATION THREATENED According to several national nation-al economic surveys made public in the last week or so, small business is becoming a casualty of defense. This is a serious and frightening fact for thousands of small towns, because about 3,670,000 small businesses form the foundation of the American economic pyramid, many of them located in the home towns of the nation. In the first two years of World War II, 16 per cent of the small busi- C.iL. ... Irenes ui Lue cuiiimy were luiteu to close down. There are reports that many observers believe the fatality rate in the present defense de-fense mobilization program may be even higher than in those years. A Washington report revealed that congressional small business committees are receiving an 'average 'av-erage of 500 letters a day appealing appeal-ing for information and help from small businessmen. Several reasons are given for the present difficulties. The most important are shortages of materials ma-terials allocation of steel, aluminum, alum-inum, etc., from civilian consumption con-sumption to defense projects; the inability of small business to qualify qual-ify for defense contracts; and the expansion of big business to avoid subcontracting, formally a profitable profit-able source for small business. UP A TREE Mild mannered, popular Gen. Omar Bradley, remembered remem-bered by thousands of World War II veterans in the home towns of America Amer-ica as the "GI's general," put the combined senate armed services and foreign relations committees up a tree during his testimony on the removal re-moval of Gen. Douglas MacArthur from his Pacific commands. To begin with, General Bradley caused a stir among the Republican members of the committees by upholding the administration's actions with the sweeping statement that General MacArthur's Korean plans "would involve us in the wrong war, at the wrong place, at the wrong time, and with the wrong enemy." But when he flatly refused to tell the senators about his private talks with the President on the recall of MacArthur, he chased the committees up a tree. For a day committee members argued among themselves whether they should take some kind of contempt action against the general. They voted 18 to 8, however, against such action expressing the view that it might set a dangerous precedent. To the home town veteran, however, it seemed more likely the senators sen-ators remembered Gen. Bradley's popularity with the men that make up a big part of today's Main Street population. NEW DRAFT LAW Senate and house conferees, attempting to reach a compromise on the two bills previously passed by the groups, finally reached a settlement calling for extension of the draft until July 1, 1955, with men of 18 eligible for induction for 24 months of service. The old draft bill expires July 1. The new one will require all men to register on becoming 18. They would be examined and classified before they were 18V4 and would be eligible for induction thereafter, providing the pool of men from 19 to 26 in their individual draft districts had been exhausted by the local boards. The bill will pui a five million person ceiling on the combined army, navy, air forces and marines. It also requires that all draftees, volunteers, and reserves have at least four months' basic training before being assigned as-signed outside the United States. UP TO OLD TRICKS After rejecting American plans for a peace treaty with Japan, the Russians reverted to their old tricks in proposing their version of a treaty. The Soviet plan, which was rejected by the United States, would bar foreign forces from Japan after the occupation .. ends and thereby block an arrangement for American troops to help provide pro-vide Japanese security. It was the same type of thing the Russians so successfully carried out in Korea and which led to the present situation in Asia. No one can believe be-lieve the Russians thought the United States would accept their plan, but one has to give them credit for having the nerve to suggest it. There is little possibility now of Russia joining in the American peace treaty which is nearing conclusion. BEWILDERED HOUSEWIVES Home town housewives entered their Main Street stores and meat markets on Monday, May 14, without their usual dread of visiting a meat counter. The government had just ordered a cut in meat prices. After one Quick look she became a startled and confused housewife. For the next 10 days she became more bewildered. Meat prices were not down according to her figures but up! What the home town housewife saw was porterhouse steak up 7 cents a pound and sirloin up 9 cents. Round steak was down 2 cents not enough to mention, and short ribs of beef down 8 cents as she had expected of other cuts. According to the government, however, the up and down price juggling of beef actually produced an over-all savings to the housewife of one-half of 1 per cent. This she couldn't understand. One-half of 1 per cent didn't do a thing for her meat budget. FAIR TRADE RULING By a vote of 6-to-3, the supreme court ruled that merchants who did not sign fair-trade agreements are free to charge cut-rate prices if they wish. Under the laws of 45 states, distributors of trade-mark or hrand goods may enter into agreements with retail dealers to sell their products at filed minimum prices. Under the new court ruling, however, the home town merchant who did not sign such a contract or agreement can sell the product prod-uct at whatever price he desires. The only states not having fair-trade laws are Vermont, Texas, and Missouri. The ruling will have little effect on most classes of merchandise as long as business is good, most Main Street businessmen believe. This would not hold true, however, if business went into a slump. ! j' . 4 i ! . kh, Homeward Bound on Rotation Express American GI's, veterans of the Korean fighting board a truck bound for a rotation center where they will be processed for return to the United States. Tired GI's slugged the truck appropriately, "Rotation Express." |