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Show HMmgfim. vOU XWf Otkw PEAKS ON Washington. D. C. POTJLTBY BLACK MARKET. WASHINGTON. The black mar- j ket in eggs and poultry is so bad that the War Food administration is seriously considering the freezing freez-ing of all eggs in storage. Meanwhile Mean-while J. Edgar Hoover's G-men have been quietly probing the poultry black market in the Delaware-Maryland area with startling results. Their findings will reach high into Delaware state politics and perhaps per-haps into the Washington headquarters headquar-ters of the War Food administration administra-tion and OPA. Already Clifford Shedd, Delaware WFA official, has lost the authority to release poultry for civilian consumption con-sumption from the anmy's set-aside, but his chief in Washington, Gordon Gor-don Sprague, says he is taking full authority for anything that might be found wrong with Shedd's administration. Sprague has taken over direct charge of all poultry releases, re-leases, but claims that he knows of no irregular action by Shedd. ; Meanwhile, black market operations op-erations along both the West and the East coast are so serious seri-ous that legitimate poultry and egg dealers are being forced out of business. The situation in New England, New Jersey and North Carolina is especially bad. . Tim Stitts of the War Food administration ad-ministration told Congressman Anderson's food committee that OPA should suspend all price ceiling ceil-ing on eggs in an effort to channel eggs back into the legitimate market. mar-ket. This immediately caused dealers deal-ers to hold on to their eggs for a price rise. But what they did not know is that Stitts has not requested OPA to suspend or even raise the price ceiling on eggs. OPA, under the price control act, cannot raise these ceilings without formal request re-quest from the War "Food administration, adminis-tration, and this request has never been made. Finally, the WFA may be forced to freeze all eggs in storage, stor-age, permitting the army to take what it wants of them and release the rest for civilian market. Hundreds of thousands of cases of eggs are In private storage this year while their owners play for an eventual price " rise. The black market on those eggs which do not go into storage is so bad that while creameries in Minnesota cannot i get eggs, eggs from Minnesota farms are going via illegal channels chan-nels as far as New York City. V. S. PRESTIGE ABROAD Hardboiled Republican Congressman Congress-man Everett Dirksen of Illinois had a secret meeting with his GOP colleagues col-leagues in a house lobby the other day following - his 30,000-mile trip around the world. He gave them plenty of food for thought. Among other . things, Dirksen said: "Here's something you fellows may not agree with, but I want to tell you that the OWI (Office of War Information) is doing a great job for us abroad. "I went into Turkey where 83 per cent of the pictures in the Turkish newspapers and 40 per cent of the lineage is supplied them by the OWI. In other words, they are telling the Turks what this country is like selling the United States to Turkey. "They're doing a great job and if it wasn't for OWI, American prestige pres-tige wouldn't be half as high as it is today. In India, for instance, I met with a group of political leaders who began asking me about the Tennessee Valley Authority. I was surprised that they would know anything about it, and asked them how it happened; they replied that they had seen an OWI film showing TV A. "I came to the conclusion,' Dirksen Dirk-sen said, "that OWI is something we've got to keep after the war." RUSSIAN RELATIONSHIPS Unless something unforeseen happens hap-pens to upset it, Harry Hopkins has won a resounding victory for improved im-proved relations with Russia by ironing out the main points of the Polish dispute. The agreement, hammered out In several intimate talks between be-tween Hopkins and' Stalin, provided pro-vided for an immediate meeting by three groups of Polish leaders lead-ers in Moscow to set up a new Polish government representing all factions. This will include ex-Premier ex-Premier Mikolajczyk of the London Lon-don government, who has been kept closely informed of all phases of the Kremlin discussions discus-sions and has approved them. CAPITAL TALK C, Chicago's Mayor Ed Kelly still runs the most impressive servicemen's service-men's center in the world, has taken care of more than 15,000.000 G.I. visitors and served them more than 3.000,000 meals. C. The state and interior departments depart-ments both have their eyes on the Philippines. State's budget carries a salary allowance for a U. S. ambassador ambas-sador to the Philippines. Interior's budget carries a salary for a high commissioner. If there is independence, independ-ence, there will be an ambassador: if not, a commissioner. |