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Show Washington Comment War may seem far away to many citizens of thee United States but not to ie-idcnts of Washington. For the first time in many years, the hottest summer sum-mer months find us in a perfect dither of activity. The White , House and the Capitol, formerly abandoned to guards and summer trippers during July and August, are seething beehives ; foreign embassies em-bassies are wide open; government officials and officers in uniforms of the army, navy, marine corps, air corps and what-have-you, leap in and out of taxis and dive into federal doorways as if the very gestapo were on their heels. Ladies, in Red Cross and other re,galia, dash importantly hither and yon. The fashionable beaches and the sad sea waves are just having to get along the best they can: Washington is enjoying a perfect lather of patriotism! It's congress that is stewing in the hottest juices. The beginning of this week finds it caught 'neath the upper and nether millstones mill-stones of extending the selective service period and the "draft property" bill which has just gone through the senate. There is no hope of adjournment and practically practic-ally no hopV of reces. House leaders had long clung to a possibility possi-bility of some respite following passage of the tax bill next month, but a rapidly expanding program forecasts a full calendar. In addition to the selective service ser-vice extension now on the boil, and the draft property legislation which has been so much dynamite, there are such tidbits as the $4.-770,000,000 $4.-770,000,000 supplemental a r m V appropriation and another 53,323,-000,000 53,323,-000,000 for the navy and maritime commission; an additional appropriation appro-priation of approximately ?7,000.-000,000 ?7,000.-000,000 for the second portion of the lend-lease program; price control con-trol legislation; and prospective recommendations by the securities securi-ties and exchange commission for technical changes in the securities securi-ties act to aid the capital market and to stimulate financing for defense. de-fense. Except defense appropriations, slated for swift approval, bitter (Continued on iist page) Washington Comment (Continued from first page) controversies appear to be brewing brew-ing on many of the other measures. mea-sures. Former Governor Landon's speech, timed with the president's precedent-shattering radio message, mes-sage, should help the cause of the selective service extension considerably. con-siderably. Wre hope it neutralizes the damaging and dangerous effects ef-fects of Senator Wheeler's propaganda. propa-ganda. Washington, by the way, has adopted enthusiastically the new catch phrase "to pull a Wheeler", quipped by Mr. Roosevelt Roose-velt as a synonym for a "boner". It is regrettable that Senator Lucas, Democrat, of Illinois, should have seen fit to follow in Senator Wheeler's footsteps to the extent of reviving a personal "no secrecy" rule once made famous by the late Senator Couzens. Lucas announced last week to the senate that he would not in the future be personally bound by executive ex-ecutive committee sessions, thus reserving the right to make pub-lie pub-lie such information on those meetings as he, as a senator, saw it. (Adolf Hitler's agents, take note!) Step by step. Uncle Sam quickens quick-ens his defense: The president has asked congress to vote an additional $300,000,000 immediately immediate-ly for expanding the navy's far-flung far-flung shore stations, including new air bases in Hawaii and the Philippines, and strengthening outlying bases in both the Atlantic Atlan-tic and Pacific. . . . The navy is asking congress for a new warship war-ship construction program which would add some 150 combatant ships to the two-ocean navy now building. (Attention, Japan!). . . The war department will likely loon announce an addition to the army air corps with the induction of Aviatrix Jacqueline Cochrane ' as chief of a women's auxiliary. The American sorority of lady fliers would be trained to fly bombjers and other planes from ; aircraft plants to operation bases, pilot transports and supply ' planes. (Miss Cochrane only just returned to this country after piloting a'bombe'r to England.) There are 2,469 women who have passed their solo tests in aviation, but only 140 of the U. S. flying sorority rate commercial licenses. licens-es. Four eaglettes are now employed em-ployed by the Civil Aeronautics authority to train -men for cadet-ships cadet-ships in the army, navy and ma-' ma-' rine air forces. . . . The president, presi-dent, the house, and now the ' senate, are unanimously in ap-; ap-; proval of a uniform promotion bill that win ultimately raise the salaries of approximately 350,000 federal workers, and will cost an estimated S29,000,000,000 over a ten-year period; but' after that time, it is supposed to be financed from "lapse" money. |