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Show . WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS . Pare Yank Force For Japan; Government Seeks Labor Peace To Speed Reconversion Program I Released by Western Newspaper Union. .... , , I . fKDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns, they are those ot ' , Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I Refugees from terrifying U. S. fire bomb raids, these Japs return to Tokyo with meager belongings piled atop a cart. PACIFIC: Smooth Sailing In war or in peace, Douglas Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur continues to hold the spotlight spot-light in the Pacific, with the General's Gen-eral's recent assertion that no more than 200,000 men will be needed to police Japan at the end of six months throwing Washington, D. C, into a veritable dither. Following President Truman's declaration that it would be necessary neces-sary to maintain a large postwar army and continue inductions of all men 18 to 25 years of age for two year periods, MacArthur's an-'nouneement an-'nouneement made in Tokyo encouraged encour-aged congressmen seeking a substantial sub-stantial reduction in the military forces while upsetting the state department. de-partment. Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson tersely remarked that he knew nothing about the announcement, announce-ment, pointing up a report that Mac-Arthur Mac-Arthur had acted without first notifying government circles. Another An-other department official feared that the General's statement might lead to the opinion that the U. S. was planning an early withdrawal from the Pacific, leaving the Japanese to largely manage their own affairs. On the whole, MacArthur's action tended to stir up further discussion ever his alleged easy treatment of the Japanese. While some critics charged that he was being too soft with the defeated enemy, other sdurces declared that his policy of working through Japanese officials committed to carrying out his dictates dic-tates not only prevented chaos but also averted the necessity for installing in-stalling an extensive military government gov-ernment in the home islands. Whereas, it was first estimated that 900,000 men might be required for occupying Japan, the figure later was shaved to 400,000 after American Ameri-can troops began moving into the country without encountering any opposition. MacArthur's latest forecast fore-cast of only 200,000i further reflected the smoothness of the operation. From the beginning, the Japanese, Japa-nese, led by Premier Prince Higashi-Kuni of the imperial family, have co-operated wholeheartedly with MacArthur. With only a skeletal skele-tal American occupation force on the islands, hundreds of thousands of Nipponese troops have been disarmed, dis-armed, while important cities and military installations have been taken over. While MacArthur's handling of the Korean occupation drew the fire of critics flaying his retention of Japanese Jap-anese in key governmental and administrative ad-ministrative positions, U: S. army officials on the spot pointed to the necessity of maintaining trained personnel for the present to maintain main-tain essential services. Further, they said, the superfluity of political faction made present unity difficult LABOR: Big Stake With continued speedy progress of the whole reconversion program with its promise of P"Tv3 early full employ-h employ-h V' ment at stake, the administration set l, f' to work to settle L'iri" disputes over the . iji wage demands of I v four mair CI I I unions. I 4 Tied UP with toe SLaaJi j&Ili progress of recon-p recon-p version was the ad- Secretary ministration's tran-Schwellenbach tran-Schwellenbach sitional stabilization I policy, designed to curb inflationary forces before the I natural law of supply, and demand can be re-established to keep prices within balance. As Secretary of Labor Schwellen-bach, Schwellen-bach, backed by President Harry S. Truman, set himself to settle the differences cropping up between labor la-bor and management, members of the Oil Workers union already had walked out in midwestern refineries over company refusal to grant 30 per cent wage boosts designed to bring 40-hour-per-week pay up to the same figure as the 52-hour-per-week wartime level. In striking, the oil workers turned down an offer of-fer for a 15 per cent increase. While the oil workers' walkout menaced gas and oil stocks, the United Automobile Workers' dispute with the Big Three General Motors, Chrysler and Ford threatened to retard the industry's reconversion program, already well under way. In demanding a 30 per cent wage boost, the UAW was said to be prepared pre-pared to strike against one big company com-pany and imperil its market by maintaining full production in pom-peting pom-peting plants. Because General Mo- Concluding their 77th congress in Blackpool, England, British trade unions called for a 40-hour week and vacations with pay throughout industry. tors is considered the pace-setter for the industry, it reportedly was singled out as the UAW's first target. tar-get. A 30 per cent wage boost also figured fig-ured in the United Farm Equipment and Metal Workers' demands on International In-ternational Harvester, Oliver, John Deere and Allis-Chalmers, while a $2 per day raise was asked by the United Steel Workers of the great United States Steel corporation and 86 other major producers. In pressing for the higher wage demands, all four CIO unions cited the wartime earnings of the companies com-panies involved, declaring they were sufficient to absorb larger wages until un-til production was again stepped up to a volume basis. In this respect, the farm equipment union stated that it had appealed to the companies com-panies to produce machinery suitable suit-able for smaller tracts so as to open up a vast postwar market. GOVERNMENT: Changes Made In seeking settlement of the troubled labor situation, Secretary Schwellenbtich moved in with a reorganized re-organized labor department, streamlined stream-lined to enable him to act with emergency power. Modernized along lines Schwellen-bach Schwellen-bach himself had recommended, the department now includes the War Labor board for arbitrating disputes; dis-putes; the war manpower commission commis-sion for regulating employment, and the United States Employment service serv-ice for guiding the jobless. In assuming as-suming control over these agencies, agen-cies, however, the new department chieftain said he would use them only as a last resort after ordinary procedures for settlements had bogged. President Truman's announcement of the long-awaited labor department depart-ment reorganization came at the same time that the chief executive revealed the appointments of Sen. Harold Burton (Rep., Ohio) to the Supreme court and Robert Patterson Patter-son to head the war department Considered a masterful political stroke. Burton's elevation to the nation's na-tion's highest tribunal not only satisfied satis-fied Republican clamor for selection of a GOP man to succeed Justice Roberts, but also left the way open for the naming of a Democratic senator sen-ator from Ohio. i POLITICS: I Fights On! With one eye on the 1946 congres- sional elections, Robert E. Hanne- ! gan, national chairman of the Dem- ocratic party, declared that the war- time political truce was off and his party would now square off for the ' President's policies with vigor. Hannegan's promise of a resumption resump-tion of knockout and drag down tactics tac-tics came shortly after Republicans themselves had promised an end to the wartime love feast following the President's message to congress, which they described as bearing the j old New Deal stamp. In sounding the battle alarm, Hannegan jumped on the Republicans' Republi-cans' criticism of the address, declaring de-claring the big issue was the President's Presi-dent's reconversion . program with its aid for the jobless or . .' . "reaction "re-action and a sweep back into the economic chaos that brought upon us the boom of the '20s and its tragic trag-ic aftermath." EUROPE: U. S. Food Reaffirming his belief that the U. S. is morally bound to relieve as much suffering in Europe as possible, pos-sible, President Harry S. Truman revealed a program of extensive food, fuel and material shipments abroad during the last quarter of this year. Except for supplies received from the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration Adminis-tration (UNRRA), recipients will be expected to pay for deliveries. At 70 million bushels, wheat tops the list of exportable items, followed by 200 million pounds of evaporated milk; 150 million pounds of meat; 90 Despite extensive shipments to Europe, civilian meat supplies in the V. S. in October will increase to an annual rate of 140 lbs. per person, compared with 132 lbs. at present and 115 lbs. this spring. million pounds of dried peas and beans; 80 million pounds of dried skim milk; 60 million pounds of cheese; 25 million pounds of dry whole milk powder; 15 million pounds of condensed milk; 13 million pounds of lard, and 28,000 tons of raw sugar. In addition, Mr. Truman revealed, Europe needs hides, leather, cotton, wool, textiles, soap, farm equipment, fertilizer, seed, repair parts and machinery ma-chinery and medical supplies. With coal being shipped at the rate of 1,400,000 tons monthly the U. S. expects ex-pects to lay down eight million tons by the end of the year. RUSSIA: Seeks Loan Declaring Russia faced extensive reconstruction to repair war damages dam-ages and raise the standard of living, liv-ing, Premier Josef Stalin met with touring U. S. congressmen in Moscow Mos-cow and expressed a desire for negotiating a six billion dollar loan. Coming on top of Britain's request of from three to six, billion dollars dol-lars in financial aid, Stalin's proposal pro-posal was received coolly in Washington, Wash-ington, D. C, where Senator Russell Rus-sell (Dem., Ga.) said that such propositions prop-ositions will require due deliberation rather than snap judgment to determine de-termine whether they will contribute to world peace and stability. At the same time, it was reported that Russia had asked 600 million dollars of reparations in goods from Italy at the parley of the Big Five council of foreign ministers in London. Lon-don. Neither the U. S., Britain nor France advanced claims against Rome. The Russian demand came in the midst of discussion over revision of the northeastern Italian border, with Red-backed Yugoslavia asking for extensive readjustments plus the great commercial port of Trieste. ALUMINUM: Ask Competition Declaring that the Aluminum Cor- monopoly over the metal in the U. S. retarded wartime expansion of the industry, and also slowed development devel-opment of peacetime markets, the department of justice called for the split-up of the huge enterprise into a number of companies to permit freer competition. Because Alcoa, as the corporation is known, was the only organization in the country experienced in aluminum alumi-num production, wartime expansion of the industry to supply the important impor-tant light metal for aircraft and other uses was seriously hampered, the department asserted. And because be-cause potential peacetime industrial users of aluminum are hesitating to utilize it at monopolist's prices, wide postwar employment of the metal is jeopardized. In bucking the department's proposal pro-posal to split up Alcoa and permit freer competition in aluminum, corporation cor-poration officials declared it would destroy property value running into millions of dollars owned by thousands thou-sands of small investors and religious, reli-gious, charitable and educational institutions in-stitutions and insurance companies. ARMY SURPLUS: Commanders in the European and Mediterranean theaters have been directed to declare 112,042 motor-powered vehicles and 11,000 trailers trail-ers surplus to the army following a redeployment survey by a committee commit-tee of automotive experts. From the total number, the war department authorized the European Euro-pean theater to turn over 13.000 vehicles to Federal Economic administration ad-ministration and 3,022 in the Mediterranean Medi-terranean to United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation. |