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Show AIR CRASHES With the tremendous war expansion expan-sion of the army and navy air branches has come an accompanying accom-panying frequency of press reports of crashes by fledgling pilots. These stories have brought a flood of worried wor-ried inquiries to Washington authorities. authori-ties. Relatives of aviators have expressed ex-pressed concern over the number of these accidents and the adequacy of the training programs. The WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND has investigated both matters. mat-ters. For military reasons detailed figures cannot be disclosed. But the following generalizations can be published: 1. That the U. S. percentage of accidents is less than that of the British and appreciably under un-der the best available German figures. The casualty rate among Nazi trainees is reported to be quite high due to limited training train-ing facilities, personnel and equipment. 2. While V. S. accidents have Increased numerically because of the greatly Increased number of men in training, the percentage percent-age of accidents has not increased. in-creased. Today it is about the same as the ratio in 1940. This fact is of key importance, since it means there has been no deterioration de-terioration in the basic quality of the army and navy air training train-ing systems despite speed-ups and other war factors. 3. Tile present training systems sys-tems are far superior to those of the World war. Trainees are selected more carefully and given much more and better instruction in-struction before they get their coveted wings. The question of allowing military air crashes to be reported has been a subject of inner circle debate for some time. Some authorities contend con-tend this is valuable information to the enemy, and cite the fact that Britain has banned such press stories. The President, however, has not entirely agreed with this view. He is against publication of totals or percentages but sees no objection to press reports of individual mishaps. This is the policy being followed but the question is still under discussion. Buy Defense Bonds SPRING AT THE WHITE HOUSE Outside the White House fence march soldiers with fixed bayonets. But inside the tall, iron fence, defying defy-ing the changes wrought by war, is the perennial transfiguration of spring. The grass is a soft green, and the beds of pansies and jonquils have burst into bloom in colorful brilliance. bril-liance. The flowering shrubs and trees were never lovelier the magnolias, mag-nolias, japonica, and forsythia. On the Pennsylvania avenue side, the magnolias are making a gorgeous gor-geous showing, supported by the forsythia and japonica bushes, all at their best. The same three faithfuls faith-fuls are on display near the fountain in the South garden. These are the two best show places in the White House grounds. The only scar in the scene is the construction work on the East grounds, where sewers and conduits are being laid for what is officially described as a "remodeling operation." opera-tion." The colors seen best by the President Presi-dent from his desk are those of the jonquils and pansies in the rose garden gar-den just outside his office window. There is a touch of irony in the fact that some of the best color is Nipponese in origin the Japanese magnolias, and the japonicas, which are otherwise known as Japanese quince. Buy Defense Bonds HULL AND WINCHELL Cordell Hull, dignified, austere secretary of state, sat gazing out over the Atlantic vocean recently from a Miami Beach cabana adjacent adja-cent to the cabana of turbulent, Broadway news-sleuth Walter Win-chelL Win-chelL For two months Mr. Hull has been absent from Washington; there has been speculation whether he would return. So news-sleuth Win-chell Win-chell put the question bluntly to his cabana neighbor: "Mr. Secretary, are you going back to work?" The secretary of state replied in the affirmative. He said that after he had had sufficient rest in the South, he was going back to work. ;te One of Winchell's friends reproached him for putting such a blunt question to Mr. Hull. Replied Winchell: "I've gotta ask questions. That's my racket." HOME FRONT FLASHES Donald Nelson's appointment of a co-ordinator to boss the rubber industry in-dustry is the first of a number of similar industry rulers. Others slated to be named will be coordinators co-ordinators for textiles, food, aircraft, metals, ores. Attention draft registrants! You can write it down as certain that congress will enact allotment legislation legis-lation providing government aid for dependents. That means those exempted ex-empted on dependent grounds wil' be reclassified. I |