Show 1 SCANNING THE WEEKS WEEK'S NEWS of Main lain Street and the World Word Amendment Allows Price Increases on Thousands of Items here we again home town HERE WE GO With With a sigh of ot go again housewives across the nation learned the Capehart amendment to to the controls la law lav is effective immediately The amendment opens the way say for possible price increases on thousands of consumer items including clothing meat foods milk butter coal gasoline tobacco beer drugs and cosmetics Under this amendment manufacturers and processors are allowed and add subtract cost increases or to use their pre-Korea pre prices or decreases through last July 26 in computing new ceilings Because formula is the general effect of the application of ot the Capehart optional new order could not be adequately estimated However it was believed the particular effect will be to raise prices whenever whenever when when- ever ver an appl application cation for adjustment is granted MARCH ARCH OF DIMES There is just one possible hope for the con con- sumer Manufacturers are not required to seek new ceilings but are allowed to do so If U any concern seeks higher prices for any line of goods any reductions required by the formula for tor other goods must be put into effect as well The firm cannot seek higher prices alone Among the items affected by the new order are wool and cotton yarns and fabrics soft drinks liquor and wine lumber and millwork crude oil oil canned and frozen fruits and vegetables and many other ther processed foods also many important chemicals chemicals chem chem- plastics insecticides Price Director Michael V. V Di Salle has warned congress that prices apparently are arc rising again J JANUARY AN UA R Y 31 2 2 3 J and it would be a dangerous risk to decontrol any major item now FOOD While PRICES PRICES PRICES- While the OPS was announcing possible future price increases the Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed that its latest index on n food prices indicated indic an increase of nearly 1 per cent since its previous report The bureau pegged the price index at 2312 That placed it 1312 per percent percent percent cent above the 39 1935 average and 14 per cent above June 1950 L Leading ading the advance ance were fruits and vegetables and dairy products including milk chese and butter Meats poultry and fish declined as did fats and oils TRUCE TALKS The TALKS The out drawn-out frustrating Korean peace talks continue continue con con- with the two sides deadlocked over supervision of the truce and the Reds Beds refusing to open open discussions on the exchange of prisoners Perhaps the most significant news from the truce talks is that the negotiations have entered the sixth month It is almost inconceivable that two parties can talk for five months without agreement if it there was good faith laith and a desire for peace on the part of all aU concerned This fact alone has made the people in the home town of America pessimistic of the outcome By the time this reaches print the December 27 deadline on the provisional provisional provisional pro pro- visional fire cease-fire line will have expired If It and armistice has not been agreed on then a new cease fire line must be drawn before a final settle settle- ment For this reason since it appears unlikely an agreement will be reached leached increased fighting can be expected on the battlefront as both sides ides attempt to improve their positions TRUMAN TRUMAN President President Truman cut short his Florida vacation and returned returned returned re re- re- re turned to Washington The President hastened to assure the public that no sudden world emergency dictated his return It was obvious two things were uppermost in the Presidents President's mind 1 1 The deadlocked Korean truce talks and 2 the still-developing still tax scandals It was considered unlikely there would be any public announcement concerning decisions about the Korean situation until those decisions had been carried out The tax scandal however was another matter I The President and those surrounding him have become more and more concerned with the developments see blow in the tax fix probe I White While House intervention even the calling calking in of J. J Edgar Hoover FBI chief to conduct a sweeping investigation appeared to be a likely prose prospect pros pros- e f MRS Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt one of the most controversial figures to appear on the American scene came under attack of Arch Arch- Archbishop Archbishop r bishop J J. J Francis A. A McIntyre for assuming the role of an agnostic and fatalist Mrs Roosevelt said on a radio program recently I dont don't know whether I believe in a future life life I came to feel that it didn't really c matter very much because whatever the future held you'd have to face it when you came to it it just as whatever life holds you have to face it in inexactly exactly the same w way yI y I think I am pretty much of a fatalist You h hiVe e to accept whatever I comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with ith the best that you have to give The archbishop said he considers it a strange situation that one who is s chairman of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights on the question of religion assume the role of an agnostic and fatalist DEFENSE Secretary DEFENSE Secretary of Defence Robert A. A Lovett has announced that thata a provision for increasing the Air Force from 90 to wings wings of them combat will combat will be in the 1953 fiscal year budget now being prepared and which will be presented to congress early next month r The actual size of the defense budget has not been announced but it is believed to be within an informally set ceiling of for the entire entire en en- tire fire military establishment t Congress appropriated a total of for the Army Navy Air Force and the Office of the Secretary of Defense for the present fiscal r. r year exclusive of foreign military aid i i The present 90 wings of the Air Force their Force their size varies from about 75 1 planes lanes for fighter units to 30 for heavy bombers bombers are are not modernized since they are arc in many instances made up of aircraft such as the B 29 and B These planes are World War II vintage and must be replaced TAX The FIX FIX The House Ways and Means subcommittee graft in the Revenue Department was blown wide open by the charge of Abraham that two men claiming friendship with federal officials tried i to shake him down for with promises of a tax fix a wealthy wealth y Chicago la lawyer wyer further identified as attorney fo for the Capone family in some of their legal troubles swore that Bert Berty y K Naster Raster Hollywood Fla businessman business business- man and Frank Nathan Pittsburgh led him t to o believe that they knew of ofa a Washington clique which was on the lookout for soft touches fr A Naster and Nathan both vigorously vigorously vigorously vigor vigor- H denied the charge but Attorney Attorney At At- torne torney Y General Howard McGrath ordered a grand jury Investigation ABRAHAM of charges As far as the people in the home hometowns hometowns hometowns towns are concerned the charges and denials continue to throw a darker shadow across the Internal Revenue Bureau under fire since the dismissal of Assistant Attorney General Theron Caudle by President Truman And the deeper the Investigating investigating In in- committee digs the more dirt that is likely to be uncovered There is no doubt now that the echo of this investigation will be heard in the election campaign of ot 1952 |