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Show mmmm. Washington, D. C. WILLKIE AND F.D.R. ' Seldom in political history has a President of the United States received re-ceived such wholesome support on major foreign policy from a defeated defeat-ed candidate as Franklin Roosevelt has received from Wendell Willkie. Few people know how active Willkie has been behind the scenes. For instance, Willkie has even done some missionary work on Joe Martin, chairman of the Republican National committee and opposition leader of the house. Willkie remains on very friendly terms with his old campaign manager, even though they ciflered on foreign policy. Shortly after the congressional vote to repeal the Neutrality act, in which the Republicans nearly defeated de-feated Roosevelt, Willkie phoned Joe Martin. "Joe," he said, "those Republicans Republi-cans who voted against repeal of neutrality are going to have a tough time being re-elected. They're going go-ing to find the country is behind Roosevelt on this." The Republican national chairman chair-man replied that he would not only re-elect all the Republicans who voted against Roosevelt, but he would also elect a lot of new Republicans Repub-licans to fill the seats of the Democrats Demo-crats who had voted with Roosevelt. "Listen," said Willkie, "if you reelect re-elect 80 per cent of those who voted against the President you'll be .the greatest political genius of all time." ' "And," said Willkie, in telling the story to a friend afterward, "a few days later there was Joe himself voting with Roosevelt for a declaration declara-tion of war." Buy Defense Bonds SHIP-BUILDING PROGRAM The action of the house naval affairs af-fairs committee in slashing the proposed pro-posed expansion of our two-ocean navy was due chiefly to shortages of materials and construction equipment. equip-ment. However, Rear Admiral Samuel Robinson, chief of the bureau of ships, ran into a blunt barrage of questions about the worth of the battleship under modern combat conditions. Committee members sharply suggested that in view of the battleship's record in this war, the navy might be wise to build no more. J Robinson contended that this would be impractical, since the United States needed battleships "if our enemies continue to use them for combat purposes." "What is your honest private opinion opin-ion of the battleship?" he was asked. "Do you think this type of ship is worth all the money it costs and the time and labor required to build them?" "I'm sorry, gentlemen, but it's not my function to answer that question," ques-tion," sidestepped Robinson with a smile. "I'm not a policy man. My job is to build ships after it is decided de-cided they are needed. However, I have my own ideas about the battleship." bat-tleship." This drew laughter, and the admiral ad-miral was pressed no further. Robinson also was quizzed closely close-ly about the high cost of certain vessels which the navy proposed in the expansion program, chiefly an aircraft carrier at an estimated $85,000,000. "Higher labor and material costs are the biggest factors," Robinson explained. "For instance, we have a new type of armor plate for our ships which is far stronger than that used by any other nation. It costs $60 a ton, three times as much as the armor plate we formerly used." "How about the labor supply?" "We have plenty of labor to carry out our shipbuilding program," Robinson Rob-inson said. "Also plenty of facilities. facili-ties. Getting materials and machine ma-chine tools is our big problem right now. However, the shortage doesn't amount to a bottleneck. In fact, production is running a little ahead of schedule and will be greatly expedited ex-pedited by next spring." Buy Defense Bonds CAPITAL CHAFF The outbreak of the war obscured the incident, but the house ate crow in a big way on its action last summer sum-mer barring David Lasser, former head of the Workers Alliance, from government employment. After a careful investigation, the appropria. tions committee completely exonerated exoner-ated Lasser of any Communist affiliations. af-filiations. - Representatives John Ta-ber, Ta-ber, N. Y., J. W. Ditter, Pa., and Everett Dirksen, 111., who made the original accusation duckedthe committee com-mittee session when Lasser war cleared. Puerto Ricans wryly recall that U. S. navy's radio towers at Cayey, 25 miles from San Juan, were dismantled dis-mantled three years ago and sold as scrap iron to the Japanese. Office of Civilian Defense is preparing pre-paring a handbook on "What You Can Do For Civilian Defense." Author Au-thor of the handbook is Eleanor Pierson, wife of Export-Import Bank President Warren Lee Pierson. Australia's able Minister Richard G. Casey drives about Washington in a British car with a transparent top and right-hand drive. Apparently not having enough to do with the war, representatives of : the Pure Food and Drug administration adminis-tration now ask drug firms the question: ques-tion: "How much business did you do last year?" |
