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Show KA) Yjtf DREW PEARSON L-1- V-'rV--lrrr-rl V-rr Washington, D. C. GOOD WORD ON EGGS If you like eggs fried, scrambled, r Easter this may interest you. The high price of eggs will soon come tumbling down. This Humpty-Dumpty Humpty-Dumpty event will be brought about by the sale of five million cases of government eggs. War Food administration, responding respond-ing to the prodding of critics, admits that it was putting too many eggs in one basket, for military and Lend-Lease Lend-Lease requirements, at the expense civilian requirements. Release of this tremendous quantity quan-tity of eggs won't alarm the housewife, house-wife, but worries War Food experts because it might discourage production produc-tion lor next year. Meantime, War Food and OPA are rowing over the price to be paid tor these five million cans ol cold storage eggs. WFA officials, protecting pro-tecting the producers, want a higher price lor cold storage eggs than fresh eggs. OPA, thinking ol the housewile, says: "This is the first time we ever heard that eggs become more valuable valu-able as they get older!" But War Food stands firm on the principle that the old eggs should bring more money. Their reason is that the old eggs were stored by dealers who were playing the usual seasonal game ol holding lor a rise in price, without realizing that the government was going to step in and take over at the fixed price. In other words, War Food experts are trying to hand dealers some ol the speculative profit they might have gotten, while OPA trying to protect the consumer wants to hold the price down. The inside government egg debate is still raging. ' COLD WINTER AHEAD Whatever you burn this winter oil or coal it is still going to be cold. The public has the impression that it is only coal which is short now. Actually, oil is even shorter, rations for this winter being based on a 34 per cent cut below pre-war consumption. consump-tion. The fuel situation is so bad that OPA experts several months ago recommended coupon rationing ol coal. A warm debate followed between be-tween OPA and the Solid Fuel Coordinator, Co-ordinator, in which Ickes, supported by the coal industry, opposed ration- tag. But OPA experts believed coal would be short this winter and, during dur-ing the summer, laid plans lor coupon cou-pon rationing. In August, they were all ready to go to press with millions ol coupon books. Finally, however, the coal co-ordi-nator vetoed the plan. Now it is too late to impose coupon rationing partly because there is not sufficient time to print the coupons and give out instructions to local boards; also because some coal is already supposed sup-posed to be distributed inequitably to consumers. Thus we shall have to rely on "dealer rationing." This does not limit consumption only strings out the supply in driblets, making a greater delivery task without decreasing de-creasing consumption. The public believes that oil is bountiful compared with coal, and OPA is now besieged with applications applica-tions for reconversion from coal to oil. These applications are being resisted, re-sisted, since the impression of abundance abun-dance of oil is merely an illusion. FEWER TIRES FOR ALLIES One thing not discussed at the Moscow conference was rubber tires. II the question had been raised, Russia would have been told that tires on Lend-Lease will have to be 'reduced sharply. Reason is that U. S. trucks and buses are wearing their tires down to the fabric, and Jesse Jones' long ballyhooed synthetic tires are falling fall-ing behind schedule. There is plenty of new rubber, but a dire lag in tire production. Meanwhile, bus and truck transportation trans-portation has never been more'vitaL Last year inter-city buses carried more passengers than the railroads (680 million compared with 669 million), mil-lion), though they travelled fewer miles. If they are crippled, the weight would be thrown back on the already struggling railroads. Also, many places would be without transportation, transporta-tion, since 54,000 communities have no rail service. The army, OPA, ODT and the rubber rub-ber director's office are putting their heads together to find a way out. One solution will be a reduction of tires shipped on Lend-Lease. Russia alone was promised 500,000 this year, in addition to 2,000,000 already delivered. MERRY-GO-ROUND C Washington is plagued with an excess ex-cess of traffic lights. One, near the senate wing of the capitol, is green all the time, thus serving no purpose pur-pose except to confuse the public. I C. Gen. "Wild Bill" Donovan drives I a midget "Standard" car, made in ! England. It sells for $800 new, but the general bought it for $1,000 second sec-ond hand. . C State department learns that one of the most distressing shortages in I France is in ordinary household needles. |