Show 0 JF 0 washington D C BIGGEST CROP BUYING PLAN YET during debate on the lease lend hill bill senator murray of montana came up to the vice presidents dais and whispered in henry wallaces ear the biu bill he said ought to contain a provision where whereby by britain would buy or borrow farm products as well as armaments vice president wallace replied that he thought so tc too 0 o but had not felt it necessary to spell it out in i the bill however he be mentioned the matter to senate floor leader barkley who offered an amendment to the lease lend bill this was the simple mechanics whereby the biggest farn farm i purchase plan since the last war was started most people dont realize it but the lease lend act makes the united states not only the arsenal for great britain but also her granary packing house and slaughter house A total of has been a allocated out of the seven billions for british defense all of which will bring sorely needed help to the farmer so while industrial regions have prospered in this war the farmer so far fa r has not in the last war not only england but france italy and the scandinavian countries even russia needed wheat and cotton farm prices zoomed but in this war all these areas except england have been cut oft off from american markets by the british blockade As a result farm prices are low and surpluses mounting we have a corn carryover carry over four times normal or bushels the wheat carryover carry over is bushels while the government has bales of cotton under loan or wholly owned plus pounds of tobacco pounds of surplus butter dozen surplus eggs pounds of surplus vegetables and pounds of surplus fruit in other words the ever normal granary is not normal at all it is fuu full and running over sales or loans to england will be chiefly in live stock products such as canned pork dried eggs evaporated milk lard and cheese which england once got from poland denmark and holland but any more agriculture department experts who have been studying the question dont expect the british to ask for wheat or corn england gets all its needs from the dominions but they figure that british purchases of live stock products such as pork will greatly help the price of corn and be a great boon to the corn belt whether or not the british will pay for this later or make some kind of a swap has not been decided yet the matter is entirely up to the president and he has kept completely mum on the subject note man at the head of the farm products tor for britain program is milo perkins a dynamic young texan who as administrator of surplus marketing already is an expert on getting rid of uncle sams perpetual excess crops ANCHORS R A AWEIGH bottlenecks may be snarling some phases of defense construction but not the two ocean navy inside fact is that battleships cruisers and destroyers st the big three of the shipbuilding ship building program are being turned out months ahead of the schedules laid down when congress approved the naval expansion last year two new battleships the north carolina and the washington originally slated for commission la late t e nally this his year will join the fleet in june increasing the number of battle wagons to 17 fifteen others are under construction naval chiefs estimated that the top number of destroyers to come off the ways this year would be 12 but actually 17 will be completed completed in the next nine months bringing the destroyer fleet up to a large part of them super craft of the latest design heres the present status of the whole fleet ships on hand 15 battleships 18 heavy cruisers 19 light cruisers destroyers including 74 overage over age submarines including 68 overage and 6 aircraft carriers total combat ships in commission ships being built 17 battleships including the north carolina and the washington 14 heavy cruisers 40 light cruisers destroyers 80 90 submarines and 12 aircraft carriers total ships being built the destroyers will be corn completed P let by 1945 17 this year 45 in 1 1942 86 in 1943 52 in 1944 and four in 1945 0 0 A MERRY GO ROUND HOUND there are many wags in the state department but only one who wears the name alfred III he handles refugees colorados rep edward T taylor lor 83 is the wordiest woodiest wor diest man in in the congressional directory his personally penned biography over words long takes up almost an ure page unlike 84 year old sen carter glass who does not give the year of his birth taylor makes no secret of his |