Show W ec washington D 0 hendersons WARNING price administrator leon henderson told the house ways and means committee a lot more during his secret s ere testimony than he afterwards disclosed to newsmen here are some items which made public henderson predicted that if the current levels ot of earnings are maintained the total national income this year will approximate billion dollars or 25 billions more than in 1941 on the other hand due to the enormous war production demands the supply of consumer goods will 1 be 28 26 per cent less than last year this wide disparity between purchasing power and available consumer goods henderson warned is the great inflationary explosive factor with a lot more money in peoples pockets than supplies on which to spend it a competitive situation develops that may set oft off a catastrophic price runaway unless drastically controlled 17 excess illustrating this problem henderson so n pointed out that about 31 billions of the estimated billin bichon nail national nal income will be absorbed by taxes and savings leaving 86 billions in me money ney however there will be only 69 billions of consumer colsum er commodities this 17 billion excess he declared Is w what hat mu must t be kept in check Is in 0 order t to 0 prevent it from setting in notion motion an inflationary spiral that would smash the nations economic system tough as this problem is henderson predicted that the situation situ atio n will be even worse in 1943 he estimated that by next year yea r purchasing power will be three times greater than in 1932 while the supply of consumer goods will be only the same as in that year the pit of the depression the price administrator told the committee that the only way disastrous inflation can be averted is by the most stringent government controls lie he said he be fully realized that such measures as rationing and price ceilings might cause bootlegging and black markets marke but he expressed the belief that patriotic public opinion w would en id powerfully militate against such lawbreaking in england henderson pointed out bootlegging of food and other scarce commodities is causing so much public resentment that man many y are demanding that those who b buy uy or sell on the black market I 1 taken out and shot BIG BUSINESS MIRACLES no one ever would have suspected it but harold ickes the new deals most violent baiter of big business has been performing some quiet miracles in obtaining big business operation cooperation co not only is he now on good terms with the moguls ot of the oil andu industry s try including such bitter political op ponente as joe and howard cloward pew leaders of pennsylvania republicanism ism but he has also been getting co operation from the railroads and trucking companies this is one of the few good things that has come out of the war ever since trucks began hauling freight the feud between them and the railroads has been the toughest problem faced by the interstate commerce comm commission assion but now petroleum coordinator co ickes has persuaded the ancient rivals to make a friendly division of the tremendous oil transportation business whereby the railroads withdrew from short hauls and turn business over to trucks thus releasing tank cars tor for the longer and more economic hauls for instance a railroad tank car with a capacity ot of gallons operating between whiting ind and the west side of chicago requires six days to make the turn around but a tank truck capacity gallons can do the same turn around in five hours thus one tank truck working 24 ho hours u rs and all such equipment is on a 24 hour basis would relieve the equivalent of 16 or 20 tank cars these cars in turn are being placed 0 on n the longer hauls from the gulf to t the h e E east a st coast result of such economies and overtime operations is that railroads which normally move practically no oil to the east coast are now moving barrels a day tankers ships normally supply 85 95 per cent of the east coast requirement required ent but with the withdrawal of tankers tank cars are being rushed into the breach WIG WAGS the war department has asked congress for a 10 a month pay raise for west point cadets cabets present rate Is 65 the department says it ought to be 75 because the present en t class will be in debt w when hen it graduates the marine corps is urgently I 1 in n need of japanese translators and interpreters terp reters it if you have a working knowledge of japanese get in touch with the corps at once either by writing to washington or visiting the nearest recruiting station |