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Show aL&jI,1 &ajLa laIa .j1a.LaAA4 WiisliiiiKtiin, I). 0. moki: ( ANN i d (;oons Housewives who will get more cntmed goods this summer can thank the senate's Truman committee. commit-tee. No one nniiouticed It otUclally, hut it was due to their probing Hint the army recently released M million mil-lion cases of canned fruits and vegetables vege-tables for civilian use. The Truman committee had revealed re-vealed the fact that huge quantities quanti-ties of canned goods were being hoarded or unwisely used by the army, when fresh vegetables were easily available. Kspeclnlly revealing reveal-ing was the cross-examination of Gen. K. n. Gregory, the nrmy's quartermaster general, by Senator Brewster of Maine. "Why docs the army feed canned grapefruit to its troops In Miami," asked Brewster, "when grapefruit is growing fresh all over Florida?" "Because the men are too lazy to prepare fresh grapefruit," was General Gen-eral Gregory's frank reply. He also admitted that green vegetables vege-tables and fruits were readily available avail-able to army camps during a large part of the year, but that army commissaries com-missaries purchased canned goods because it was easier to prepare than fresh vegetables. The Truman committee also found that as a result of this hoarding the packers and canners were in a quandary and expected to curtail production. They knew the army had overpurchased, could never use its vast stores of canned goods. So the canners figured the army would dump this back on the market, thereby causing an oversupply just at the wrong time. That was why 30 million cases were turned back to civilian use by the army now, to ease the market while there is a civilian shortage. WHITE COLLAR MIXERS While the War Labor board had John L. Lewis over a barrel for asking a $2-a-day wage increase for organized coal miners, another branch of the government, the Bureau Bu-reau of Internal Revenue, okayed various salary increases for nonunion non-union supervisory employees in coal mines. The matter was kept hushed up by secret-loving Internal Revenue bureaucrats, bu-reaucrats, but here are the facts: A special Internal Revenue branch, known as the Salary Stabilization Stabili-zation unit, functions in the salary field like the War Labor board in the wage field, to keep personal earnings earn-ings below inflationary levels. The new unit must approve applications for all salary boosts affecting business busi-ness executives and white collar workers. While everything the War Labor board does is open to public scrutiny, Internal Revenue's Salary Stabilization Stabiliza-tion unit operates strictly behind the scenes and doesn't answer to anybody. any-body. Recently, it leaked out, however, that bituminous coal mine operators, opera-tors, in a move to block union organization or-ganization of mine "sub-bosses," had requested government permission to increase salaries of all supervisory employees, including mine superintendents, superin-tendents, managers, foremen, sub-bosses, sub-bosses, etc. That white-collar increase in-crease amounted to an average of $2 a day just the increase the miners min-ers asked for. GRAIN FROM CANADA Food Boss Chester Davis has spent days looking for a good transportation transporta-tion man to solve that problem, of bringing in wheat from Canada. Commodity Credit corporation has bought V& million bushels of Canadian Cana-dian wheat, but not a bushel has moved. Meantime, dairy and poultry poul-try farmers in the Northeast are running low on feed grains. Great Lakes steamers got moving a month late, on account of the late thaw. They are loaded down with ore for the steel mills, have no space ior grain. Kau movement is tne only alternative. Grain stocks in the U. S. have been the heaviest in history, but so is consumption con-sumption of grain. Record-breaking animal production is eating into the stocks so fast that foreign imports must be moved. This is one time when farmers would welcome some of that much abused Argentine corn and wheat Behind this excitement about grain supplies is one big question mark which few people outside the government realize, namely, the feeding of occupied territories. If and when invasion comes, the civilians on the invasion front, whether in France, the Low Countries, Coun-tries, or the Balkans, will have to be fed from the American bread basket. Quickest way to get food to starving people is in the form of grain. MERRY-GO-ROUND C. FDR has no love for the duke and duchess of Windsor, saw nothing of them when they conferred with Churchill . . . The only time Churchill Church-ill ever was booed on the floor of commons was when he made his famous speech in the winter of 1936 defending Edward's right to marry Wally and remain king of England . . . Only a handful of labor is com-. com-. ing up from the Bahamas to work in the U. S. A., so this was just an excuse to see Churchill. He wants to get back to London. |
