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Show Wmw id KX Ai DREVJ PEARSON 1 AltftI VA(;IC Ol I.lltM M WASHINGTON. Live-wire Republican Re-publican Sen. Italph Brewster nl j Maine recently ti'le)lionod hardworking hard-working Assistant Secretary of La-1 bor Carl Moran, also from Maine,' but a Democrat, 'Tortland In among the nine dln-tress dln-tress cities of the country," Sena- tor Brewster reminded Moran. "As. you know, Portland shipyard workers work-ers have been dismissed from their jobs wholesale. Meanwhile, farmers up in Aroostook county can't get anyone to bring In their potatoes. What can you do about lt?" "What are they paying for farm labor in Aroostook tounty," asked the assistant secretary of labor; "still four cents?" ' "No," replied the senator from Maine, "There's a guaranteed wage of $12 a day." Assistant Secretary Moran said he would do his best to switch some workers up to the potato farms. However, he might well have replied re-plied that the labor department was that in name only and that it actually had almost nothing to do with labor. For the fact Is that, under Miss Perkins, the labor department depart-ment was stripped of most of Its labor duties. The War Labor board Is separate and Independent, Independ-ent, and, most Important of all, the U. S. employment service Is under the War Manpower commission. com-mission. Thus, Assistant Secretary Secre-tary of Labor Moran had to turn to an e itside agency, the U. S. employment service, to try to get discharged shipyard workers work-ers to help harvest the Aroostook Aroos-took potato crop. This, in turn, has brought out another an-other difficulty affecting not merely mere-ly Maine but the entire nation. Most war workers, drawing $1 to $2 an hour plus overtime and bonuses, don't want to go back to the farm and farm wages. The labor shortage short-age on the farms, even after V-J Day, is as acute as ever. Farm wages are higher than ever, though still a long way from shipyard and aviation factory pay. So, somehow or other, either farm wages must go up, or war workers must go back to less money on the farm. In the former case, the farmers farm-ers will have to get more for their crops, which, of course, means a higher cost of living in the city. Ambassadors' Wives. Last week this column reported that Mrs. Ed Pauley, wife of the U. S. reparations ambassador to Moscow and former treasurer of the Democratic national committee, was listed to receive $25 a day expenses ex-penses while accompanying her husband to Russia. Since then, I have received further Information that Mrs. Pauley, although listed by the state department as an official member of the party, declined to accept the $25 per diem. . However, I still believe It a highly debatable point, when a million or so G.I.s are not permitted per-mitted to have their wives come abroad, that American higher-ups higher-ups should take their wives with them to overseas war areas. After all, the average American soldier now occupying Germany or Japan has not seen his wife for more than a year. When the Pauley reparations mission mis-sion arrived in western Europe, the party was split up, because of lim-j lim-j ited accommodations in Moscow. ! One group, Including some of the I best experts on reparations, were I told to remain in Frankfurt, Germany, Ger-many, because there was no room to house them in Moscow. But Mrs. Pauley, despite limited accommodations, accommo-dations, went on to Moscow. Later, she also visited Potsdam for the Big Three session. She was the only American wife present. Mrs. Truman and Mrs. Byrnes, wife of the secretary of state, remained re-mained at home. And during the last session of the Big Three, Mrs. Pauley sat in the gallery, a privileged priv-ileged witness to the historic ceremony. cere-mony. Many U. S. and British experts ex-perts who had spent weeks preparing prepar-ing for this big climax and who had burned ' midnight . oil whipping the agreement into shape, were barred from seeing the windup. NOTE On August 4, this column reported that the office of war information in-formation had given Mrs. R. A. Mc-Clure, Mc-Clure, wife of General McClure, a privileged job .as receptionist in OWI's Paris office, thus permitting her to be near her husband in Ger-. many. Immediately after publication publica-tion of this disclosure, the OWI received re-ceived an order from the White House for Mrs. McClure to come back to the United States. Capital Chaff. The shortening of the congressional congres-sional recess, which was to last until October 8, has forced several congressmen to look for temporary lodgings in Washington. They had leased their homes for the anticipated antici-pated recess period. Some, like Los Angeles' Chet Holifleld, were fore-sighted fore-sighted enough to make arrange- ments to have at least a bedroom ! available if they returned. . . . Congressman Karl Mundt of South Dakota, one of the most vigorous Red-hunters of the old Dies committee, commit-tee, is traveling in Russia. . . . |