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Show SCANNING THE WEEK'S NEWS of Main Street and the World Labor Adopts Grass Roots Program; Revision of Farm Parity Suggested GRASS ROOTS MANIFESTO Seven hundred small town unionists met in Washingtonrecently, adopted a seven point manifesto, and departed de-parted for the Main Streets of America determined to marshal the support sup-port of consumer groups, including ladies' clubs, service clubs and farm organizations behind their program. The home town unionists based their manifesto on the thesis of "equality of sacrifice for all groups." In a statement issued at the close of their meeting the group stated: "We are shocked by the cruel disregard being shown for the interests of everyday American families. We are shocked by the privilege and favoritism bestowed on a single group big business." One of the major points of the "grass roots" labor program: "Labor, the farmers, small business and independent consumer groups must be given full representation on all mobilization and stabilization agencies at the policy-making and administrative levels. By so doing, the government govern-ment can inspire renewed public confidence and public support of controls con-trols which otherwise will be hard to take." MAIN STREET ECONOMY Although the situation Is not too clear at the moment, there seems to be shaping up in congress a battle over the administration's budget that will strike at the Main Street level of the nstion before it touches many other TU P' CJ, segments. I he big ShOW The joint congressional committee, which reported on the nation's economy and the proposed budget, recommended a new II - - J study of farm-price supports and reduction reduc-tion of federal grants to states. Specifically, the report cited next year's budget estimate of $2,883,000,000 in federal fed-eral grants to states for highways, public welfare, health, school lunches, agricultural-extension services and agricultural experiment stations, vocational rehabilitation, rehabili-tation, airports, and other services. All of these services are on the Main Street level and a cut will be felt immediately in the home towns of the nation. Of all the questions considered in the report, farm parity was the most explosive. The report declared that legislative rem- Sen. Estes Kefauver, (above), emcee of the senate crime investigating committee bearings in Neiv York, provided the nation with its greatest show during recent weeks when his committee play-I play-I ed to 15,000,000 television fans, and starring such underworld-gambling big-shots big-shots as edies must be sought to correct a condition condi-tion which now exists by which prices increasing the cost of living and the cost of defense are geared to the industrial practices which have for many years driven up prices of industrial commodities. Farm parity, invented at the depths of the depression, is geared to the price of Industrial commodities. Revision and modernization of the law will undoubtedly be one of the big questions facing the congress. HIGHER STILL Every time the bureau bu-reau of labor statistics announces its index in-dex figjres on the cost of living they are always higher, even as administration officials of-ficials repeat the old refrain that leveling-off leveling-off is "just around the corner." Hie bureau's newest figures reported the cost of living up 1.3 per cent, setting another an-other record. The figure was pegged at 183 8 per cent of the 1935-39 base period. This was 8 per cent higher than the level of June, 1950, before the Korean fighting began, and 9.6 percent above a year ago. Jake "Greasy Thumb" Meanwhile, theri were indications that Ulk re'"sed " the people in the home towns may be de- ' veloping some consumer resistance to high i v; " i 1 prices. The commerce department reported re-ported a 3 per cent decline in retail sales. Department store sales were reported down 4 per cent. Unofficial reports told of a slackening of consumer buying, possibly because many persons had stocked up heavily last year and possibly because of price climbs. THE BORROWER Russia flatly refused re-fused recently to return 670 American , naval and cargo ships she "borrowed" trank Costelto, who , TIr TT , j 1 keeps $40,000 in cash in under Wor!d, War. 11 his home gram. The Soviet went so far as to state ' that the United States really does not need &4v&...:..: ..vttittXi&U.. the ships. Reduced to a common denominator, It is like a home town neighbor borrowing your lawn mower and refusing to return it after he has clipped his lawn, and having hav-ing the nerve to tell you you don't need it anyway, because your lawn doesn't need cutting. The ships are only one of the lend-lease problems with Russia. The Soviet still has an over-all $11 billion unsettled lease-lend lease-lend account with this nation. r MACARTHUR UNDER FIRE Gen. and James J. Carroll, Douglas MacArthur, who seems to have a who told unsympathetic knack of making controversial statements, senators that television camera, scared him. The agaln threw. the ftate dePartment and the public liked the show so United Nations into an uproar when he much it objected when a asserted he stood ready at any time to few stations switched to a confer in the field with the commander in brief Easter religious serv- chief of the Chinese and North Korean ' forces to end the war and "find any mil itary means whereby the realization of the political objectives of the United Nations in Korea, to which no nation may justly take exceptions, might be accomplished without further bloodshed." blood-shed." The state department immediately asked the defense department and the White House to curb the general's authority to issue diplomatic overtones. The controversy was taken up in the U.N. and MacArthur was criticized by British and French newspaper. Strong-willed MacArthur, who does not believe In hiding his genius under a blanket, had nothing to say about the criticism of his latest statement. If the state department and the United Nations persist in their demands that MacArthur be silenced permanently, it might mean that pipe-smoking Doug will have his wings clipped for the first time in his long career. DRAFT CALL CUT Home town draft boards were notified that their April quotas had been cut in half. The army ordered a quota of 40,000 for the month instead of the previously announced 80,000. Enlistments, Enlist-ments, running higher than were anticipated, and fewer casualties in Korea than had been feared were given as reasons for the change in the induction rate. The army at latest reports was only about 100,000 men short of its present goal of 1,500,000 men. Meanwhile, a congressional si okesman said the army should be able to halt the draft within 18 months and set up its universal-military-training program. |