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Show VASHIi'GTQN M z:vs - . , : A r : FROM OUR CONGRESSMAN W. K. GRANGER Postwar Stock Piles There is much discussion in the Nation's Capital with respect to accumulated war stock piles. It is estimated that at the end of the war the government will have in its han.:'.s almost One Hundred Billion Dollars worth of war materials, arrl in these ma-trials ma-trials nearly evt iy conceivable thing you can think of will be included. in-cluded. Naturally, businessmen, great and small, farmers and laborers are concerned with the question: What is to become of this tremendous amount of Government Gov-ernment property? Remembering Remember-ing our experience after the last war when only about Fifteen Billion Dollars worth of similar stock piles were disposed of, business men espically remember remem-ber what happened. To find some solution to this problem, the House appointed a Committee that has been known as the Small Business Committee to investigate and report on this important problem. Their report will soon be made and also legislation legis-lation proposed for the purpose of setting up one special agency to handle postwar stock piles. This agency would be the sole dispenser of government propc and will be directed to prevent a "Hitting of the markets, and at ilit ""me time dispose of these goods in an orderly fashion through the normal channels of trade. The urgency of such legislation legisla-tion has been emphasized because be-cause of the fact that at the present pres-ent time the Army and Navy here and there throughout the country are offering government property, considered to be no longer needed in the conduct of the war, for sale to the highest I bidder. Instances have been pointed out where speculators have purchased large quantities of these goods at a low cost and in some cases disposed of them at handsome profit. The need of legislation is obvious, not only for the reason that the trade markets may become glutted, but there should be no place for the gambling speculator to take advantage of the opportunity to sell these products at an excessively exces-sively high price, his specialty being the Black Market. War roduction Board Directives It is generally believed that the peak has been reached in the production of many war materials. ma-terials. War Production Board has a good idea of their sufficiencies and deficiencies. As an example, WPB is calling for an all-out production pro-duction drive for Copper during the remainder of 1944, yet there is an easing up on the production produc-tion of Vanadium and other like materials. Also, WPB has given the Green Light for the manufacture manu-facture of farm tractors and other oth-er farm equipment, not because of the abundance of material a-vailable, a-vailable, but because WPB sees the necessity of making more farm machinery available for production of food. |