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Show National News Summary Veteran Workers The number of veterans of the armed forces working for the government increased in 1948 to 40 per cent of all government workers, according to the Civil Service Commission. The veterans vet-erans increased by nearly 90,000 to a total of 869,000 as of Jan. 1, 1949. Disabled veterans on the federal payroll increased more than 18,000 to 113,700. Cheaper Cigars The Agriculture Department reports that cheaper cigars are making a comeback. It estimates that Americans will smoke about the same number of cigars this year but will cut down on the higher-priced brands in favor of the more economical variety, in 1948, it said, the proportion of cigars selling in the "8-cents-or-less retail price bracket" increased in-creased 40.8 to 45.4 per cent of all cigars sold. U. S. Revenue The government collected almost al-most $3,000,000,000 more in taxes tax-es in 1948 than it did in 1947. The Treasury Department has reported that the total for taxes of all types in the calendar year 1948 was $42,302,864,105. compared com-pared to $39,420,845,446 the year before. Timber Shortage The United States Forestry Service warns that the country faces a critical shortage of lumber lum-ber and other timber products unless vigorous action is taken to grow more trees. It states that the annual cut of timber and natural nat-ural losses is estimated at 50 per cent greater than the current cur-rent annual growth. The present pres-ent growth is estimated at 130,-000,000,000 130,-000,000,000 cubic feet, including 35,000,000,000 board feet of saw timber. Eisenhower The first and foremost task of General Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his new role as presiding officer of-ficer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will be to keep the armed services ser-vices "in line on the military budget for the fiscal year 195L" General Eisenhower will direct the Joint Chiefs in drawing up ! what they regard as necessary defense requirements for the services and then fit the total needs to a monetary ceiling to be fixed by President Truman at a later date. Wheat Markets The Agriculture Department is warning farmers that the United States may find a much smaller market for its wheat after the European aid program ends. A growing trend by wheat-importing countries to enter separate' long-term agreements with wheat producing countries, other than the United States, for future fu-ture grain supplies, is seen. During Dur-ing the past marketing year, such agreements accounted for 78 per cent of all non-American wheat moving in world trade. E. C. A. An allocation of $9,298,000 of Marshall Plan funds to seven European Eu-ropean countries and western Germany brought the total of ECA funds earmarked, through Feb. 21, to $4,736,293,000. |