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Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Congress Debates Discharge Payments To Veterans; House Considers Amount; Labor Studies Rail Wage Settlement; '43 Food Production Tops All Records (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions Are expressed In these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and net necessarily of this newspaper.) ' Released by Western Newispnper Union. - ' 1S i - y t . :rM- O. -. M n hi ' i Rail Union Heads Summoned to White House for conference on settlement of wage demands of railroad unions are, labor chieftains (left to right), T. C. Cashen, switchmen; H. M. Fraser, conductors; A. F. Whitney, trainmen; Alvanley Johnston, engineers, and D. B. Robertson, locomotive firemen and engtnemen. (See: Rail Strike.) RAIL STRIKE: Settlement Sought Declaring a railroad strike would be a serious blow to the conduct of the war, President Roosevelt busied himself seeking settlement of a wage dispute involving 1,450,000 rail employees who threatened to walk out December 30 unless their demands de-mands were satisfied. First to threaten to strike were the five operating brotherhoods of switchmen, trainmen, firemen and engmemen, engineers and conductors, conduc-tors, who originally asked for a $3 a day raise, but balked when they were awarded only a 4 cents per hour boost. As a compromise, FDR , suggested payment of overtime to j rail employees, who at present are j not eligible for such extra compen- ! sation until they have passed 48 hours. Next to join in the walkout threat were the 15 non-operating rail unions, following congress' failure to act on their petition for an 8 cents an hour raise, disapproved by the government's stabilization director who offered an alternate plan granting grant-ing a4 10 cents hourly boost to lower paid employees and a 4 cents hourly increase to the highest paid. RATIONING: What U. S. Misses Most With shortages of civilian goods in wartime America, what do the people peo-ple miss most? To get a straight answer, the government's gov-ernment's civilian requirements office of-fice made a door-to-door canvass In 120 counties, discovering that 1 butter; 2 meat; 3 sugar; and 4 soap topped the list Following in order were 5 canned goods; 6 fruits; 7 elastic tape; 8 coal; 9 satisfactory hosiery; 10 washtubs. Said OCR: "The items which civilians civil-ians urgently need are for the most part fairly simple, calling for neither nei-ther elaborate processing nor for complicated component parts." Earlier, Ear-lier, OCR announced a 15 per cent boost in production of civilian goods in the first quarter of 1944 over the last three months of 1943. EUROPE: Join Jugoslavs While U. S. and British troops ate deeper into the Nazis' winter line in southern Italy, the Jugoslav government gov-ernment of Gen. Josip (Tito) Broz announced thar U. S., British and Russian officers had been added to his staff, and plans agreed on for extension of the guerrilla campaign vs. the Germans. Pecking steadily at Nazi defenses on snow-clad mountain slopes, Lieut. Gen. Mark Clark's Fifth army worked its way around German positions po-sitions guarding the long road leading lead-ing to Rome, 80 miles away, as reports re-ports revealed the enemy was evacuating certain districts of the Eternal City to- plant mines. After stiff fighting on the Adriatic coast. Gen. Bernard Montgomery's Eighth army broke into the key town of Or-tona, Or-tona, blocking the approach to the highway hub of Pescara further north. Announcement of Allied representation represen-tation in General Broz's communist-backed communist-backed Partisan army indicated that the U. S Britain and Russia might m?.ke an attempt at equipping the 250.000 guerrillas who form the force, but have been fighting Nazi mechanized troops with light arms. DISCHARGE PAY: For Vets Terms of a senate bill sent to the house for approval would give vets with 18 months or more service overseas since December 6, 1941, $500 upon honorable discharge. Vets 12 to 18 months abroad would receive re-ceive $400 and those less than 12 months $300. Vets serving within the continental limits for 12 months or more would get $300, and those serving less than 12 months $200. With approximately a million men removed from the BarkJcy Bridges Austin enlisted ranks since December 6, 1941, and 70,000 being discharged monthly, the program would cost $300,000,000 at the start. Bearing the name of Senator Al-ben Al-ben Barkley (Ky.), the bill's payment pay-ment provisions were worked out by Senators Styles Bridges (N. H.) and Warren Austin (Vt.). . The bill now goes to the house, where there has been agitation for even higher discharge dis-charge payments, with much sympathy sym-pathy for Representative William Lemke's proposal giving vets $100 upon release from the services and up to one year's pay. AGRICULTURE: 1943 Production Total food output for 1943 was 4 per cent larger than the previous year, with a slump in grain harvests har-vests made up by other products. At 3,076,159,000 bushels, the corn crop was down from 3,131,518,000 in 1942; wheat declined to 836.298,000 bushels from 974,176,000, and oats dropped to 1,143,867.000 bushels from 1,349,547,000. Record production was noted for meats, milk, poultry and eggs, along with potatoes, peas, soybeans, peanuts, pea-nuts, rice. Gains also were registered regis-tered for nuts, hemp, snap beans, carrots, lettuce and other commercial commer-cial vegetables. At 464,656,000 bushels, the 1943 potato harvest was at a new high. Winter Wheat Acreage Despite a 25 per cent increase in winter wheat seeding, indicated production pro-duction for 1944 was set at 526,957,-000 526,957,-000 bushels, or 2,649,000 bushels less than 1943. Because rye is not considered con-sidered a war crop, many farmers reduced plantings. Because dry weather hampered seeding and continued to prevail after aft-er planting, as much as 21.9 per cent of the winter wheat crop may be abandoned, and lower acreage yields may result. Only the eastern sector of the corn belt has been favored fa-vored with good weather, but the important great plains region, on the ether hand, has suffered from insufficient in-sufficient rainfall. Reflecting a steady decline, rye acreage seeded dropped to 4,992,000 from 5,805,000 last year. In North Dakota, plantings were down 59 per cent, in South Dakota 25 per cent and Nebraska 22 per cent. Increases were recorded in the South, chiefly for pasture and roughage. BOLIVIA: Revolutionists In Always peppery, South America's politics took another sensational twist with a nationalist revolution in Bolivia, upsetting the government of Gen. Enrique Penaranda, and installing install-ing the administration of sociologist Paz Estenssoro, once locked up for pro-Nazi activities. In Washington, D. C, U. S. officials of-ficials were concerned with the development, de-velopment, since Bolivia now remains re-mains the Allies' chief source of tin following the loss of Malaya and the Indies to the Japs. But as the smoke from the rifles and machine guns cleared in Bolivia, the new regime announced there would be no change in friendly relations or business with the Allies. Bolivia long has been in a stew over Penaranda's high-handed tactics, especially since troops broke up strike demonstrations in the tin mines with gunfire. " In 1925, a father took his six-year-old son on a railroad trip to Minnesota Minne-sota on the Northwestern lines, not paying fare for him because f his small size. Eighteen years later, the railroad got a letter with $31.60 enclosed. It read: "... I am sorry we did not pay the (boy's) fare then, and we are asking you to forgive us for that wrong . . . With compound Interest, our debt totals $31.60." RUSSIA: Baltic Push Even as the Nazis reportedly were organizing 250,000 Estonians, Latvians Latvi-ans and Lithuanians for military service, the Red army pushed toward to-ward the borders of these tiny Baltic states. As the Russians reported that the Nazis were shuttling troops from the Ukraine to the north to meet the Reds' latest drive, action on the 1,200-mile front assumed the shape of a game, of military chess. Previously, Pre-viously, Nazi pressure on Russian lines before Kiev had drawn' Red reinforcements re-inforcements to that area. Threatened by the Reds' surge in the north were the rail lines supplying supply-ing Nazi forces in the Leningrad region. re-gion. Severance of these lines would cut off essential German communications, communi-cations, forcing them to rely wholly upon their Baltic sea routes, and a drive to the shores of these waters would make the Nazis' positions almost al-most untenable. SOUTHWEST PACIFIC: Japs Gird In an effort to further delay the U. S. drive westward to the heart of the Japanese empire, the enemy dispatched increasing air strength to the South Pacific area,( wih particular par-ticular increases noted in the Marshall Mar-shall Islands. With the Gilberts in our hands, and Allied eyes cast northward to the strategic Marshalls, U. S. Liberator Lib-erator bombers initiated a heavy bombing campaign against the latter lat-ter islands, to soften up their defenses. de-fenses. At the same time, U. S. fliers continued assaulting the big enemy supply center of Rabaul, on New Britain. As ,U. S. bombers droned over these objectives to drop tons of explosives, ex-plosives, the Japs sent up strong waves of fighter planes to disrupt the attacks. Further, strings of convoys con-voys were observed bringing up reinforcements re-inforcements for strengthening defenses. de-fenses. First administrator of the Agricultural Ag-ricultural Adjustment act and one of the two men who laid the cornerstone cor-nerstone for the McNary-Haugen farm bill, George N. Peck died at 70. Formerly an executive of the Moline Plow company and Deere & Co., Peek saw eye to eye with the then Secretary of Agriculture Henry Wallace on processing taxes, but split with him on the crop reduction principle. prin-ciple. Always independent politically, polit-ically, Peek left the GOP in 1928 to support the Democrats' farm plank. CANADIAN OIL: Defends Army Project The war department's 134-million-dollar oil development project in northwestern Canada was sharply defended by the army's service supply sup-ply chief, Lieut. Gen. Brehon Somervell, Som-ervell, who declared that the venture ven-ture not only fit into the high command's com-mand's strategic plans, but also resulted re-sulted in the discovery of a huge petroleum field of 100,000,000 barrels. To be completed by next March, the project, known as Canol, will include 600 miles of pipeline and a refinery. Begun early In the war to reportedly supply U. S. forces operating op-erating in the Alaskai. theater with fuel, Canol has been bitterly attacked at-tacked by other U. S. agencies. One strong objection raised to Canol was that the U. S. will lose its rights to the field after the war, control con-trol reverting to the Canadian government. HOG SUPPORT Heavy butcher hogs, animals weighing 270 to 300 pounds, havs been included in the price support program of the V&r Food administration. adminis-tration. The change went into e.' feet December 23. This action extends ex-tends the support price of $13.75 a hundredweight, Chicago basis, to il hogs between 200 and 300 pounds. The move was necessary. WFA officials of-ficials stated, because prices of the heavier swine have been sagging, often as much as a dollar under the $13.75 figure. . |
