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Show National Hews Summary Acreage Reductions Farmers are preparing to plant less acreage to crops for harvest this year, as prospective prices do not offer sufficient incentive to encourage the necessary overtime over-time to produce extra supplies. The Department of Agriculture predicts a 1949 cropacreage of ! about 361.000,000, or about 1,600,000 less than was planted last year. A considerable reduction reduc-tion in the feed grain acreage was indicated, with corn planting plant-ing likely to be the smallest in more than 50 years. Unification Savings An estimated $56,517,421 has been saved by the unification of the armed services, through reduction re-duction of overlapping and duplication, dup-lication, according to Defense officials. A clothing allowance plan has resulted in an $8,000,000 savings. Unification in' training, such . as photography, chemical warfare, phases of air navigation and use of same texts and schools has saved more than $2,000,000 Warehouses, commissaries, post offices and repair shops will be used in common by the services wherever possible. Wheal Referendum The Government is preparing for a probable nation-wide farmer farm-er referendum in the near future fu-ture on the question of putting wheat under production controls. If approved, the controls would apply to the. 1950 crop and would probably - require . a cut of. as much as 25 per cent in acreage. Secretary of Agriculture Chas. A. Brannan is expected to wait until sometime in June before deciding definitely on calling the referendum. Medical Pool The three armed forces are planning to pool their medical in various military hospitals, as specialists and concentrate them in various military hospitals, as ' a result of an order for joint Army-Navy-Air Force diagnostic and treatment centers. The order is part of the effort to get better teamwork from the armed forces. Cost Of Living Drops A new government appraisal of living costs showed a decline for the fifth straight month, although al-though the price decline is expected ex-pected to come to a halt in the near future. Statistical Commissioner Commis-sioner Ewan Clauge, of the Labor La-bor Department, says that the usual spring price rise will cause a leveling off of prices or start them upward again on a slight rise. "Stamp-Book" Security Arthur J. Altmeyer, social security se-curity commissioner, has proposed pro-posed a new "stamp-book" tax-paying tax-paying system to help make possible pos-sible a vast expansion of social security. The new system is designed principally for farm workers and household help who would be among the 20,000,000 new we kers covered under old age insurance if Congress ap-1 ap-1 proves, the expansion. |