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Show JPff wmm,si Released by Western Newspaper Union. PRIVATE ENTERPRISE DOES A REAL JOB SPOKANE. WASHINGTON, provides pro-vides an excellent illustration of the difference between government and private enterprise housing methods. In Spokane private enterprise built 2,300 homes to care for the needs of the influx of war workers. That was all for which private enterprise could secure priorities on materials. Those 2,300 homes had individuality, individual-ity, were all attractively designed, well built structures. They were fitted fit-ted complete with basement heating plants, refrigeration and all modern conveniences. Each house was built on a separate lot, the grounds were attractively landscaped. There are cement walks, sewer connections, connec-tions, all complete in every way. The government built 2,500 homes, solid blocks of them with no space between. Each house had four rooms. There were no foundations, foun-dations, no basements, no heating plants of any kind, no conveniences, no walks or any landscaping. The houses are of the flimziest possible construction with single wall board partitions and tar roofing paper roofs. The private enterprise built homes have been sold on monthly payments and these monthly payments pay-ments are no more for the five and six room houses than the rent charged by the government for its four room shacks. Private enterprise enter-prise made a profit on its venture and added materially to the future of Spokane. All of the 2,300 homes have been sold but only a small . percentage of the government houses have been occupied. It illustrates illus-trates the difference between the effectiveness of private enterprise and government in business. GROCER HAS TROUBLE FOLLOWING REGULATIONS LAWRENCE SULLIVAN IN his new book, "Bureaucracy Runs Amuck," published by Bobbs-Mer-rill, tells a graphic story of the trials and tribulations of the merchants mer-chants of today, operating under the thumb of bureaucratic Washington. The following paragraph tells a bit of what is the matter with the grocers: "Grocers, perhaps, have been harder hit by conflicting and overlapping over-lapping OPA orders than any other retail group. When OPA began there were roundly 575,000 food outlets out-lets in the United States. Today those stores, still in business, are governed by 29 maximum price regulations, 63 other price controls applicable at the processor, wholesaler whole-saler or jobber level, plus 10 general gen-eral ration orders governing food products. All of these regulations are subject to amendment from day to day. The general maximum price regulation, for example, was amended amend-ed 160 times in 13 months, and there were 15 supplementary orders issued under it. The average retailer is simply unable to read and digest this mass of material governing his daily operations." That paragraph tells only a small part of the troubles of the grocer. Certainly his life is a hard one. We, the consumers, think we are abused, and are, but we should have a bit of pity for the grocer .laboring under his greater trials. And it gets no better, fast. TIME AND SUPREME COURT AT THE TIME the appointments were made there was far less opposition oppo-sition on the part of the senate and the press to the naming for the supreme su-preme bench of Justice Frankfurter than was accorded the appointments of Justice Black and Justice Murphy, Mur-phy, Now the press and many of the senators are supporting the opposition op-position of Justices Black and Murphy Mur-phy to the expressed ideas and judicial judi-cial attitude of Justice Frankfurter. How quickly conditions and ideas, on which public opinion is based, can change in these fast-moving days. AT A SPECIAL SESSION of its legislature the state laws were changed to permit California to send Uncle Sam a tax bill on his vast holdings of real estate in the state. That will be giving the old gentleman gentle-man a taste of his own medicine, but he must express his willingness to take it Other states might solve some of their tax problems the same way and possibly cause the government gov-ernment to let loose of some of its unneeded land. ' WHAT HAS HAPPENED to the German royal family? No one of them gets so much as a two line item in the newspapers. Such is the difference between being notorious or being famous. THE OLD ESTABLISHED weather weath-er lore of the East does not work in the rainy winter season in California. Califor-nia. A cloudless sunset does not mean a clear day tomorrow. Starting Start-ing before seven does not mean quitting quit-ting before eleven. A bit of blue sky large enough to make a pair of sailor pants does not mean clearing skies. A rainbow is not a promise rain will stop. All signs fail in wet weather. EXCESSIVE TAXATION dries up production growth and kills the goose that lays the tax egg. |