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Show Three-Vay Pulling Match Builds Defense Log Jam Washington Sees Conflicts of Authority, Effort and Viewpoint as a Threat to Satisfactory Carrying Out of Program. By BAUKHAGE 1 "--TSt" 1 National Farm and Home Hour Commentator, WXU Service, 1343 H Street, N-W, Washington, D. C. There is a log jam today holding up the defense program that is going go-ing to take dynamite to blow up. Whether there is the courage and the unity and the understanding to do the job remains to be seen. It will take understanding because be-cause the men who make the charges will have to know the facts and realize the conditions and the traditions which have created the evils. It will take courage, for a premature pre-mature burst may damage a lot of innocent bystanders. As far as can be judged from information in-formation leading out of the cracks in the defense machine it is a three-way three-way pulling match. The difficulty in analyzing the situation is the difficulty dif-ficulty in classifying and identifying identify-ing the opposing forces. The usual classification is: One. the New Deal group. Two, the dol-lar-a-year men. Three, certain army and navy officials. But this is a very misleading classification because there are some dollar-a-year men who are working with the administration. There are some members of the administration charged with playing play-ing into the hands of the dollar-a-year men. There are some army officials who are co-operating with the so-called New Deal element. Roughly the Charges Roughly the charges are these: Those sympathetic with the viewpoint view-point of the New Dealers say that some army officials insist on favoring favor-ing the dollar-a-year men who manage man-age to steer defense contracts to big business, block sub-contracting to the smaller firms. Some of the army and navy officials of-ficials say that they are not going to let amateurs run their affairs, that they have dealt with certain firms for years who know how to ,do what they want done. The champions of the small business busi-ness men and congressmen who have attempted to help them say that priorities assignments are sending essential materials to the big business firms (and they mention men-tion the utilities in particular). Small manufacturers and public projects like rural electrification which is bidding for precious cop- precious raw materials of which the "have-nots" say the "haves" are depriving them. We do not realize how much of a "have-not" nation the United States is. I did not until I saw the report of Carter R. Bryan of the department depart-ment of commerce. It was a story of his visit to a country store. Mr. Bryan looked over the goods on the shelves and counters and hanging on hooks against the walls and then began to trace them to their origin. I haven't he space to mention more than a few but the next time you go to the store you will be able to use this list as a starter and surprise yourself. List of 'Have Nots' Of course he began with tea from China and coffee from South America Amer-ica and then went on: "Among other things were binder twine, made of sisal, which comes from Yucatan, and halter ropes, made of hemp from the Philippines; brushes, made of hog bristles from Mongolia, soft drinks containing coca leaves from Peru and kola nuts from Jamaica, and tapioca from The Netherlands Indies or the Dominican republic. "Cocoa beans from South America Amer-ica are used in making cocoa and chocolate. The same is true of the chocolate bars in the candy case. Even those penny peppermint candy sticks," he continued, "are made of sugar, which probably came from Cuba, and peppermint oil from Russia, Rus-sia, and that chewing gum was made of chicle from Central America Amer-ica or Mexico." Then of course there are spices "And spices," he pointed out, "have played a big role in history before. Columbus wasn't looking for America Amer-ica when he sailed west; he was looking for a new route to India and spices in the days when another barbaric horde interfered with trade." After noting several large bunches of bananas from Central America and pineapples from Cuba, he continued: con-tinued: "One whole section was given over to bottles containing cod liver oil from Iceland, old-fashioned castor cas-tor oil from India and Brazil, hay fever and asthma remedies containing con-taining Ma Huang (Ephedra Vulgaris) Vul-garis) from China, purgatives con- per for its power lines, are being passed by, is the accusation. The dollar-a-year men say that they are protecting free enterprise and that those opposing them are trying to turn business over to government gov-ernment control. These bitter conflicts of authority, author-ity, effort and viewpoint naturally prevent the co-operation essential in the tremendous undertaking which the Office of Emergency Management is attempting to carry out. This is one reason for the log jam. There is another. In Washington Wash-ington itself criticism is growing. This is not new. - It is criticism of the overlapping and conflicting authority among the officials of the OEM. Theoretically, Vice President Wallace is the responsible head of all defense effort and in that capacity capac-ity he reports only to thfe President but the money he requires to carry out his functions is controlled by Jesse Jones, head of the RFC as well as secretary of commerce. That is just one example of similar anomalies right down the line. The strange thing about it all is that everybody in Washington seems to know all about the logjam log-jam except the President himself who is the only man who can straighten it out. 'A BCD' Countries In New Trade Pact The "A B C D" countries have just drawn up a trade agreement which bottles up a large share of the raw materials of the world. The ABCD's (America, Britain, China and the Dutch East Indies) control a large share of the things that do not or will not grow anywhere else. The agreement has a two-pronged purpose. One is a horn of famine, one is a horn of plenty. The horn of famine is pointed today at Japan as a threat to keep her within her own domain. The horn of plenty is a peaceful promise. Its purpose is to provide a working arrangement arrange-ment so that all nations may share in the riches of the earth, the taining psyllium seed from India, ipecac from Nicaragua, senna from the Levant, and aloes from The Netherlands West Indies, that invaluable in-valuable cold and malaria remedy, quinine, from The Netherlands Indies, In-dies, camphor oil from Japan and iodine from Chile, horehound from Spain, and other medicinals from every part of the earth." As I said, this was only a starter. Bryan named at least 100 other articles arti-cles right in that one country store, all or a part of each shipped in from foreign lands. If this country, with its wide range of climate and mighty resources has to depend on foreign countries for these products used in our daily life it is easy to see how dependent all nations have become, one upon the other. Trade barriers must go down if civilization is to continue to go upward. up-ward. Birds, Traffic Signals And Early Risers Some people here in Washington have been living dangerously before you and I start our day. They are up and doing before the traffic signals begin their rhythmic cycle of red, yellow and green. It is a period of comparative freedom, the lights flash yellow a warning to be careful,, not a command to stop. To some of the mad, predawn pre-dawn motorists the flashers are not warnings at all. They are simply lures for the heedless autos dashing at the intersections like moths at a candle flame. That makes it stimulatingly dangerous dan-gerous for early folk whose reveille has sounded long before our bacon sizzles. They have to be wide awake. Except the birds one of the few forms of life, feathered, furred, or pajamaed, whose waking is pleasant to hear the plaintive peep that gradually swells in a soft crescendo to a cheerful chatter. And the birds are about the only living creatures who can risk an early start for they can cross the street without regard for the traffic traf-fic lights. |