Show WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS telephone strike fully settled house stashes slashes navys budget world relief belief needs surveyed EDITORS NOTE when opinions are e expressed aar apr e ss e d in these columns the they y are those t hos e of western newspaper union news analysts an and sot not necessarily of this ii newspaper LABOR PEACE strikes vanish peace descended on the national labor scene at least temporarily when the six week strike of telephone workers ground to a complete stop as western electric corn company 6 f 1 employees in 42 states returned to their jobs end of the phone strike marked the beginning of a honeymoon between labor and management for the time being not a single major industrial strike was troubling the national economic waters on the horizon however loomed the figure of john L lewis pondering whether or not to call a strike of his united mine workers in june tapering off gradually in recent weeks as various union groups reached agreements with their employers pl the telephone strike was fully settled when members of the association of communication equipment workers the last holdouts foldouts hol douts accepted an 11 cent an hour average pay increase from western electric 3 telephone workers across the 4 auntry 11 walked away from their jobs at 6 a m april 7 demanding general pay boosts of 12 a week average increase when agreements finally were reached was about or 4 NAVY FUND big cut made an economy minded house of representatives forcibly passed a navy appropriations bill which represented an 11 per cent cut in president Tr original request for navy department funds shouting down cries that the reduced appropriation would shrink navy and marine corps manpower by house republicans in a voice vote approved the naval budget for the coming fiscal year at a figure about million dollars below the administrations estimate of the amount necessary to maintain required strength defending the budget cut house members criticized the navy policy of maintaining a disproportionate number of high ranking officers during peacetime there are far too many men of high rank today said represents 17 ce rep mo the navy an n effect its own savings by a considerable sid erable reversion to prewar ranks among officers proponents of more money for the navy pinned their hopes on the senate where the bill went following the house action SUB PROGRAM navy Is worried in an effort to resolve its biggest worry that ot of underwater warfare the navy has proposed a five year million dollar construction and conversion program which ultimately would produce a fleet of super fast submarines included in the plans is a new type of submarine hunting killer ship 01 a high speed vessel which ild be able to track down and btroy P gt roy enemy subs in any kind of weather high ranking naval officers are reported to be concerned over the swift submarines developed by the germans toward the close of the war and the fact that the soviet n navy VY is believed to be rushing to completion a fleet of undersea boats copied after the best german designs if th the navys proposal is adopted the fast new submarines should be ready bi by 1951 according to vice vic Admira Admiral tRobert BC bearney B carney arney logistics chief W 77 t M 4 k secretary of state george C marshall holding one of his last press conferences in the old state department building told reporters that he could see no further need for appropriations such as the million dollar outlay authorized in connection with wih president Tr greek turkish aid program secretary marshall has moved his office to a newly constructed state department building WORLD AID survey needs postwar needs of the world will be studied thoroughly in a global survey before the administration decides on further foreign aid programs such as the million dollar greek turkish measure secretary of state george C marshall has revealed first of its kind the survey is being conducted by a newly organized policy group marshall said that with the exception of 78 million dollars scheduled to go to korea he foresaw no further appropriations for foreign aid at present he added however that he was not prepared to say what may be required to help other nations in the future the state department he reported currently is seeking some way to help china which could be fully justified to the american people and to congress the 78 million dollar fund tor for korea will be used to rebuild roads rails and industries in the unia united states zone marshall said POSTAL RATES may go up A measure embodying the first general revision of postal rates since 1879 which would add about million dollars a year to post office revenues has been introduced in the house of representatives the bill provides for a 30 per cent increase in parcel post rates and would revise the air mail rate from five to six cents an ounce in addition the new plan would add about 30 per cent a year to present scales for second class mailing of newspapers and periodicals sent outside the county in which they are published another provision would maintain the current three cent local and rate for first class mail beyond the july 1 deadline when those rates were slated to revert to the former two cent level the new rates would go into effect 60 days after the bill is passed and signed by the president to fight laws american federation of labor will wage a legal battle against what it terms anti labor legislation adopted by 30 states william green president has announced noun ced he stated emphatically that the will fight the constitutionality i of such measures with all the power of our members it is the labor organizations contention that the jhb legislation by various states violates the arrien amendment dment which prohibits involuntary servitude SEAWAY soon a reality despite powerful opposition the long sought st lawtence lawrence great lakes seaway which would make ocean ports of at least three large inland cities may become a reality in the near future the combined seaway and electric power project designed to bring vessels from the atlantic ocean along a 2300 mile iva waterway to chicago detroit duluth and other cities has been advocated by every president since taft sen arthur rep mich has introduced a bill which would make the vast project self liquidating within 10 years by means of exacting toll charges from vessels passing through the route previous proposals en tailed entailed the spending of hundreds of millions of dollars as a public works project it if the bill is passed by both houses of congress and if american cooperation with canada is authorized real work on the seaway may be expected to begin within a year total cost of the project to the united states and canada is estimated at about million dollars SURPLUS SUGAR many protests unless surplus sugar stocks are released to needy housewives a congressional group will demand immediate repeal of sugar control according to senator mccarthy rep wis who is at the head of the movement protests against the department of agricultures agri cultures sugar control program have been sent to congressmen from all parts of the country mccarthy revealed the department of agriculture Is trying to make people believe there Is a scarcity when there is a large surplus he said and added they are permitting industrial users to stock up but are denying housewives the same privilege at the beginning of the canning season when it is needed most pire fire losses zoom losses from fire in the united states followed the general trend of the times during the past year They went way up tip summing up tip for the past year the national board of fire underwriters reported the greatest fire fife loss for any 12 month period in in I 1 history of the nation I 1 total amount was making an increase of 22 per cent over the in fire losses loses for the preceding year losses during the first four months of this year vear were greater than those re corded in j either 1917 1937 or 1938 1 PORK SUPPLY seek more pigs seeking to boost the nations pork supply during the spring and summer of 1948 the department of agriculture has recommended a general 15 per cent increase in pig production this fall the increase achievement of which would baring an additional five million pigs to market next spring and summer is being sought because present prospects indicate that supplies of beef and veal will be shorter in 1948 farmers will have no difficulty in getting sufficient amounts of feed to fatten a larger fall crop the department part ment said while the national goal calls for an overall increase of 15 per cent the recommended regional increases would be 18 per cent in western states 16 per cent in the midwest corn belt and in the northeast 12 per cent in east central states and 13 per cent in the south NET PROFITS industries gain top money maker in the united states in 1946 was the textile industry which according to a wall street journal survey rode the sellers market harder than any other group to register a 2199 per cent increase in net profits over 1945 fourteen textile corporations were reported to have net profits of in 1946 compared with the previous year profits per cent above 1945 were recorded by food products and packing house industries those which lie closest to the family coffers A working whistle naval research scientists are working on an extremely shrill almost supersonic whistle as a device to disperse airfield fogs the plan is to send out powerful vibration waves with a frequency just at the border of audible sound such waves cause fog vapor to gather in larger drops and when the whistle stops they drop to the ground difficulty is that the whistle which some hear and some dont causes everyone in the vicinity to feel highly uncomfortable at her age miss florence E dolph of scranton ra pa celebrated her birthday anniversary by sliding down the banister in her home she says she has ignored her years to perform this birthday stunt ever since 1866 long long 0 trial gen lucius D clay military governor of the american zone in germany has predicted that at the rate german aerman courts are proceeding it will take taker several years to dispose of the huge number of cases still pending he revealed that of the germans in the american zone were chargeable under law and that the cases of have been completed so far of the germans tried were major offend ers subject to a maximum sentence of 10 years in a labor camp GRUMBLES OUT germans warned restless protesting G germans e r m a n s have been warned by governors of both the american and british zones to stop striking and grumbling against the allies and buckle down to face the present food crisis with hard work and courage sumner sewall american military government director in auert baden said that protest S strikes against the food shortage might cost the germans relief supplies from the united states he pointed out that the demonstrations are causing increased resistance adiong among taxpayers in this country sewall also demanded that germans stamp out the black market which t is dissipating a great amount of their food rations A TOM ATOM BAN dussias Rus sias goal rejecting the american plan for international supervision of atomic energy andrei A gromyko soviet delegate to the united nations called for an immediate decision to outlaw the use of atomic weapons he described present united GROMYKO states monopoly of ahe atom as an illusion and predicted that this count rys dominance in the field might be overcome soon by other nations gromyko presented a four point outline of dussias Rus sias position to in the debate over the atom 1 prohibition of atomic and mass destruction weapons is the greatest problem before the united nations 2 russia is willing to submit to international control and inspection only if the atomic bomb is previously discarded 3 inspection must be limited in authority to the necessity of ensuring the use of atomic energy for peaceful purposes only and it must not interfere with the internal soviet economy i 4 ownership and management of atomic energy production facilities cannot be placed in the hands of an international authority BLACK DEATH 1 germ warfare bacterial warfare is one of the the most important hazards to humanity which could result from misuse of science that is the opinion of dr maurice visscher president of AmerI american carf association of scientific workers who visualizes a future war with planes spreading countless billions of of deadly bacteria listed as possible weapons are 33 diseases among them forms of the great plague black death anthrax yellow fever undulant fever and parrot fever the united states would be particularly ticul arly vulnerable erAle to such an attack because of its geographical isolation dr visscher said tour russia in 1948 russia will raise its iron curtain to postwar american tourists in the spring of 1948 the U S department of commerce has been informed by that time the soviets expect to have much of the wartime devastation cleaned up and will be able to provide hotel and travel accamo to 0 permit a gradual influx of tourists it also was disclosed that a gi group oi 61 american business men will attend the first postwar russian fur sale in leningrad next July to export more grain allocations of bf grain and grain products for export to shortage areas during the month of july have been increased about 9 million bushels over the june amount by department the oi of agriculture an estimated long tons or about bushels win will be exported in july as compared with the june total of long tons The increase will be largely largel i wheat of which will apa b augmented by ahe the harvest of the bew new cro crop P released by western aDer union |