Houston home journal. (Perry, Houston County, Ga.) 1924-1994, October 04, 1945, Image 2

Houston home journal., October 04, 1945, Image 2

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Newspaper Page TextWEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS CIO Strives to Maintain High Pay Level in Postwar Industry; Act to Spur Building Activity -- Released by Western Newspaper Union Western Newspaper Union’s news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) (EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions ars expressed in these columns, they are those of Facing tough winter in war-torn Austria, Viennese scratch for future provisions. At left, woman is shown picking up stray grain in harvested field, while at right another woman is pictured carrying home wood found in shelled forest. LABOR: Seek Peace Armed with emergency powers, Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellen bach moved into the troubled indus trial front, where CIO demands for appreciable wage boosts threatened to retard the reconversion program and jeopardize stabilization policy. Schwellenbach faced no easy task, what with the strategic oil, au tomobile, farm equipment and steel unions striving for wage readjust ments to bring 40-hour-a-wcek pay up to wartime overtime levels, and major producers bucking the de mands in the face of rigid price con trol. In all instances, CIO demands for substantial wage boosts were predi cated on the claim that the big com panies had made sizable wartime profits and could use the money to defray part of the increases until peacetime production could be re established on a volume basis. While oil workers already had walked out of midwest refineries in a strike that threat ened to spread and imperil the national pal interest con linued to center in Hio troubled auto . mobile situation, R where the United Automobile Work- Jmi « ers headed by R. J. Thomas laid plans R. J. Thomas for enforcing their demands for a 30 per cent wage increase by walking out on individual companies and leaving their competitors free to in vade their markets. In assuming command of a labor department strengthened by the in clusion of the War Labor board, war manpower commission and United States employment service, Secre tary Schwellenbach planned to pro ceed slowly before exerting emer gency powers, first exhausting ordi nary procedure. PACIFIC: MacArthur Disputed Taking sharp difference with Gen. Douglas MacArthur’s declaration in Tokyo that only 200,000 American troops may be needed for the Japa nese occupation, Pres. Harry S. Tru man feared for its effect on army demobilization plans and Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson said that at this time it was difficult to forecast the eventual size of the force. Basing his estimate upon the Japs’ wholehearted effort at co-operation with his command, MacArthur’s latest figure of 200,000 was a sharp reduction from the 400,000 recently projected and the 900,000 at first thought necessary. In making his statement, MacArthur said that the Japs’ execution of his dictates through their governmental frame work relieved the U. S. of establish ing an elaborate military authority to perform the same tasks. In seeking to offset expectations that MacArthur’s announcement might lead to speedier demobiliza tion, President Truman declared the program was not dependent upon occupation needs. Speaking for the state depart ment, Acting Secretary Acheson as serted that the ultimate size of the occupation force will depend upon the scope of the job of eradicating the whole Jap war-making econ omy. Industry Takes Kindlier View of Oldsters Because of their generally fine performance while “pinch-hitting” during the wartime labor shortage, older workers will find employment opportunities much broader in the postwar era than in prewar years, Northwestern National Life Insur ance company found in a survey. Hard-and-fast age limitations ex isting in the prewar era were pretty thoroughly broken down during the DEMOBILIZATION: Point Cut Asserting that no man would be kept just to maintain a big army, Gen. George C. Marshall revealed a stepped-up demobilization program providing for a further decrease of discharge points to 60 on Novem ber 1 following the October 1 slash to 70. At the same time, the total necessary for officers was to be cut to 75. Marshall reviewed demobilization plans at a meeting with 300 con gressmen at which he also affirmed receipt of General MacArthur’s es timate of an occupation force of only 200,000 for Japan by next summer. Though MacArthur had reduced his estimate, Marshall said, Genera] Eisenhower’s figure of 400,000 for Germany remains the same. Declaring that the present rate of releases has been determined solely by the availability of discharge fa cilities, Marshall said that all G.l.s without useful army work would be freed within three to four weeks. With the exhaustion of high point men by late winter, the army may further alter its demobilization pro gram by releasing all men with two years of service. POSTWAR BUILDING: Lid Off With removal of all building con trols, government agencies bent themselves to the task of speeding up construction and at the same time keeping costs within bounds to head off an inflationary boom dur ing the reconversion period. As experts looked for the erection of 500,000 private dwellings next year and a peak of 800,000 in 1948, officials sought to increase the sup ply of scarce building materials, per mitting wage and price boosts and priorities to break bottlenecks, if necessary. Inventory controls also were to be strengthened to prevent hoarding and creation of artificial shortages. At the same time, OPA announced that it would tighten price control over building materials to counter act heavy demand, while federal credit agencies prepared to discour age loose financing in a market booming with home needs and pros pects for high postwar employ ment. RETAIL PRICING: A bsorh Increases Declaring that up to now retailers have not been squeezed by price control, OPAdministrator Chester Bowles reiterated government pol icy that dealers would have to ab sorb any increases in manufacturing costs in the reconversion period. Rejecting a plea of a retailer group that such absorption would be uneconomic and unfair, Bowles said that dealers’ markups were not reduced during the war, and records show that profits soared under in creased volume and lower operat ing costs. Whereas the profit mar gin of department stores stood at l during the 1936-’39 period, it reached 12 per cent in 1944, he said. Under OPA’s pricing policy for manufacturers for the reconversion period, some increases will be per mitted to allow for higher labor and material costs. Profit margins will be held to half the industry-wide average for larger businesses or prewar levels for smaller firms, however. war and will stay broken in many fields, although most large concerns will conduct their most intensive re cruiting in the 20 to 30 age group. Many employers who have had un satisfactory experiences with irre sponsible young employees during the wartime labor shortage express a definite preference for older work ers, who are loyal and very depends able. THE HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA NAVY: Two-Ocean Dimension A two-ocean fleet almost five limes the size of the pre-Pearl Harbor force was proposed by naval chiefs at a hearing of the house naval commit-! tee. Under the proposal advanced by Secretary of the Navy Forrestal and Fleet Admiral King, 300 ships would remain in active duty and another 100 would be kept in ready reserve. The remaining 680 vessels would be laid up but maintained in sea-going | condition. A total of 500,000 enlisted j men and 58,000 officers would be | needed for the 300 active ships and j planes and 815,000 to man the en tire fleet. For implementation of U. S. de- 1 fenses, the navy recommended es- ! tablishment or retention of major naval bases for the Pacific in the Aleutians, Hawaii, Canal Zone, j Guam, Saipan, Tinian, the Bonin- Volcano island group, the Admiral ties and Philippines. Atlantic posts would include Argentina in New- ! foundland, Bermuda and Trinidad. ATOMIC TEST: On Battleship Even while plans were being mapped in Washington, D. C., for the postwar fleet, naval officials pre pared to carry out a test of the atomic bomb’s effect on surface ves sels 500 miles off conquered Japa nese shores. Target for the experiment, which might eventually lead to a redesign j of surface vessels as followed Billy! Mitchell’s test bombardment of the j Virginia in 1923, will be the Jap battleship Nagato, with its 14-inch steel armor plate. Although the restyling of warships after Mitchell’s successful experi ments led to their strengthening against air attack, they have re mained vulnerable to underwater at tack. So far, reports on atomic bombings have indicated the main force of the explosion is up and out, but naval chieftains also would like to determine any underwater effect. 16th Child Her Biggest The mother of 15 children, Mrs. Francis Strohl’s 16lh child was an 111 lb. baby girl. The infant was one of the heaviest deliv ered, with a 25 pounder horn in 1916 top ping the record. 38 years old, Mrs. Strohl is a resident of Lawton, Fa. LONG FLIGHT: Across Great Circle Approximately 25 hours and 43 minutes after taking off from north ern Japan, the first of three giant B-29 bombers glided onto the sprawling Chicago airport, to be shortly followed by the remaining two after a 5,995 mile experimental run. With three top U. S. air force com manders in the planes, the original plans called for a non-stop run to Washington, D. C., to test the great circle route and attendant weather in the far north. Because of strong headwinds during the early stages of the flight necessitating increased use of gas, however, the B-29s decided to land in the Windy City for refueling. Though traveling 5,995 miles in a long journey which took them over Kamchatka, Alaska and Canada be fore reaching the U. S., the Ameri can airmen led by Maj. Gen. Curtis E. Le May fell 1,100 miles short of the record non-stop flight set by two Britons flying from Egypt to Australia in 1938. WAR CRIMES: Try Nazis Charged with systematic starva tion and neglect of internees at the I notorious Belsen concentration camp, 45 Nazi men and women tried ! to fight back at their war crimes trial conducted at a British military court in Lueneburg, Germany. In seeking to defend themselves, ! the accused followed the line that most of the 40,000 prisoners in the I camp were all habitual criminals, felons and homo-sexuals. Britons \ taking over the camp upon the Nazi collapse claimed that their experi ence showed it was not necessary to use force to govern the internees. In first seizing the camp, the Brit ish counted 13,000 dead, and another 13,000 died later because their con i dition was beyond treatment, med- j ; ical officers charged. Though sup plies were obtainable in the imme diate vicinity of the camp, no ef fort was made to procure provisions. LI. S. INCOME: 1944 Peak Figures compiled by the depart ment of commerce show that total j income payments to individuals in | the United States in 1944 rose to a ' new high record of $148,090,000,000. ! The largest percentage of this total, ■ or $19,345,000,000, went to individu- j als in New York state while the smallest percentage, or $196,000,000 went to people in Nevada. The amounts differed among the various states because of the size of the pop ulation per capita income. ttnlin Head Of* ” Postwar Crime Wave Quick Reconversion Can Prevent Era of Law- 4 £ % lessness, FBI Chief Says; Expects Vets to Demand Order. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street NW, Washington, D. C. Will there be a postwar crime wave in the United States? ; That question was put to the man | who will have to deal with it if there is one—Fßl Director J. Edgar Hoo ver. He threw the answer back on j me—and on a lot of other people in these United States. Here it is: j Whether we have a postwar crime wave in the United States depends on how well we as a nation can re convert. If we do have a period of lawlessness, it will in all probabil ity be led by teen-agers. The re- I turning veteran has it in his power to make or break such a crime | wave. | That’s not beating around the bush. Let’s look at the facts, dis turbing though they may be, as the | FBI director laid them before me. i After the last war, he said, there grew up a lawlessness from which the United States has never been entirely free since. When the gang ster era of the 20s and 30s was final ly broken up there was some de cline in criminal tendencies. Never theless, just before World War II began in Europe crime was still very much with us—in fact, the United States had 11 times more cases of murder and manslaughter than England and Wales. With our entry into the war, crimes increased, the emphasis on j type changing from crimes against property to crimes against the per -1 son—murder, assault, rape and the | like. On V-J Day a major crime was being committed every 23 sec onds in the United States. One per son in every 22 in this country had been arrested at some time or other. New Crop of Criminals Teen-Agers Perhaps the most ominous single factor about the picture with which we start the postwar years is that the most frequent criminals in the United States today are boys and girls 17 years of age. Director Hoover explained why this has come about. These teen agers have been maturing in a pe riod of great political, economic and social upheaval. As they were en tering the critically formative years for them in the beginning teens, fa thers and big brothers, to whom they might have looked for guid ance, left home to enter the armed services. Mothers frequently had to take jobs which kept them away from home, leaving boys and girls to their own social and recreational devices. Frequently, families pulled up roots and moved to teeming indus trial centers in other parts of the country where jobs could be had in war plants. Normal living was im possible under such overcrowded conditions. There was a general spirit of wartime abandon which im pressionable youth was not long in catching—lack of discipline, lack of personal responsibility, became the accepted thing. A “war hero’’ at titude developed in many of those too young to “join up.” Then teen-age boys and girls found that because of the manpower short age they could stop school and take jobs where they would make more money than some of their elders did before the war. Coming suddenly onto what seemed sudden wealth, and of their own making, found them unprepared to use it wisely. “We have been developing a gen ' eration of money-rich and charac ter-poor Americans.” While we had our attention on the j far-flung battlefronts the foundation was being laid for one of our major postwar problems on the home front. | There is another condition that has been a breeding ground for law | lessness during the war, according to Hoover, and which may spread j if crime detection and law enforce ment do not keep ahead of it. “Gangsterism has been showing signs of revival during the war,” he said. “There have been gang wars in places where they used to thrive. Hijacking, shakedown rackets, black markets and bootleg have been on ; the increase.” Therefore, the groundwork has been laid for a new era of Dillingers. Then there are the returning vet erans. Because of their peculiar training, will they present a new band of criminals efficiently trained BARBS . • , by B aukhage Christmas is coming—yes it is. It will be here before your package to your soldier is there unless you mail now. Wrap securely—address prop erly. • • * In 1940 this country had less than 1314 million men in what is con sidered the productive age group of 45 to 64. It is estimated that in 1970 there will be over 18Mi million. in taking life and appropriating property that does not belong to them? Vets Desire Orderly Community On this subject, Director Hoover issued an emphatic “No!” Here is his reasoning: “Of course, soldiers are trained to kill—but so are we of the FBI and so are police officers. But no man of the FBI has ever been arrested for a crime of violence. There will ba criminals among the returning vet erans, it is true—criminals who will operate more efficiently than they would have if they hadn’t had army training. But these are the men who probably would have been crim inals anyway if they had remained civilians. After all, the army is only a cross-section of the American peo ple. Of course, the real criminals never got into the army—their rec ords were too bad. “I expect the returning veteran to be a big help to us in combatting crime,” Hoover went on. “The boys who are returning from the battle fields have seen so much of destruc tion, horror, disease, the dangers of dictatorship that they are anxious to see their communities get back to normal, peaceful ways. They are more interested in their homes and civil affairs. They want law and or der over here.” The FBI expects the veterans to be a major influence on the crim inal tendencies of the teen-agers. “If the big brothers and fathers coming back settle down into jobs or go back to school, they can show the younger boys and girls how to be good citizens. The youngsters look up to these men as heroes—they can be a strong influence on them.” But the responsibility for leading the teen-agers aright does not rest solely on the veterans—nor alone on the agencies of law enforcement. “The question of crime among our youth cannot be pawned off on a few juvenile courts, overburdened juve nile bureaus, and the local police,” Director Hoover declared. “These agencies can help materially, but the big job is getting every parent, busi ness man, school teacher, salesman, farmer, mechanic, housewife, and every other forward-looking citizen to knuckle down to the two-fisted realization that this is their job and it is up to them to do something about it.” But no matter what is done to try to meet a crime situation that now has a potentiality for great evil in this country, there is one thing which Hoover believes will deter mine in the long run whether it will be law or lawlessness from here on. “Whether or not we have a post war crime wave will depend in the last analysis on how we as a nation convert to a peacetime basis,” Di rector Hoover announced emphati cally. “You can’t divorce econom ics from crime. Although it is true that having money does not neces sarily prevent a person from com mitting a crime, not having money is a definite cause of it. When peo ple are out of work, there is a great er chance for them to get into trou ble than when they are employed.” • * • “If the Republicans don’t look out, this guy Truman is going to pick up some votes right out from under their noses, he’s so darned human,” a political wiseacre whispered to me at the Press Club party for Byron Price. We were watching the President mingle with the guests, obviously enjoying himself. Just then a colleague of mine on the weekly press came up. His face was wreathed in smiles. “Guess what,” he exclaimed. “I just said to the President Tm from Kansas City’ and what do you think he said? ‘That’s a suburb of a cer tain city, isn’t it?’ ” And my friend, who has been a Republican since he can remember and especially so in the last 12 years, is beginning to think that “this guy Truman” is all right. When the party was breaking up the President was heard to observe with a broad Missouri grin that he was having as good a time as he did when he was at the Press Club last. That time he was still vice president and his picture was taken playing the piano with movie star Lauren Bacall perched atop it. When the German armies left Hol land each soldier was permitted to carry 75 pounds only. Any more was confiscated by the Hollanders. But they wouldn’t have had much chance to loot anyhow because the German civilians left the Netherlands ahead of them and left very little behind that wasn’t nailed down. • • ♦ The latest is canned sandwiches PRESS ASSOCIATION MEETS IN ATLANTA The Georgia Press Association, holding its 59th annual convention in Atlanta, elected Belmont Dennis, of Covington, president, and Adjutant General Marvin Griffin, editor of the Bainbridge Post-Searchlight, as vice president. Roy McGinty, of Calhoun, was re-elected treasurer. The association closed the con vention with luncheon, at which Dennis told the aims of the asso ciation during the coming year. Wright Bryan, editor of The At lanta Journal, described his experi ences as a war correspondent. Den nis said that the association would increase its services to its editors and place a man of experience in charge of its headquarters in Atlanta. At an earlier session, Don Eck, of the National Editorial Associa tion, spoke on the need for a drive by the weeklies to secure a greater volume of edvertising. He pointed out that 52 per cent of the coun try’s population lives in rural com munities. The Union Bag and Paper Com pany announced that it was giving 40 inches of advertising, to run for five weeks, to each paper repre sented in the association. The association sent a message of greeting to P. T. (Uncle Pat) McCutcheon, who attended 58 of the 59 conventions, but was unable to come this year because of illness. He is editor of the Franklin News and Banner in Heard county. Saturday, September 29, is Press day at the Atlanta Metropolitan and Southeastern Fair when most of the editors will return to Atlanta for that occasion. The convention passed a resolu tion commending the Georgia Power Company for its “Better Home Towns” program. OTHER STATE ITEMS The State Milk Control Board has ordered the continuation of every other-day milk deliveries in met ropolitan Atlanta, including Decatur. A similar order has been issued af fecting the Columbus milk shed area. Unfilled applications for passen ger car tires in Georgia, which to taled 23,363 at the end of August have been piling up so rapidly that they may reach 35,000 by the end of September, OPA officials in At lanta, say, A tentative draft of the gum naval stores conservation program for 1946 was drawn up in Valdosta recently at a meeting of government forestry representatives and a committee named by the American Turpentine Farmers Association. Savannah industries are employing 50 per cent more workers than in 1940 and the employees are earning twice as much as they were paid be fore the war, the Savannah commit tee for economic development re ports. A total of 541 cases were handled by the home service department of the Dublin and Laurens county chap ter of the American Red Cross dur ing August, it is reported by Mrs. Louise O. Howard, executive secre tary for that county. Mrs. Addie K. Bateman is assistant to Mrs. Howard, Georgia’s flue-cured tobacco aver ages for this year topped that of 1944, with 113,291,882 pounds bring ing in $44,869,748. The average per hundred pounds was $39.61, compared with last year’s average of $36.61, when 100,987,769 pounds sold for $36,920,481, the State Department of Agriculture reported. A 50 per cent cut in federal taxes on personal incomes, from the lowest to the highest bracket, is being ad vocated by Chairman Walter F. George, Democrat, Georgia, of the Senate Finance Committee. “While the full amount on this reduction should not be made in 1946,” he said, in a broadcast program, “we should start making it next year.” It is reported by the Carroll Serv ice Council that the three nursery schools now in operation in Carroll county may soon lose federal aid. Plans are being made to secure sup port for the schools so that they will not be discontinued. The schools are located at Mandeville Mills, Lawler Mills and Villa Rica. They were es tablished in the summer of 1943. In the war years Georgia’s voca tional schools trained thousands of i persons for jobs that fitted in the war effort. Now they’re ready to train thousands of returning Gls so that they can hold and obtain jobs in a peacetime economy. There are more than 400 vocational educational schools scattered over the state. They teach everything from how to build an airplane to cosmetology. The schools, says Dr. M. D. Mobley, state director of vocational education, are now converting to peacetime train ing. Georgia’s game and fish commis sion will request approximately $25,- 000 from the General Education Board to carry on the Junior Wild life Ranger program, State Director Charles Elliott announces. The complete program has been arranged, all available display space has been taken, and exhibits will be on hand from each of the 18 counties in the ninth district for the big northeast Georgia fair, which is in full swing at Gainesville, and will continue for the week. Called the Victory Fair, the occasion is the mos< outstanding of its kind ever held i that section of north Georgia.