Houston home journal. (Perry, Houston County, Ga.) 1924-1994, May 23, 1946, Image 7

Houston home journal., May 23, 1946, Image 7

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Newspaper Page TextI; WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS Costly Coal Strike Crimps U.S.; Plan Further Feed Reductions To Conserve Grain for Food _____ Released by Western Newspaper Union. ■ EDITOR'S NOTE: When opinions are expressed In these columns .s (Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily ot r.) 111-fed and ill-clad, people in Italy clamber atop army truck as it arrives at dump and seek to salvage scraps of food, discarded cloth ing, cigarette butts and even cardboard boxes. Men, women and children climb up even before G.l.s can unload refuse. COAL STRIKE: Costly Walkout Though John L. Lewis ordered his United Mine Workers back to the pits under a two-week truce to re lieve the critically low supply of fuel, the 1946 coal strike promises to be long remembered as one of the most costly in history, with th necessity for curbing fuel con sumption resulting in serious re strictions on public utilities, indus try and transport. Lewis acted as the widespread ef fects of the walkout on the nation’s economy led Senator Eastland (Dem., Miss.) to rise to his feet in the upper chamber to tell his col leagues that as a result of limit ing freight movements to essential commodities “. . . the shipment of embalming fluid has been embar goed and we can’t bury the dead.” Most spectacular figure in the strike, of course, was the burly, beetle - browed Lewis, United Mine Worker chieftain, who held out for the operators’ consideration of his proposal for a health and welfare fund. Holding fast in face of mount ing public opposition and sena torial fury, Lewis received the backing of the American Fed eration of Labor, to which his UMW is affiliated. John L.’s acceptance of a truce to discuss the No. 1 issue of a health and welfare fund came after dwindling fuel supplies had led the government to urge coal-burning utilities east of the Mississippi and in lowa, Minnesota and Missouri to follow Chicago’s example in reduc ing power consumption. With industrial enterprises limited to 24 hours per week use of coal-burning power and stores and movies opened only several hours per day, Chicago, HI., remained one of the hard est hit of all the municipali ties. Reduction in passenger service and limiting of freight shipments to essential com modities, however, served to bring home the strike to all sections of the country. CONGRESS: Busy Solons With the coal strike crippling the economy, U. S. senators moved to . o up restrictive labor legislation in the face of public concern over me prolonged walkout even as they Were engaged in heated debate over passage of the $3,750,000,000 loan to Great Britain. Though Democratic Majority Leader Barkley sought to sidetrack consideration 0 f labor measures v. me feeling over the coal strike at white heat, administration °rces were compelled to surrender congressional pressure for action, rdmarily pro-labor, Senator Lucas UJem., Hi.) i e d the fight for legis ,atlon which would give the Presi dent power to assure continued oper ation of essential industries in event union disputes. Passage of the $3,750,000,000 Brit- : ISa l° an was assured with the re sounding defeat of amendments "“'ch would have limited the size tfie advance, provided for expendi ture of 90 per cent of the funds in ie S., and extension of interest- 1 J? e > unsecured loans to veterans. , he solons also rejected the argu- 1 rnent of Senator Johnson (Dem., j O') that since the bill contem- 1 Plated the raising of money for the i °an only the house, which directly 1 POLAND: While many citizens of Poland re sent the Russian occupation of their country, the Polish peasants are realizing a life-long ambition to own their own land under the Soviet animation, Dr. C. S. Anderson, pro lessor of agricultural education at the Pennsylvania State college, 9 'ano' arge esta tes, many of them ,000 acres or more, were taken romi the wealthy landlords and now are being divided among the peas ants. represents the people through indi vidual districts, had the constitu tional power to originate such legis lation. Pressed by the labor and loan legislation, the senate voted for temporary extension of the draft until the decks are cleared for full consideration of the question. GRAIN: Seek Feed Cut Following the increase in the price of corn, wheat, oats, barley and rye, government officials con templated a reduction in the ceilings on heavy hogs and a cut in fall breeding as further steps in the con servation program designed to make more grain available for food. While initiation of the new price program resulted in cancellation of the 30 cents per bushel bonus pay ment on corn, a similar premium, plus the higher price, was retained on wheat, which is most vitally needed for foreign relief. As a re sult of the price changes, corn was boosted 25 cents a bushel, wheat 15 cents, rye 10 cents, barley 9 cents and oats 5 cents. With grain sales being made more profitable than livestock feeding, liquidation of hogs, cattle and poul try was expected to result in in creased supplies in the immediate future but less meat later. Even with reduced livestock production growing out of the new price pro gram and the other contemplated government measures, the total sup ply of meat, eggs and poultry will be above prewar level#, it was said. Food Prospect» Though farm remains high, heavy domestic demand and relief needs abroad will out-balance supply, the bureau of agricultural economics reported. Indicative of continued large output, farm income for 1946 is expected to approach last year’s record of nearly 21 billion dol lars. The bureau provided this picture of the 1946 food situation: • Livestock and meat production will continue close to the 1945 level but fall short of demand, with prices of animals pressing against ceilings. • Dairy products will remain be low demand throughout the year, with butter supplies short even dur ing the flush season of milk produc tion from May to August. • Poultry and eggs will be in plenti ful supply through most of the year, with scarcities developing in the last three months of 1946. Prices may be moderately lower. • Fats and vegetable oils may not be in sufficient domestic supply be cause of large export requirements of lard, shortening and edible oils. LEND-LEASE: Make Returns Over 10 Allied nations have re turned approximately one-quarter billion dollars of lend-lease goods thus far and Turkey has become the first country to settle its lend lease account in full, the foreign liquidation commission revealed. Of the total returned by Belgium, Brazil, the British empire, China, Egypt, France, the Netherlands, Russia and Yugoslavia, $796,000 worth was reissued to foreign gov ernments under the lend-lease pro gram and $697,000 was sold as sur plus. The first country to settle its lend lease obligations in full, Turkey agreed to pay the U. S. $4,500,000 within 30 days. Corn Borer Hungry Pest It cost the American farmer nearly $37,000,000 last year to feed the hungry mouths of the European corn borer, but be cause the estimates are consid ered conservative in view of the increased acreage and higher yields during the past few years, losses may be even higher. Losses caused by the borer in 1944 were considered to be about $22,700,000. _ THE HOUSTON HOME JOURNAL, PERRY, GEORGIA BASEBALL: Fight Pasquel s At first laughed off by the power ful major league magnates, the Mexican baseball league finally has been taken seriously with the New York Yankees and Brooklyn Dodgers seeking permanent court injunctions against the Pasquel brothers’ solicitations of topnotch American performers to play south of the border. Both the Yankees and Dodgers have received temporary injunc tions against the gay grandees’ at tempts to get U. S. stars to break their American contracts for lucra tive Mexican league offers. Grant ing of permanent restraining or ders against Pasquel’s agents in this country would seriously crimp their efforts to lure U. S. talent south ward. In going after the Pasquels, Branch Rickey, president of the Dodgers, sadly proclaimed: “ . . . I consider the Pasquel league a tem porary nuisance rather than a per manent threat. It is economically un sound. However, this year it could cause irreparable damage to a pen nant contender. ...” RAILROADS: Want Higher Rates Railroad spokesmen pressed for a 25 per cent freight rate increase to cover higher wages and operating costs in hearings before the Inter state Commerce commission in Washington, D. C., while shippers called for a thorough examination of the whole tariff structure before determination of permanent sched ules. Declaring wages have increased $1,300,000,000 since 1941 and the car riers will pay $500,000,000 more for supplies, materials and fuel, Dr. Julius H. Parmelee, railroad econo mist, averred that the operators will suffer a $345,000,000 deficit this year at present rates. Meeting in Chicago, the National Industrial Traffic league, represent ing 300,000 shippers, cautioned that : higher tariffs may be disastrous to individual industries or discrimina tory against them. Asking the ICC to deny the carriers’ petition for im mediate raises, the organization de clared any hearing should provide opportunity for a fair development and examination of facts to de termine results. Eats Meal From Dump : < >•*?' A SB y.f.tiiit- : 1 JnSk! ' Seated in the house restaurant in Washington, D. C., Representa tive Norblad (Rep., Ore.) munched on canned meat and cranberry sauce and drank lemon juice which he said the navy had dumped as garbage in Astoria, Ore. While none of his colleagues or newsmen had the stomach to join him in his repast, Norblad said friends of his had also eaten the food without ill effects and some Astorians had done a brisk business selling some of the discarded fare to restau rants. On the spot, navy officials de clared that the food had been thrown away after some personnel had contracted dysentery after eat ing it. MURDER: Town Agog If traveling through Texarkana, Texas, one would have seen porch lights burning all night, twinkling bulbs hung out in back yards, watchdogs all over town, and the streets deserted. Further, one would have found residents ready to pull a deadly trigger with any false move. All Texarkana was on the alert against the phantom killer who had slain two couples at night and killed one and wounded another of a pair. Four of the victims were young couples and the two others were eld erly married people who had been fired upon through the window of their farm home. All were shot in the head. While the authorities told Texar kanans to keep their guns at their side and shoot to kill if assaulted, the famed Texas rangers, state highway patrolmen, sheriff’s depu ties, city policemen and the FBI ■ threw out a dragnet for the mur derer. They were joined by thou sands of amateur detectives in the search. U. S. TREASURY: With receipts for the first nine months of this year already $33,148,- 000,000, the treasury department esti mates receipts for the current fiscal year ending June 30, 1946, will ex ceed the budget estimate of $38,- 609,000,000, made in Jahuary, Be cause of income tax returns, re ceipts in March were the highest of any month during the current year. At the same time estimated ex* penditures of $64,654,000,000 are now expected to be lower than the figure projected in January. Columnist’s Thoughts Turn To Squirrels —and Crabgrass By BAUKHAGE Netvs Analyst and Commentator. WNIJ Service, 1616 Eye Street, N.W., Washington, D. C. Summer was creeping toward the Potomac, the flag over the White House hung limp as a wilted petal, a hot sun, burning through the in frequent gaps in the heavy foliage, made yellow patches on the lawn. The fountain splashed faintly, fall ing like warm, futile tears. I moved slowly along the drive, wondering if I could garner even a modicum of answers to meet empti ness left by the thousands of unan swered questions the world is ask ing. I looked under the Japanese oaks whose tightly laced leaves, only a little above the ground, smother the young grass, hopefully starting up each spring, withering in the shad ows before July. There, bored and half asleep, I could make out the form of the old gray squirrel. Often this winter, he had come to my rescue when other “depend able sources” and “authoritative quarters” refused to yield up their secrets. But this time, he barely nodded, and looked away, deep in his meditations, probably a nuclear problem of some sort. A few moments later, I was tak ing down notes at a not very news ful press and radio conference. The President, I feared, did not feel as cheerful as he looked. The hand kerchief in his breast pocket was neatly folded in its customary three flat, razor-sharp triangles. (Some times his answers were almost as sharp.) The great red carnations on the table behind his desk, which holds the photographs of members of his family, were already droop ing. The low hum of the mowing machine came in the open windows that look toward the Potomac. Of what was said of import to the nation and the world, you will ■' ■■ v -‘ • Baukhage consults the old gray squirrel, have read by the time these lines are printed. The rest was trivia. We walked out of the executive of fices. I glanced under the Japa nese oaks, but my friend, the squir rel, had gone, the vista looked very bare and cheerless. So I went back and talked about it. As soon as mail could reach me from Sturgeon Lake, Minn., I re-- ceived a letter and a package. The writer said that as I had mentioned that it seemed impossible to raise grass on the shaded parts of the White House grounds, I might be interested in this sample of quack grass which she offered, and she wrote: “If it won’t grow there, I’ll be glad to know there is some place it won’t grow.” The next day, I acknowledged the gift, and opined that quack grass must be another name for crabgrass which I remembered as the bane of my lawn-mowing experience. Soon I received other communica tions. A landscape designer in Akron, Ohio, informed me that “quack grass is not crabgrass. The former is a perennial; the latter is an annual. Quack grass (agropyron repens) propagates by seeds and creeping rootstalks. Crabgrass re seeds itself each year.” Another letter came from Robert L. (“Pop”) Davis, “Amateur Mulch Gardener” of Thorsby, Ala. He re ferred to my mention of crabgrass as a pest, and then he went on: . “Having spent years at my hobby of looking for the most useful plant for growing sum mer mulch in my gardens, and deciding that crabgrass was it, I cannot resist a challenge. BARBS • • • by B aukha ge Musician Charles Guisikoft took 60 shirts with him when the Phila delphia orchestra went on tour. The tour lasts 42 days. I suppose they’re stopped in Pittsburgh. • « • Inflation note from a reader who sends me some of his 1940 bills. Seems he paid $2.75 for CM floor ing in 1940, and $12.00 last month for same. Even though millions of garden ers agree with your remarks, I still challenge them. At pres ent, I have a spring garden growing without any hoeing on land covered with a thick lay er of last year’s dead crab grass. “Scarcely a weed can grow through it, not even this year’s crabgrass. “You see, I am ‘Pop,’ the laziest gardener in the world, and I refuse to gather, haul and spread mulch when crabgrass will do it for me, and do a bet ter job of it. I make it mulch the land for me by leaving it strictly alone. I may even en courage it with fertilizer. After I have gathered my early spring vegetables, I let the crabgrass take over. In early fall, when the crabgrass stops growing here, I mow it down. I then have that mulch gardener’s de light, a mellow mulchy spot where most anything can grow without using spade or hoe. I use a potato digger to dig planting holes.” But that is not all. “Pop” may be the laziest gardener in the world, but he is a vigorous poet. He en closed a poem of which (alas) I have room only for one verse and refrain. Here it is: “Bring me a hoe; pull ’em all up! Chick weed, crabgrass, dig and cut! Stoop down low! Nothing but trash, Goosefoot, pigweed and Johns ton grass; Just no time to look at the sky, Fleecy clouds a-floating by; Work 'til you’ve such a crook in the back That gardening pleasure’s gone, alack! “Wisdom may have a foolish sound; Crabgrass mulch is good for the ground, Let the weeds grow! Bring me a chair! Crabgrass mulch is every where, Soft and thick and brown.” * * * Strategy Misfires In Battle Over OP A The battle over the OPA in the senate has brought out some of the good old axioms on how to bring pressure on congress . . . and how not to ... if you want to get your favorite bill passed. Anti-OPA strategy all along has been to postpone action on OPA as long as possible. Supporters have fought for action. At this moment, though some unforeseen event may change the course, it looks as if the odds favored postponement, but not defeat. It first appeared that ordinary con ventional methods used by the pro fessional lobbyists were going to kill the bill. Then it looked as if spon taneously written letters were going to save it. In both cases, the effort was overdone. There were too many expensive advertisements in the newspapers, sponsored by the various business institutions fight ing price control; too much money easily identified as coming from vested interests was being spent. Then it was that John Q. Citizen sat himself down, took up his pen, or often his pencil, and wrote an undictated letter because he (most ly she) was really stirred up. Con gress began to take heed of those letters. They were obviously spon taneous, they were written by men and women who had made up their own minds. They were voters with convictions, and it was very likely those convictions would be regis tered at the polls. But once more, Pelion was heaped on Ossa. There was a nation-wide organization by the labor people, the veterans, the women’s clubs. The mail and telegrams piled up, but the senators weren’t too interested. The letters were sincere enough. But the majority revealed that they were inspired, not by an inner urge, a look into the pocketbook or pan try, but by the persuasive voice over the phone or at the front door. Do what you will, the kind of communi cation produced by these methods is very likely to have a second hand appearance which the experi enced congressman can recognize. That is why, despite the number of letters and telegrams, the regi mented telephone calls, senators were content to discuss the British loan, and even ponder such compli cated matters as atomic energy, before hastening to line up for OPA. Seems there’s a special Josef Stalin tulip named after the gen eralissimo. Wonder if it’s red. 0 0 0 The coal industry is sick all right * . . and some of its nurses are get ting pretty superannuated. • ♦ • This spring weather would be fine if it weren’t for an occasional flu in the ointment. Relensed by Western Newspaper Union. By VIRGINIA VALE MOTION picture versions ol Shakespeare’s plays have never been very successful, but Laurence Olivier’s new produc tion, the $2,000,000 technicolor “Henry V,” is likely to break rec ords. It introduces the Bard in a new light—as an action writer with a flair for the “boy meets girl” theme. Henry was a madcap youngster, a superb warrior, a great lover and a conscientious king what more could anyone ask, especially with talented Olivier in the role? Since England was at war when the picture was made, the terrific battle scenes were shot in Ireland, where they wouldn’t have to stop work every time a plane roared overhead. Did you know that Burgess Mere dith has “the perfect American voice”? According to more than 150 tests made by David O. Selznick, : : feJt a BURGESS MEREDITH he has, so he’ll record the legend of Pearl Chavez which is the five-min ute prologue of “Duel in the Sun.” It’s a United Artists release. * The movies are dickering with Isabel Manning Herson regarding a picture to be based on her Mutual program, “Land of the Lost.” Re garded as the finest show for chil dren on the air lanes certainly it’s one of the first five—it has caught on so well that a comic book in color based on it will appear next month. Parents rest easy when Junior’s listening to “Land of the Lost.” * David Bruce, who played opposite Deanna Durbin in “Lady on a Train” and opposite Yvonne De Carlo in “Salome,” has been signed by Comet Productions to co-star with Cieatus Caldwell, ex-wife of Ken Murray, in “Miss Television.” Mind you, Miss Caldwell is a “co star,” despite the fact that “Miss Television” marks her screen de but! How times have changed! Now that “Forever Amber” pro duction has been postponed, we’re likely to be involved once more in a discussion of who’ll play “Am ber.” Apparently the little English girl, Peggy Cummins, isn’t right for it after all. Right now a vote for Paulette Goddard is registered. In “Kitty,” which has a somewhat similar story, she proved that she could do right well by the role. The picture based on the life of Glenn Miller will get under way late this summer. It’s said that Fred Mac Murray won’t play Major Mill er because of his resemblance to band leader Tex Beneke, so why not give Dick Powell the role? * “Hopalong Cassidy” Is getting ready to ride again. After an ab sence of two years from the screen Bill Boyd’s readying “The Devil’s Playground.” He’ll have a new leading lady, Elaine Riley, a for mer fashion model in New York; she’s red headed and Irish as they come. He’s borrowing her from Paramount. If you’re one of the many who yearn to go to Mexico, don’t miss the new March of Time, “Tomor row’s Mexico.” Not only will you see the gay night spots and the fiestas and religious festivals; the progress against illiteracy and the political development of the coun try are dramatized; the beautiful modern cities are shown as the av erage tourist might not see them. A1 Schmid, blind ex-marine hero of Guadalcanal, had never held a golf club in his hands before he worked in MGM’s Pete Specialty, “Playing by Ear.” But after some coaching by Bob Anderson he con nected squarely with the ball on the second swing. * — ODDS AND ENDS—“Tommy Riggs and Betty Lou” lake over during the summer months for the CBS “Ginny Simms Shrnv.” . . . Gary Merrill of “The Right to Happiness " has been given a new name by his wife; she calls him the poor man’s Humphrey Bogart. . . . Johnny Desmond, NBC’s singing star, is still popular in England though he hasn’t been heard there for about a year; recently a British press representative called him wanting news—said his readers were demanding to know what Desmond was doing now. . , , Milena Miller, singer on the show ropiao ing the Bing Crosby program, is called the most beautiful girl in rqdio, . .