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About The Omaha guide. (Omaha, Neb.) 1927-19?? | View Entire Issue (Aug. 18, 1945)
EDITORIAL-COMMENT THE RIGHT OF WAY By Ruth Taylor ONE—GUIDE ... GREEN FINGERS By Rtuh Taylor Happy indeed are those fortunate people who live close to the land' where they can watch and tend grow-1 ing things. And doubly fortunate are , those with “green fingers” who have ^ a kinship with the elements of na ture, those at whose touch the earth blossoms forth. My grandmother was one of these. Give her a plot of ground no bigger than a pocket handkerchief and she started a garden. It was a haphazard sort of affair, for flowers bordered the vegetables and wherever there was a spare inch of earth, she started something growing. She was a spend- j thrift of time and hospitality but a miser when it came to buying any thing she could grow. Her garden was also her joy and her comfort for she used to say if you had a quick tem per and an impatient disposition, there was no Cure like a garden—you could watch all of life in it and you learned to wait patiently for the fruit of your handiwork. This year we are again urged to go back to the land, to plant and tend and harvest from our own soil the fruit of the earth so that we may all be well fed. They did not call them i Victory gardens in pioneer days, nor in our grandparents' times. They were j just part of the family task of earning j a living back in tire days when people! lived as families, each member, adult or child, contributing his or her share to the common welfare. All we are being asked to do now is just what those before us did as a matter of course. We must tend our gardens care fully this year. But in our gardens, both of the soil and of life, we must take care to plant the right seeds. We must watch over them, watering with care, not washing out the young plants with floods of emotion nor letting them damp out under the dank chill of indifference. We must weed out the false growths, the tares that choke, the hateful smothering things that suck the nourishment from the grow ing foods. In our gardens let us study the im mutable laws of nature fulfilling the destiny of life itself. Let us weed out our unreasoning hatreds and preju dices and throw them on the compost heap or bum them up. Let us grow only those plants which nourish or give beauty—and let us border our gardens with the bright pinks of friendliness, the fragrant mignonette of understanding, the purple pansies of thoughtfulness. And let us remember that a garden blooms not for one alone, but for all. As Henry Van Dyke said, let us make a garden for our kind feelings with the gate ever open to those who pass by. THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE One of the incomprehensible traits of our country is its political practice of seeking to hamper or ob struct r even destroy, through governmental action, private industries on which its prosperity and eco nomic well-being depend. Such practices are always disguised by their political proponents as in the inter ests of the people. For example, the United States would be as help less as a bug on itsjback if its railroad system was crippled. Well knowing this, our law-making bodies for years sanctioned, at public expense, so-called cheap river transport for the avowed purpose of tak ing business away from the railroads. The only rea son the railroads were not hurt seriously was be cause the public did not want the river transport. It was too slow. Commenting on this practice of sinking millions in the rivers for political purposes, Senator Reed of Kansas, says: “There is little of this river transpor tation that is justified. It is only cheap because it is paid for by the taxpayers. ... If a private company promoted the Missouri River, seeking to induce peo ple to invest money based on the report of the Army engineers, it would be subject to prosecution by the post office department for using the mails to de fraud.” oft. GETTING BOWLED OVER, \ bv Babe Ruth ih THE l9z8 SERIES ■ -- -— - ■ | r , Plans Reorganization Of Labor Department New Secretary Undertakes Task to Knit ' Activities of Over 20 Agencies; Seeks To Avert Vet-Union Row. By BAUKHAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, Union Trust Building, Washington, D. C. It took Hercules just one day to clean the stables where one wealthy but not too sanitary man had kept 10,000 oxen. At least that is the way I heard it at my father’s knee. Since my father pioneered in Washington state in the early '90s, I wish he were here now to witness another Washingtonian doing a Herculean | job which he hopes to finish by Sep ) tember 1. I refer to Secretary Schwellen bach, whose assignment is to put the department of labor in order. He isn’t going to have to do much clean ing out, but he has been tidying up so that he can bring back under his aegis most of a score of prodigal agencies, all having to do with la bor, which are scattered all over the District of Columbia and points north and west. Most of the labors of Hercules were decidedly thankless ones and were given him for spite because his stepmother, Juno, didn’t like her husband’s extra-curricular children. Schwellenbach’s job is thankless enough, but it wasn’t given to Secretary Schwellenbaeh j him for spite. It was given to him j by his old friend, Harry Truman, because the President believed that, like Hercules, Schwellenbach could deliver. He was a popular, hard working senator. He was a popular, hard-working judge. The requests of goddesses and presidents are com mands, so the judge laid aside his robe, rolled up his sleeves and started in. The first thing he found out when he reached the palatial “stables” on Constitution avenue was that tak ing care of administrative matters would keep any labor secretary as busy as Augeas should have been with his 3,000 oxen. No wonder no body quite dared to try to corral the 20-some agencies, rightly under the authority of the department. To ad minister them would under the present set-up be an impossible job. And so they grew up with their own public relations departments, their own statistical services and le gal advisors, separate entires all going their own sweet, if sometimes conflicting, way. So the first thing that Schwellen bach did was to get together a small group who knew the department, who knew organization and who knew Washington, to find out if something couldn’t be done to knit the functions cf the department more closely together so the head man wouldn’t have to sign all the travel orders and decide whether there was enough ice in the iced tea in the cafeteria; and attend to other trivia which might better be delegated. This was the first step in prepar ing the old home to absorb its prodi gal children. When the new secre tary arrived in his panneled office, he called the staff of the depart ment together and said he knew that everyone agreed that there had to be a reorganization and that each division head also probably agreed that his own group didn’t need to be tampered with. Then he went ahead. As this is written it is hoped that the report of the crew of investiga tors and a pimilar study of the extra-mural activities will be com pleted soon so that a comprehensive report will be laid on President Tru man’s desk by the first of Septem ber. " Reorganization Touchy Problem The next step would logically be an executive order from the Presi dent embodying the Schwellenbach report to make the suggested changes. With his war powers, the President wouldn’t have to ask the pleasure of congress. But President Truman doesn’t want the changes he makes to be temporary affairs. Like every other president since Grover Cleveland, he has requested powers to reorganize the govern ment and never has congress of fered a carte-blanche go-ahead. Such a bill is pending in congress now. However, if the suggestions made by Secretary Schwellenbach were considered reasonable, they might be put into a bill and passed. In any case they will probably be presented before the other measure authorizing wider presidential au thority is considered. In the meantime, labor itseii is tending to cloud the atmosphere in sofar as acceptance of any efforts to restore full, free, collective bar gaining, which the no-strike pledge and various wartime restrictions have virtually suspended. The pub lic is getting very irritated with vio lations of the no-strike pledge and what many feel to be union demands which, whether or not they appear fair as between labor and manage ment, do not take the consumer into consideration. Much of the antagonism is due to the feeling of the men who resented strikes while they were in the serv ice. Schwellenbach managed to smooth out one of the toughest vet erans versus unions troubles the country ever witnessed back in his home state of Washington after the last war. He admits there is no doubt that such antagonism exists now. “We may as well face it,” he says. But he thinks he can handle it. One habit which Schwellenbach wants to break up, and it is as sumed the President wants him to break up, is having labor disputes leap-frog right into the lap of the White House. Some of the old-line labor department officials used to writhe every time a long, hot tele gram went out such as' some of those addressed to John Lewis while the coal strike was going on, which were signed by President Roosevelt, but dictated by the War Labor board, which labor and management had snubbed. These old-timers felt that many of the questions could have been settled with the ma chinery which already existed with in the department. Of course, the War Labor board, which has had all the tasks com plicated by the war to perform, will die with V-J Day. Vows Impartial Labor Department Other separate agencies dealing with labor will continue. The United States Employment service and the apprenticeship and training pro gram are now part of the War Man power commission. Social security is run by the social security board. If the movement to create a new department of welfare succeeds, this new set-up might conceivably ab sorb social security and also the children’s bureau, now under the la bor department. The National Labor Relations board, which administers its quasi judicial functions under the Wagner act, now independent, would have its “housekeeping” done by the de partment—that is, its financing, per sonnel and such matters would be under the secretary of labor. Since Schwellenbach has been in office he has talked to a whole string of labor men and a whole string of management men, too. “I am not a labor official,” he says, “I am a public official.” That pretty well sets up his posi tion and, as I said, it makes his job, so far as the lobbies of labor and management go, about as thankless as the labors of Hercules. Congress feels that the labor department is supposed to look after labor inter ests and what Judge Schwellenbach is shooting at is to have it operate with the impartiality of a court. But his chief concern now is to con solidate under one head all govern ment activities pertaining to labor. BARBS . . . by Baukhage A recent photograph mislabeled “fraternizing” and showing a G.I. talking to a cute brunette was really made in England. * • « When Prime Minister Attlee was in San Francisco an old friend he knew in England years ago invited him to dinner. There was no maid and Attlee helped the wife wash the dishes. Jap Naval Reserves The Japanese navy has not yet reached the bottom of the barrel with respect to manpower reserves. Navy recruiting, U. S. officials say, can still draw on well over 1,500,000 men now engaged in merchant ship ping and fishing. The present non naval maritime population of Japan includes 115.000 holders of mariners’ certificates, 250.000 holders of mari ners’ service books. In 1937, Japan had 364.260 fishing boats, of which 66,299 had engines. Fishermen “dis ciplined to the sea” totaled at least 1,250,000. Canada expects to get more of India’s trade than the United States because it will keep its price con trols on longer than we do. • • * I had the pleasure of making two philological predictions in the war which came true: the addition to readers’ and listeners’ vocabularies of the words “infiltrate” in the mili tary sense and “redeployment.” Heating Unit Costs In selecting heating equipment for the home, it should be remembered that there are two costs—original and operating—to be considered. The cheapest heating system from the standpoint of original first cost is very likely to be the most expen sive to operate. The few dollars difference between dependable, well made equipment, and something which will have to be replaced in a few years is very small when com pared with the annua] expense of fuel. ^UecJiatm iavjt+i I (lefLfvUesi gin WASHINGTON ®By Walter Shead ?H WNU Correspondent id WNU Washington Bureau 621 Union Trust Building. Skyrocketing Land Values FAEPARTMENT of agriculture of ficials and leaders in the farm mortgage credit field are more than a little concerned at the present trend of rapidly increasing farm land values which are skyrocketing in much the same fatal pattern set during and immediately following World War I. Not only is government alarmed over these soaring values, but pri vate industry is equally concerned to such an extent that the Ameri can Bankers Association is urging its country bank members to follow conservative lending policies and to beware of speculators who would boost prices "beyond what bona fide farmers can pay.” As of July 1. the level of farm real estate values had risen to an in dex of 130, or a rise of 53 per cent since March, 1941, as compared to an index of 170 in 1920 or a rise of 65 per cent from 1915 to 1920. But the end of this increase is not yet in sight and, with guaranteed farm prices, return of thousands of vet erans who want farms and relaxa tion of rationing on farm machinery, these farm values may equal or even exceed the “boom” values which crashed with such devastat ing effect in 1922 and later. Farmers Remember ''rash Many thousands of American farmers well remember that crash, when some 450.000 farms, over capitalized at high per acre prices, went the foreclosure and forced sale route. Then from 1926 when farm values started to come back until the crash year of 1929 when values again hit the toboggan, more than 800.000 farms were sold under the hammer of the foreclosure auction eer and went into the portfolios of banks and insurance companies. Will American farmers forget the lesson learned during those years and now, with pockets bulging with money, bid up the prices of farm land to another crash year? There are some contrasts or sav ing factors now, which were not present in the last war: (1) in most areas the level of values started from a point about 15 per cent be low the base of World War I; (2) there are more sales for cash now. about 55 per cent as compared to less than 50 per cent in World War I; (3) farm real estate debt con tinues to decline in spite of soar ing values, whereas during and after World War I, mortgage debt continued to increase. In four years farmers have paid off $1,316,000,000 in farm mortgage debt and the total debt today on farm real estate is $5,271,000,000 or less than half of the all-time peak of 1923 when the debt reached $10,786,000, 000. Parity Guarantee Factor Another favorable factor today is the fact that farm prices are guar anteed by the government at 90 per cent of parity for at least two years following end of the war, a factor not present after World War I. / I%ut in spite of these favor able circumstances, it is pointed out that the large number of re sales (one-eighth of all sales) indicates speculation is influenc ing the farm market . . . that two-fifths of sales during 1944 carried a debt of 75 per cent or more of the purchase price and that in many of these sales involving credit, the farm buy ers have assumed a debt great er than the full market value of the land four years ago . . . that in many cases current sales prices are higher than can be justified on the basis of long time earning capacity. In South Carolina and Kentucky values are up more than double their 1935 - 1939 average, largely because of tobacco prices. Values are up more than 90 per cent in Colorado, 81 per cent in Indiana, Arkansas and Wyoming. 70 per cent in nine other states. Averages are above 1920 levels in one-sixth of the states and equal or above 1919 levels in one-half of the states. To combat these soaring increases the USDA has named a National Agricultural Credit committee of governmental leaders and repre sentatives of major lenders in the farm mortgage credit field to meet in Chicago periodically to plan curbs on the inflationary rise in farm values. But the question still re mains up to the individual farmer: Agriculture, as measured by the true dollar volume of its physical goods has increased from a $49,000, 000,000 industry to a $74,000,000,000 industry during the five-year period ended January 1, 1945. Financial assets such as cur rency, deposits and war bonds in creased from an estimated $5,000, 000,000 on January 1, 1940, to $13, 000,000,000 January 1, 1944, and to nearly $17,000,000,000 on January 1, 1945. Of this $74,000,000,000 indus try, real estate is the farmers' largest single asset, now valued at more than $50,000,000,000. Many Uses for Wood Wood is used in more than 1,200 items of military equipment and supplies. Underfed Population Two-thirds of the people of the world are engaged in agriculture, yet two-thirds are underfed. Those Blinking Eyes The eyelids blink from three to six times a minute. This blinking helps to rest the eyes. I i The Omaha Guide m ^ A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER JL, I Published Every Saturday at 2'ti0 Grant Street OMAHA, NEBRASKA—PHONE HA. 0800 Entered as Second Class Matter March 15, 1927 at the Post Office at Omaha, Nebraska, under Act of Congress of Match 3, 1879. C- C. Galloway,.... Publisher and Acting Editor All News Copy of Churches and all organiz ations must be >n our office not later than 1 :00 p- m. Monday for current issue. All Advertising Copy on Paid Articles, not later than Wednesday noon, preceeding date of issue, to insure public ation SUBSCRIPTION RATE IN OMAHA I ONE YEAR . $3.00 SIX MONTHS . $1.75 THREE MONTHS . $1-25 ! SUBSCRIPTION RATE OUT OP TOWN ONE YEAR . $3 no SIX MONTHS . $2 00 National Advertising Representatives— INTERSTATE UNITED NEWSPAPERS, Inc £ 545 Filth Avenue, New York City, I’hone: — > MUrray Hill 2-5452, Ray Peck, Manager I-—WEEKLY NEWS ANALYSIS_ Fleets Rake Japan as Big Three Parley Points up Peace Talk; Senate Moves for Global Unity —-Released by Western Newspaper Union. ■..■ , . (EDITOR’S NOTE: When opinions are expressed in these columns, they are those of Western Newspaper Union's news analysts and not necessarily of this newspaper.) I 4 i mi TMSBML't * v4 ^ JMSWW'frA WStff Frightened by invasion of U. S. marines of island off of Okinawa, Jap women are put at ease by Lt. H. P. Barrand of Stamford, Conn. PACIFIC: Keep Going While the nation’s capital buzzed with peace talk and Australian newspapers hinted of sensational de velopments, U. S. and British carrier planes continued to rake the Japa nese homeland and the Allied fleets kept up the bombardment of Nippon’s sprawling coastline. Scorched by Allied fire, the Japs still refused to come out and fight. Propagandists were seeking to calm the populace with the assertion that the U. S. and British attacks were designed to feel them out and they would strike at the proper time. Having joined with the fleet in rak ing shipping and transport facilities linking the coal-producing island of Hokkaido with Honshu, and pound ing factories on Honshu itself, car rier planes swept over Tokyo bay to shoot up combat vessels at anchor. Presumably remnants of the once proud Imperial fleet, the warships were covered by a heavy screen of anti-aircraft fire as U. S. and Brit ish airmen closed in. Peace talk was pointed tip by per sistent rumors that Marshal Stalin might have brought Japanese peace terms to the Big Three meeting at i President Truman (left) greets Prime Minister Churchill at Berlin. Berlin and the report that President Truman presented the conferees with American surrender conditions drawn up by the war, navy and state departments. Rumor that Russia’s Big Boss might have borne Jap terms was ac centuated by a newspaper report from London that a high Soviet of ficial revealed that the Reds would transmit a definite surrender offer to the U. S. if it was forthcoming, and that Moscow would have to give the deepest consideration to entry into the Pacific war in view of the heavy losses suffered against Germany. Reportedly in the possession of Mr. Truman, the American surren der conditions supposedly include the relinquishment of all military equip ment; the disbandment of Jap forces; destruction of war indus try; supervision over enemy ship building, manufacture and port facilities, and punishment of war . criminals. Rife in the U. S., peace talk was equally lively in Australia, where the Sydney Sun editorialized: “The end of the war may come with dra | matic suddenness . . . Hirohito is j still the god-emperor. By one stroke of a pen he could relieve Japan’s 1 terrors and make peace. There is | every reason to believe that United j States policy is preserving him for I that part in the drama.” Meanwhile, U. S. military chief tains, sticking to the American max im that the game is never over until the last batter is out, discounted the peace talk and hewed to the big job ahead. SENATE: Global Pacts With public opinion strongly cast for co-operative effort to prevent fu ture warfare, international security and monetary agreements headed for comparatively quick passage ih the senate. Overwhelmingly approved by the house, the Bretton Woods monetary agreements creating a bank of re construction and fund for stabilizing currencies passed the senate, with Taft (Rep., Ohio) leading a losing fight against the measures. Charging that high pressure tac tics have been employed to sell the agreements to the country, Taft sought to amend the $9,100,000,000 Hank and $8,800,000,000 fund so as to assure the responsibility of bor rowers drawing upon American con tributions of $3,175,000,000 to the bank and $2,750,000,000 to the fund. While proponents of the Bretton Woods agreements declared that the bank was necessary to permit the economic development of foreign na tions, and the fund would permit countries to obtain currency at fair levels for international trade, oppo nents charged that there were no provisions In the plans compelling the members to stabilize their in ternal conditions to guarantee full redemption of their obligations. Concurrent with the agreements, the senate considered approval of the house - passed increase in the lending authority of the Export-Im port bank from $700,000,000 to $3, 500,000,000 to finance sales and pur chases abroad until the Bretton Woods pacts can be implemented. With only 1 of 22 members of the senate foreign relations committee in opposition, the United Nations secu rity charter was sent to the upper chamber for speedy passage. Al though not promising that the pact would prevent war, the committee declared it provided the basis for peaceful settlement of disputes. FOOD: Plain Talk Along with the war, food remained the major item of interest to Ameri cans, with Secretary of Agriculture Anderson warning of tight supplies into 1946 even while the Office of War Information prepared to launch an all-out propaganda drive to convince the U. S. of the necessity of tighten ing its belt to help feed impov erished Europe. Declaring that the present food shortage was the result of faulty planning last year, Anderson said prior to increased production in 1946 his office would seek to relieve present scarcities by stifling black markets, improving distribution and holding army and foreign relief re quirements to minimums. Except for milk, wheat, potatoes and fresh vegetables, most foods will remain in tight supply, Anderson said, with continued scarcities in meats, fats, oils, condensed and evaporated milk and canned fruits and vegetables. Rice and dry beans also will run short, he revealed. Meanwhile, the OWIs mapped its propaganda campaign upon orders from the White House, following the report that the U. S. would have to provide most of the relief shipments to liberated Europe. In addition to pointing out the need for supplying the continent, the OWI also will is sue periodic statements on contribu tions being made by Great Britain, Russia, Canada and other nations. Pertinent to American relief ship ments abroad, Senator Wheeler (Dem., Mont.) told newspaper men that after having been promised adequate supplies by American au thorities, Europeans expect this country to stand by its word. “Al ready in Europe, people are saying that they were treated better be fore they were liberated,’’ Wheeler declared. WAR PRODUCTION: Tapering Off I Haying already dropped to an an-1 nual rate of 49.9 billion dollars in July from 60.7 billion in March, war production will be further slashed during the rest of the year, reflect ing decreased demands for a one front conflict. By December, production of air craft will be down to 800 million dol lars from the July figure of 1 bil lion; ships 500 million from 700 mil lion; guns and fire control 100 mil lion from 200 million; combat and motor vehicles 200 million from 300 million; communications and elec tronic equipment 200 million from 300 million, and other items and sup plies 900 million from 1 billion. | Of major munitions, only produc tion of ammunition will hold steady at 600 million dollars, with doubled output of rockets helping to ofTset reductions in other explosives. HARD WORKERS: More Meat . In line with its policy of provid-] ing extra meat and other foods for' persons engaged in hard physical la bor, OPA announced that miners would be granted additional meat! rations starting in August. OPA action followed the walkout of 10,000 miners from Illinois pits,1 climaxing a series of strikes throughout the country. Leaving their jobs after their leaders de clared they “can’t dig coal on let tuce sandwiches,” the Illinois miners demanded an extra meat ra tion of 50 red points per month. Though 1,500 foundry workers in neighboring localities joined the striking Illinois miners, OPA action did not include workers in other strenuous occupations in the liber alization of meat rations. RECONVERSION: Old Prices Working to head off runaway prices in the reconversion period be fore demand can more evenly bal ance with supply, OPA has drawn up an elaborate formula aimed at holding the cost of consumer goods to the 1942 level. Under the formula, manufacturers doing an annual business of $200,000 a year or more may add increased labor and material costs to their prices, but may apply only half the industry-wide profit margin of 1936 to 1939 so as to keep the overall selling figure down. Producers in the lower brackets, however, may apply their own profit margins to their prices. To help speed reconversion, indi vidual manufacturers will be per mitted to work out their own prices and submit them to OPA for ap proval before the government can formulate general industry - wide costs. -7 Wife Defends II Duce Long in the background, Donna Rachele Mussolini emerged briefly to hotly challenge declarations that the late II Duce was an irresponsible philan derer strongly influ enced by a bevy of mistresses. Staling her husband teas closest to her when he was down, and most distant when he was up, Donna Rachele averred that “Mussolini never had anything to do with any woman. All that propaganda they put out just to ruin him. I was the only one he thought anything of und I was the only woman who thought something of him.” Snuppily attired, with a silk kerchief embracing her hair-do, Donna Rachele bitterly defended her late husband, be lying the popular impression of her as , a mere kitchen wench who hud cured f for his children. “They blame him for r everything,” she rasped. “The blame should be placed on other people, from Badoglio to the king.” JOBLESS GRANTS: Seek Increase Seeking to cushion the nation for the full shock of reconversion, Sen ator Kilgore (Dem., W. Va.) intro duced a comprehensive bill extend ing coverage of unemployment com pensation, boosting payments and fi nancing job relocations. Under Kilgore’s measure, federal, maritime and agricultural process ing workers would be included in coverage of unemployment compen sation, and the benefits also would be extended to employees in firms of less than eight people. At the same time, the federal gov ernment would contribute the differ ence to bring state unemployment compensation payments up to a maximum of $25 weekly for 26 weeks a year. Vets’ benefits would be increased to $25 for single per sons and $30 for those with depend ents for 52 weeks. Workers referred to jobs in other cities would be” given travel allowances.