U.S. Set to Tighten Belts of Non-War Workers To Feed Army, Defense Employees Properly
Harding, T. Swann
U.S. Set to Tighten Belts of Non-War Workers To Feed Army, Defense Employees Properly By T. SWANN HARDING This is the first of two articles.] QCIENTIFIC management of the food supply ^* is a...
...Is it surprising, therefore, that Labor found its confidence in him shaken when, after the Price Bill passed, Henderson reversed himself and came out for wage freezing...
...We must forget price and profits and see that all our people are properly fed...
...Senator Brown carried the ball for the United Auto Workers in Michigan on housing problems in the overcrowded defense areas of that State, and he led the fight for the Price Control Bill with surprising vigor although he knew it meant political suicide for his senatorial career...
...This work is all to the good...
...Members of Congress can make themselves very popular these days by complaining about practically everything that is done which causes trouble or inconvenience to the people...
...effective use of manpower (both for the armed forces and on the production lines) ; "economic stabilization," and price control...
...it serves 2.500,000 even yet— dependent children ,some of the aged, the blind, crippled, and chronically ill, who cannot fend for themselves, and the unemployed in regions where war industry has not yet extended...
...Responsibility in the next Congress will be upon the conservatives of that Congress because they will be an overwhelming majority...
...No patent rights or monopolistic agreements must be permitted to block the full and free use by every qualified manufacturer of the most efficient methods of producing the things we need...
...Congress has a duty to design a program for post-war economic reconstruction upon which the people can base some substantial hope...
...5 It is an ironic commentary that Lahor is ge*> ting greater recognition from Leon Henderson now that his star has fallen than when it was in the ascendant...
...No group can exercise control without accepting responsibility as well...
...The answer might well be that almost every group in the country—however well disposed it might be towards Henderson for reasons of aiding the war effort, or through loyalty to Roosevelt, or because generally it is on the side of the New Deal—has had at least one experience with Henderson which led it to regard him as undependable...
...The degree to which it fulfills its responsibilities may even determine to a great extent the future of democratic institutions in America...
...These two systems, however, have been found to regulate distribution fairly well...
...Consequently we must get up another money system and another pricing mechanism beside the one we already have...
...A civilian on heavy war work must be provided for at very nearly the same level...
...When the soldiers come back from this war they will expect jobs to be ready foi...
...They can buy with it, only such articles as the government permits to be available at controlled Prices somewhat more favorable to them than »ose of peacetime inflation...
...Food must not only be produced...
...Nor were the overtone reassuring when Henderson told the convention of the National Association of Manufacturers: "I'm reporting to you as a straw boss to the board of directors...
...But civilians not on war work can do with less...
...recently were having more influence than before...
...This basic funfcion of interpreting problems of the war to^Kie people and problems of the people to tne"-government should be constructive in its whole approach...
...Probably the best contribution to the work of Congress in this field has been rendered by such committees as the Toian and Truman Committees, both of which have recently been pointing out the need for the setting up of an office of War Mobilization as an over-all...
...or will that guiding rule be to do those things which will promote that war effort regardless of how such action affects the New Deal or even the election of 1944 ? For example, what will the next Congress do about the school lunch program now carried on by local sponsoring groups and the Department of Agriculture...
...4NE problem about which there has been a great deal of talk, considerable legislation and very little effective action is the problem of little business...
...It is important for the people to understand that whether Democratic or Republican party members organize or dominate the next Con...
...Deputy Administrator and head of the Price Division, who told the more economically-aware housewives that...
...Yet, when the Tories, their jowls slavering with anticipation of the feast after the new Congress convenes, opened their attack on Henderson, the latter did eot hesitate to call on Labor for support he in nowise had earned...
...During wartime civilians are permitted to retain some money,—not a great deal, but some...
...Progressive groups in communities throughout the nation were puzzled and shaken when New Dealer Henderson filled his field staff offices with reactionaries...
...To appease employers, he estranged labor...
...Certainly, Henderson had given labor nothing to obligate its support...
...In the midst of total war it is simply impossible for our lives to go on as they could do in peace time or for individuals to escape a very considerable amount of interference with their personal liberties...
...The food- " stamp plan once served 4,700,000 persons eligible for such relief...
...It is only proper to report that Henderson has been trying to make good his promises to Labor The labor-liaison men in...
...gress, it will be controlled by conservative if not reactionary forces...
...The downfall of Leon Henderson lay in that he was an appeaser...
...But it must be brought together somewhere or its net value will be small indeed...
...Finally come civilians, some of whom must accept what they would normally regard as considerable privation in order that the limited supplies can be made to provide for those who have lived in chronic privation during peace...
...They have a right to expect that at the very least...
...Obviously, the first duty of Congress to the nation at war is to provide the necessary funds and legislative authorizations to make the military machine as strong as possible...
...While speaking in the House of Representatives in support of my bill I said: "I certainly would not propose one thing that could in the slightest degree interfere with the war...
...Henderson invited a group of AFL and CIO leaders to his home several weeks ago when the handwriting on the wall had vecome clear, made many promises to reform his ways, and pleaded for their aid...
...it can never be done by voting no...
...We cannot afford such luxuries in wartime, because these people suffer from impaired efficiency and slow down the war effort...
...That hope has got to be based on the reasonable assurance that there will be full employment without the loss of economic liberty or personal freedom and that we can and will continue full production for peace even as we are now achieving it for war...
...On January 22nd of 1942 I introduced a bill which contained the following paragraph: "No person shall be appointed to or hold any office or position in any department or agency of the United States Government if such person is in receipt of compensation from any private corporation, partnership, or organization...
...It is our primary tool for making an equitable democratic distribution of limited supplies...
...We must share and ration when essential foods reach actual shortage...
...But every single member of Congress has a duty not only to point out what is wrong, but much more important, to seek its correction with any means at his command—and there are such means...
...Such men, for instance, as New England Regional Administratior Kenneth B. Backman who, even after he became an...
...In addition, Congress ought long since to have brought to an end the practice of letting governmental decisions be made by people still on the payrolls of private corporations...
...During war we must seek to remember that a mere abundance of some food does not mean plenty for all...
...but I tell you as time goes on the thing that will strengthen the war effort of this nation and every other nation more than anything else I know of, except the bravery of the men in the armed forces itself, will be for us to demonstrate to the people of this nation and other nations that a democratic body like this is capable of taking the leadership in working out in democratic fashion the difficult and complex problems of the future...
...There ought not to be any dollar-a-year men...
...did not want a Gestapo" checking on the chiselers...
...it must be processed, stored, transported, and distributed...
...We are beginning to manage our own food supply far more efficiently than we did while at peace...
...There may be some members who will say that "money should be saved" by cutting this program down or even abolishing it...
...First of all, naturally, come the armed forces, those of our allies who must have food, and workers in heavy war industry...
...As has been said over and over by the very factions that will control the 78th Congress, the major responsibility of Congress is the promotion Of the war effort without regard to any political consideration whatsoever...
...The future of democratic government and of American institutions will depend upon the Congress being ready when this war ends with a well-rounded and democratically conceived reconstruction program whereby jobs can be assured our people, our freedom of economic life preserved, and our nation's political institutions kept secure...
...IN the fighting of a war for democracy it is a safe rule to apply democratic principles in all we do".' There are some who will interpret the last elections as a desire on the part of the country to just go reactionary...
...Brown comes from a conservative background...
...It would probably cost $1,500,000,000 a year to subsidize our food industry sufficiently to lower prices to the point where all could procure their necessary food ration in the market...
...It is neither desirable nor proper for Congress to be complacent when the administration of programs of control over the lives of the people is inefficiently or inconsiderately carried on...
...In what greater way could a Congress serve the people of a nation at war...
...England has accomplished this largely by direct subsidy of the food industry...
...Returning to meat as an example, its essential effect is to cut the consumption of those who eat 5 pounds or more per week, but to raise that of those who consume only 14 pounds, though the dead-level average consumption may be lowered for the nation...
...not that we will institute now the things we believe should be done then, but we will go through the process of submitting them and sifting them before the bar of public opinion and g^t the grass roots opinion of the American nation in order that we may be intelligently able to proceed with a constructive legislative program for fundamental lasting health for the American economy when the war has been won...
...And a plan has been perfected for staffing local ration boards with labor representatives...
...We must produce only enough food, clothing, housing, and equipment to do the job...
...Whether the replacement of Henderson by Prentiss Brown...
...not jobs in some emergency program...
...We must resort to functional means of getting the foods they require into their cooking utensils...
...Leon Henderson tried to be all things to all men, and in the end he remained nothing to anybody...
...Such foods must be used heavily at particular times and places to prevent waste, to take the pressure off scarcer foods, and to maintain production...
...For the production, processing, and distribution of foods will rapidly become a functional operation divorced from profit and the bungling peacetime ways of private enterprise...
...That is because we cannot afford the luxury of rationing essential goods on a price and income basis...
...Consumers must rely more and more on local produce, less and less on canned and preserved foods, and on exotic foods shipped in from far points because out of season or of special quality...
...If we expect to shorten the war it is more, not less, necessary than before that we marshal, conserve and bring to bear every reserve we have in our possession...
...Department Store (mentioned odorifer-ously in the LaFollette Committee investigations) or in San Francisco the Hoover-Republican Harry- F. Camp (whose assistants came mainly from various Chambers of Commerce...
...them...
...Wartime differs from peacetime rationing in being more justly applied...
...He was the last of the New Deal Brain Trusters to remain close to the throne...
...Perishable commodities which will frequently be in local, if not national, abundance must be consumed, not wasted...
...But to buy, they must also have funny money, * system of ration coupons...
...And, not in spite of the war but because of it, we ought to be expanding our school lunch program until it becomes a direct national attack upon undernourishment wherever it exists—at least among our "children...
...If, however, the result is understood as simply an insistence by the people on less confusion, less arbitrary action by government officials, more complete and candid explanations on why certain measures are adopted by the government, clearer understanding of what governmental policy is going to be, and greater governmental efficiency, then real good can result...
...Next come workers in essential civilian industries which, however, must be cut to the bone...
...We must learn to make this sufficiently palatable to use as an acceptable substitute for scarcer high-protein foods...
...They should recognize this and the people of the country have a right to know it...
...Nor was Labor's confidence restored by Henderson's attempt to upset the wage stabilization plan for the West Coast plane industry...
...If Henderson has a reputation for having guts...
...The altogether right desire on the part of most members of Congress to bring to an end the extra ordinary powers of the executive as soon as the war has been won will likewise depend on the Congress being ready to offer a constructive program in their place...
...Even at best perhaps a quarter of our population will still be unable to buy the food it requires at existing ceiling prices...
...One thing Congress can and should do in this connection is to pass a law making it illegal for restrictions on the use of patented processes to be continued...
...I do think it is a job where Congress should take the initiative and the leadership, drawing upon the cooperative help of others...
...I do not believe the responsibility ought to rest ultimately with a single body except the Congress, and if Congress neglects the job long enough it will, in my judgment, have neglected the most important obligation we have, next to the war itself...
...To appease the general public, he estranged the merchants...
...Hence in 1938 families with incomes of less the $500 per year averaged 1 Va pounds of meat per person per week while families with incomes of $6,000 or more averaged 5 pounds...
...It is, however, its duty to do everything in its power to streamline and make more effective the war effort on the home front...
...Only scientific food management on a national scale can solve this problem...
...What is important is what answer the conservative majority in the next Congress will give on this question: Will the guiding rule of its conduct be to destroy every aspect ' of the New Deal whether this helps or hurts the war effort...
...We have developed the school lunch, low-price milk, food-stamp and other plans...
...Among the New Deal Pretorian Guard there is, naturally enough, anger and bitterness...
...But the duty of Congress is to give to this nation the most constructive and dynamic leadership which the people of this great country deserve, and which at such a time as this is, indeed, indispensable to the national morale, rather than to emphasize the admitted difficulties and hardships of these times...
...Direct subsidy is resorted to when ne<eessary to be certaain that no one goes without...
...But the other part of this job is that of interpreting to those in charge of various phases of the war program the needs and opinions of the people, and insisting that decent consideration be given them...
...THERE are a lot of persons who are studying *· and planning for the post-war period— corporations, labor organizations, a dozen executive agencies, and many others...
...But also such food, clothing, and civilian goods as are produced must be distributed among the members of the population far more equitably than private enterprise accomplishes this at peace...
...But by that time, it wac too late...
...In a time when the supply of certain kinds of food may be short it becomes more than ever important fof it to be fairly divided among the people...
...And as time goes on, and as we read longer casualty lists, as the people of the country are asked to submit to rationings that they have not been asked to submit to yet, as we attempt to fight this total war to victory there will be increasing need to have planted firmly in the people's hearts a substantial hope for a brighter future for America...
...It seems to me elementary that parties at interest should not be making decisions which in many cases affect the very existence of their competitors in business...
...That in my judgment can never be done simply by criticizing this or any other administration...
...This does not mean that as a legislative body the Congress should ignore those things that are unquestionably wrong with the war effort...
...New Deal Senator from Michigan who lost his seat last November, is for better or worse still remains to be seen...
...There you have the core of a rationing system...
...To appease Big Business, he estranged Little Business...
...The right to freeze wages is the right of a ruler over his subjects...
...We have Victory Food Specials to direct attention to such foods...
...And so on around the merry-go-round...
...But at least equally do we need to establish definite lines of command in the economic and war production field of our war effort Up to this time we have been without such definite lines of economic command, Far too little over-all planning for the mobilization of all our resources of every sort has been done...
...DROPER national food management in war-* time would not include cutting the food supplies of such people...
...Thus the consumer requires both ordinary money and funny money, or coupons, to purchase, and she is confronted by prices both in cents and in points when she does so...
...By Jerry Voorhh Member of Congress A Conservative Congress and the Progressive Tasks Ahead THE 78th Congress, which will take office in January, will be one of the most crucial in all American history...
...The whole future of free democratic government depends upon whether or not the American Congress can regain after this war its rightful position, influence and power...
...in education or in the churches of the nation or in cooperatives of the people— farmers, consumers, and others...
...This is done ao inefficiently that it is extravagantly costly...
...And yet this is exactly what dollar-a-year men in many instances do...
...And so there are few to mourn, and fewer still moved to fight for him...
...Least of all can it be done by blocking necessary war measures or using the war to foist a reactionary program upon the people...
...And that has happened...
...In this way the most important possible step could be taken toward the elimination of confusion and contradiction of policy, and toward ending once and for all the conflict and competition in matters of production...
...The articles to be purchased may, in addition to their price, be rated relatively to one another by a system of points which do not correspond directly to price...
...Mich'., member of the Michigan State Board of Legal Examiners and then Senator Consumers may take hope from the fact that any man who has raised seven children—three sons and four daughters—as Senator Brown has —cannot be altogether unaware of the consumer angle...
...These facilities are all very hard pressed by war woric Food cannot have full right of way...
...And anyway...
...In wartime, rationing is designed to give all persons the basic essentials...
...Such an interpretation will be wrong and great harm can result from it...
...Bationing is not a form of mass punishment destined to overtake us because we sinned by hoarding or wastefulness...
...Such an outstanding national commission as my bill House Joint Resolution 291 has proposed would include not only members of Congress at its center but also members of the executive departments and people from outside the government completely — people coming in to work out a democratic answer to America's future problems because of their experience in industry, labor or agriculture...
...I do not think this is a job for Congress to do alone...
...It can only be accomplished by the Congress taking real constructive leadership, advancing on its own in-, dependent initiative workable and effective solutions to the problems of the nation—and then carrying them through...
...He is 53 and a lawyer He has been a public official for many years—as public prosecutor of St...
...Ignace...
...official remained on the payroll of Boston's Better Business Bureau until that fact became publicly known, or in Southern California Neil Petrie of the notoriously anti-labor Barker Bros...
...117E have heard much about the desirability ** of what is called a unified military command...
...In wartime there must be no surplus production of any goods, except those for the destruction of human life and property...
...Men in positions of governmental responsibility should be on the payroll of the government and on no other payroll...
...We must buy many foods in bulk that we formerly purchased in cans...
...More and more civilians will be asked to make food substitutions and to use new foods and byproducts...
...In my opinion, Congress could therefore well consider very seriously the legislation brought forth by the Tolan Committee providing for the office of War Mobilization...
...A soldier must be warmly and expensively clad, very well fed, housed as well as possible, and provided with medical care...
...Senator Brown is not marked for any lack of them...
...It is important from two standpoints: first, that of the very great danger to democracy which the present increase in monopoly power is creating, and second, that of achieving full use of all our productive plant—whether it be big business or little business...
...And anger still rankles among organized consumer groups whose desire to help police price ceilings earned them a slap in the face as "fifth wheelers" from J. K. Gal'braith...
...Indeed we have had a number of agencies competing with one another for authority, for materials, for production facilities, for manpower...
...Members of Congress are first and foremost representatives of the people who elect them...
...Food is then rationed in the market on a basis of price, and those who do not have the price to meet costs which include many unnecessary and exorbitant charges cannot buy...
...It is probably necessary to point out that even though we have occupied North Africa this war is far from won and that there will be bitter and difficult days and hard campaigns ahead...
...To appease the merchant*, he estranged the consumers...
...Set to Tighten Belts of Non-War Workers To Feed Army, Defense Employees Properly By T. SWANN HARDING This is the first of two articles.] QCIENTIFIC management of the food supply ^* is a fundamental wartime problem...
...Finally...
...For instance, before the Price Bill was passed last January, Henderson said...
...It is not a function of Congress to run the military side of the war...
...No more energy, material, and equipment must be used for the production of food than is absolutely essential and necessary...
...Possibly in time even rationed articles may be put on the food-stamp list to bring them within the reach of low-income people...
...llfHAT happens to meat must happen soon to " many other foods...
...But those people cannot go underfed...
...The clear answer that the coming Congress should give to the current popular feeling is a constructive record of legislative leadership...
...What is surprising is to find so little of either emotion anywhere else...
...If civilians can get along on an average of 2 or 2Vb pounds of meat a week they must do so, though soldiers may require 6 or 7 pounds...
...They would then be able to buy what their ration books allowed them...
...An examination of the record of the Congress in recent years will show that Cnogress has* never failed to do this very promptly indeed...
...It is a democratic system established to divide the barest possible minimum among all so that on the average they do not suffer too much...
...The fact that part of them are in one party and part in the other is unimportant...
...Behind Henderson's Failure — The Passing of a 'Brain-Truster' By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D.C.—It is curious that there are so few to mourn the passing of Leon Henderson from the ranks of the mighty...
...The Consumer movement holds Henderson responsible for wrecking OPA's consumer division...
...The only sure way to protect the position and powers of our National Legislature is to nse that position and those powers so effectively in the national interest and to offer such unswerving and really unselfish service to the people, that their faith in the capacity of democratic government will be increasingly strengthened...
...Therefore, one of its most essential roles is that of interpreting to the nation the reasons for various measures necessary to be taken by government in carrying on the war...
...policy.determining agency that could coordinate the entire war program...
...The President already had decided it would be impossible to make a fight for Henderson...
...At peace, for instance, food is produced, processed, and distributed by ill-integrated industries...
...It is only rationalized in wartime...
...I Rationing is not peculiar to wartime...
...It should not include a reduction in milk consumption by children who benefit from the low-priced milk program, or a reduction in the food consumption of children now served school lunches they are unable to purchase...
...This is a problem in food management...
...They require only sufficient to maintain health and minimum well-being...
...material' supply...
...But the jobs ought to be jobs which they can depend on...
...But it is a strong people that is the all-important goal of America today...
...URING the thirties, we could somehow get along while a third of our population went underfed, poorly clothed, and ill-housed...
...It is not a system to provide amply for anyone or to improve the living standards of everyone...
...Incomes rise, demand increases while supplies inevitably decrease...
...Spareribs may be worth a fourth as much as roast beef in price but it may prove expedient to evaluate them at only a tenth the price of roast beef on the point system in order to promote their consumption at specific times...
...There is no denying the' fact that the impact of the war upon the lives of all Americans will mean greater and greater difficulties as time goes on...
...That, added to other factors, penalizes people on low incomes...
...Other groups have similar complaints...
...If we are to produce enormous quantities of soybeans to make up the oil defiicit, a tremendous amount of soybean presscake is going to be left after the oil is extracted...
Vol. 26 • January 1943 • No. 1
