Washington and the Nation
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington and the Nation Capital Round-up Shows New Deal Died a Year Ago By JONATHAN STOUT WASHINGTON, D. C—It i8 traditional at the-had? Co'Neu, Leader with that aa a guide, to seek out the...
...The new reactionary majority a coalition of tory Democrats and the Republican opposition, is whetting the surgical knives for their first real chance to gut the New Deal's social reforms of the past 10 years...
...April 3—"One of the critical battles of the war on the home front Is raging in the Washington trenches as this is written...
...meMl"gful- 80 much> M...
...the unions were to sign contracts embodying tlie award...
...7 (Scoop)—The New Leader is in a position, today to state on reliable information that French authorities in North Africa shortly will announce a comprehensive extension of full French citizenship on an equal and democratic basis to both the Jewish, and Arab populations of Algeria...
...8 on the Canning Industry—it was learned exclusively this week by the New leader 'We have got to get along with industry,' was the explanation Bowles is said to hdve given his subordinates in OPA...
...strike vote was planned as a pi oli t against the action of Economic Stabilization liiic.tor Vinson in voiding an ai Miration hoard award in May for an increase of eight cents an hour...
...Jan...
...The latest OPA surrender of consumer interests is to the big drug and chemical companies iii^ the vitamin manufacturing line- Administrator Chester Bowles has saved the day for them...
...The AFI, is fighting current Administiation policies every step of the way...
...28 (Scoop)—"The hottest isjue inside the War Production Board right/now is the question of clothes rationing...
...Nov...
...The strike, which has been spreading steadily for three weeks, this week brought a near meat and butter famine throughout the United States as production in these two food essentials was deliberately curtailed over 50 per cent by profiteering meat packers and the dairy trust...
...In some re*peels it has been a startling...
...But the Soviet Embassy ' sharply attacks this suggestion in its official information bulletin...
...Oct...
...Jan...
...21—"Reaching the high water mark of reaction established by the viciously anti-labor Smith-Connall) Act, President Roosevelt this week issued an Executive Order providing for union< busting, government blacklisting of workers and the drafting of strikers into the Army as a penalty...
...The heads ox the 15 railway brotherhoods conferred here this week on citing a date for issuing strike ballots to 1,250,000 vailrond workers...
...The struggle revolves about 'grade labeling.' On the outcome depend several issues: 1. The problem of effective price controls n< keep the «ost of living within bound:- 2. Tire fiito of Prentiss Brown as OPA Administrator...
...25 (Scoop)—"OPA is still in full retreat before the drive of the War Profiteers Lobby on Capitol Hill...
...and delivered to Stalin political hegemony over the Balkans...
...That was the net impression left on your correspondent in an off-the-record interview Bowles granted the New Leader the same day the President announced his elevation from OPA general manager to administrator...
...This violates the President's 'hold the line' freeze order, it will force higher milk and meat prices and gives the Hunger Bloc much of what it wanted in the recently-vetoed Bankliead Bill., The corn ceiling raise is a nickel bribe to persuade the grain speeu lators to unloose some of their hoarded stocks of feed grains...
...18 (Scoop)—"American womanhood has to pay through the hose when she tries to keep her shapely gams in stockings these days, according to a confidential OPA report which reveals hosiery manufacturers' war profits are as high as 704 per cent above pre-war profits...
...Aug...
...Faced with this fait accompli, the United States Governmenjt is prepared to go alopg with Britain on lending military support to the Partisans...
...And that the Administration's Director of Economic Stabilization should wave a threatening finger at the men who voted for the Smith-Connally Act and threaten to scrap the Little Steel formula if they vote an eight cents an hour raise for the railroad workers...
...9 (Scoop)—"Several months ago the OPA Division of Research made a study of the war profits •t1.7W of the larger industrial corporations, and tOO of tha more important war contractors...
...The important anes-tUo mm 1st WiH the President light or parley...
...23 (Scoop)—^'Bowing to the pressure and threats of the politically-powerful Food Packers Lobby, OPA General Manager Chester A- Bowles has made a gesture of appeasement toward' war profiteers^ enraged by tjie limelight of publicity by ordering suppressed the latest OPA War Profits Study —volume No...
...In the condensed form that space limitations enforces, of 1943 as it was unfolded week-by-week in these columns...
...11—"In the 3-power agreement on the territorial integrity of Iran, Russia paid off politically for its swag in the deal of last September in which Britain double-crossed our ally, the Yugoslavian Government...
...The Soviet attack is not against the idea of a post-war central European federation, but on the fact that the Polish plan does not include the (>9fiyjpt„Unipn., Tbe^sort of federation acceptable to Moscow, the...
...13—"As dispiriting a spectacle as any in Washington these days is what is happening to the Department of Agriculture...
...of the landlords, canners, packers, shippers, food speculators, dairy trust and other Big Business toll-takers in the spread between producers and consumers...
...The facts show that unlimited profits constitute the real inflationary threat...
...And under the pressure of the canners' and packers' lobby, OPA Administrator Prentiss Brown appears to be in full retreat...
...4 (Scoop)—"As though offering a timely yardstick by which to measure the claims and counterclaims in the food subsidy fight, there came to light this week a study by the OPA on rental housing...
...20—"At this fin-de-siecle of the New Deal, it is more than high drama—it is a.significant political commentary and augury for 1944—that the railway workers should, be going to a reactionary Congress for the justice which has been denied them by a presumbaly pro-labor Administration...
...Men in the President's own party speak of undoing his work of the past 10 >ears The Speaker of the House, traditionally next in power to the President, lashes the appointees of hk chief as 'bureaucrats...
...And it Is precisely at these twin ?pwurs of strength that thn big canners and packers are hacking away—with every prospect of success...
...OPA, he has decided, will not set ceiling prices on vitamin preparations...
...i The year behind has been more than ordinarily i forget even significant event...
...The New Deal this week has officially become past history...
...The railway situation was visibly growing worse...
...One was the fight of anti-Administration forces to prohibit usae of government subsidies to hold down food prices...
...25 (Scoop)—"At the moment, the hottest bit of speculation is on whether Secretary Hull will go to Moscow to take part in the tripartite conference next month of American, British and Soviet foreign ministers...
...Co'Neu, Leader with that aa a guide, to seek out the trends and directions th^iu '**ew, Year to 8eek a Perspective through the haze of the year behind and this New Year's Day...
...Led by meat packers and the dairy trust in an apparently well-planned and concerted plot to sabotage the war effort, criminal war profiteers in the food packing, processing, handling and distribution trades were this week engaged in a gigantic, nation-wida strike to break even those relatively feeble efforts made by the government to date to maintain soma sort of control over prices...
...It is time to stop talking of the New Deal in the present tense...
...Labor circles here were stunned by the development, which not only implements the Smith-Connelly Act but also appears to anticipate some of the worst features of the Austin -Wsdswerth Labor Draft Bill...
...Dec...
...The .v} <¦'* present scheme of economic stobllltation to uicvt> inflation...
...The germ 'of what might develop into a 'United States of Europe' has been advanced by the Polish,government-in-exile in London...
...Why does not the government sell some of its own wheat and corn reserves for feed and thus break the speculators' holdup...
...The recent resignations of Herbert Paresius an* Donald Montgomery give evidence of how the soul of the New Deal is fast withering in the'tory wind blowing from Capitol Hill...
...T ¦ r°Ugh *he 99st mr'8 fl,e of disP»t«"** 'n>m the Washington Bureau here are some of the highlight of the story experience in backward views...
...What the volumes raesal is that, while the War Labor Board has been haggling about giving 15 per cent wage increases to » handful, of workers here and there, the top Big Business concerns running our war effort have increased their normal profits anywhere from 200 to 800 pe i- cent between the outbreak of the war in 1939 to the middle of 1048...
...The OPA study reveals that landlords have increased their profits between 34'r and 36</f—without raising rents—merely on the basis of better business conditions, fewer vacancies and lowered operating costs...
...The deal was made without participation of the United States...
...happened that most of us are apt to of the New Leader...
...14 (Scoop)—"Corroboration of the recent series in The New Leader pointing to the war profiteering of the middlemen in the food industry as justification of labor's demands for increased wages was forthcoming this week from tho Office of Price, Administration when your correspondent was able to obtain a copy of Volume 6 of the OPA series of War Profits Studies showing that the food profiteers have increased their profits as high aa S00 per cent or more between 1939 and 1942...
...Thoae...
...May 29—"Attacks on the Office of Price Administration this week have taken a new direction which threatens complete destruction of OPA and all further efforts at price control...
...article implies, would be one worked out , with Russian cooperation...
...Dec...
...Although Roosevelt has not yet been engulfed in it personally, unti-Administration feeling is beginning to run impatiently in labor curies here...
...To refresh my memory Thiv^i...
...Jan.-2.—"Der Tag dawns for the tories next Wednesday when the new Congress convenes on Capitol Hill...
...The unions say they are tired of 'getting the run-around' from the Administration...
...are the two towers on which the suspension bridge pf price control rests...
...The little" item was the one-<isy, stoppage on Washington f newspapers by the printers union...
...Aug...
...Aug...
...7-¦¦"The increasing pressure or labor dissatisfaction with the conduct of the war on the home front appeared this week to be making some im« i> 1 chsKm here...
...They prove that instead of jingling a lot of foot-loose cash in their pockets, a quarter of America's working population failed to keep up with the cost of living and actually went deeper into debt—by |400,000,000...
...Dec...
...Aug...
...But, then, Nelson never did see anything until he stubbed his toe over it...
...26—"Two things this week-^one big, the other little—clearly painted the exasperated irritation of labor with Administration policies...
...It connotes, therefore, no change in OPA policy since its inception under Leon Henderson and its continuation under Brown and, now, Bowles...
...Nelson still can't see it that way...
...Coupled with 'grade labeling' vs -dollars-and-cents' Price catlings...
...That custom has more than the t™d»lionaTv...
...Their stated objective is complete destruction of OPA...
...Dec...
...Jan...
...Nov...
...23—There is a big squeeze play on in Ol'A to get rid of labor representatives in the organization...
...The grapevine insists that, contrary to all expectations, Secretary Hull will go to Moscow...
...These 100 business executives were being sought to replace an equal number of OPA men who are being forced out under the Congressional edict that only men with experience in the Industry can hold OPA jobs, The replacement* from business and Industry, presumably, would lower the prices of the things their companies have to sell and would roll back their companies' profits...
...In many ways, since 1933, this department has been, if not the heart, at least the soul of the New" Deal...
...The facts and figures in this OPA study are not only a blistering indictment of the criminal war profiteers who have sub-ordinated the war'effort to war 'profits', but are an" equal indictment of the culpability of OPA Administrator Prentiss Brown, who has permitted them to get away with it...
...Apiil 17—"Food Administrator Chester Davis has raised the ceiling on corn prices five cents a bushel...
...May 1—"The Administration has leached the point of crisis in its labor relations...
...And Administration circles were far from happy over the fact that Economic Czars James P. Byrnes and Fred M. Vinson have apparently 'hotted up' a possible national railway strike...
...July 31— "As an evidence of the cross-purposes at work between the President's declarations and tha actions of his administrative lieutenants, there is tha canvass under way this week by OPA Administrator Prentiss Brown to obtain from Big Business circles 100 'volunteer advisers' for OPA'a pricing divisions...
...A large number have gone already...
...i—"The most depressing picture in Washington, since the November elections particularly, \% the def.-bl.sm of the liberals in the face of the tory often siv...
...The other was the last-ditch fight of southern coal operators and the steel corporations to keep coal mining a low-wage industry...
...May I (Scoop)—"OPA Administrator Prentiss Brown has had on his desk for over a month the facts with which to deflate the Big Business propaganda painting the honors of inflation as an argument against labor's demands for wage increases...
...They are being sought, it was stated by Brown, in order to effect a reconciliation with business and industry...
...Vin-oil's action came the day before the railroads mi...
...Aug...
...The OPA War front* Study Alls four books...
...To see some, of our liberals turn tail at the distant rumble of the tory drum is enough to curi •tie's hair—or one's lip...
...28—"The Soviet Embassy in Washington tipped its mitt this week on the real basis of the current friction between the Soviet Union and the western democracies...
...Their frank slogan is 'rule or ruin.' No language could be plainer than that of Irving Fox, general counsel of the National Retail Dry Goods Association, in making the open threat during his testimony before the House Small Business Committee last Tuesday that industry will not permit OPA 'to survive in its present form...
...The CIO this week called 'an extraordinary meeting of the CIO Kxecutive Board' to be held in Cleveland May 14...
...May 1—"An important gain which labor took more than a quarter century to «in stands in danger of being wiped out as a result of the decentralization of authority of the War Labor Board...
...The order giving the regional War l-aboi Boards independent power to set regional wage rates is tending to set up again the system of North-South wage differentials which plagued labor so long...
...It is the end of an era...
...The deal involves a division of spheres of influence between Britain and Russia, and provides for British military support of Josip Broz, Croatian communist leader of the Partisan guerrillas in Yugoslavia...
...30 (Scoop)—"The OPA's new policy under Chester Bowles, who last week succeeded Prentiss Brown as Administrator, is being formulated on the bluntly phrased belief that reaction is firmly in the saddle and that OPA to preserve Us own existence must follow a formula of appeasing Big Business and its Tory representatives oh Capitol Hill...
...Jan...
...Oct 16 (Scoop)—"Britain and Russia have struck a deal over the Balkans, it is understood authoritatively in high government circles here...
...Oct...
...June 26 (Scoop)—"Although the total energies of government were mobilized this week to break the resistance of the coal miners and force them to go on paying 1943 prices wjth 194) wages, a more serious strike against the war effort aimed at starving (ha United States, our armed forces and our hard-pressed Allies into submission to the War Profiteers has gone without challenge and relatively little notice...
...83—"The four-volume OPA War Profits Study shows that while Pittsburgh labor was getting 12'i •sore (wages), the nine"steel companies that dominate all steal production for war—in the Pittsburgh nrsa as elsewhere—had increased their profits B31'/r...
...The suggestion has taken the form of a post-war central European federation...
...The* big item was the vote on the railway strike...
...ctiom thMU«h "» "mt8 of the year ahead...
...Consumer Counsel Montgomery had advocated over-sll rationing, no advance announcements on articles to be rationed, government subsidies for higher production costs in order to keep prices down, etc...
...The new turn in attacks on OPA is provided by the lobbie...
...27—"Two developments here this week held the attention of trade union leaders as vitally affecting labor interests...
...Sept...
...Sept...
...There was indication that the War Lalior Board might be only too happy to embrace any reasonable 'out' in its long-standing feud with John L Lewis...
...Oct...
...The labor members of the board are pressing for immediate rationing of clothing...
...And John L. Lewis has overnight succeeded in becoming the symbol and spearhead of labor's desperate fight for a square deal...
Vol. 27 • January 1944 • No. 1
