Washington Miscellany
STOUT, JONATHAN
Washington Miscellany By JONATHAN STOUT Washington, D.C.—strikers in the spreading weve throughout the nation auty. act got the 20 percent pay increase ^ are asking, bu^ the pay-off may [|lT j„...
...On the hopeful side, Snyder pointed to (be great accumulation of capital— $140,000,000,000 — waiting for reinvestment, the huge demand for bousing, construction and durable goods which were not produced during the war, and the prospects of a greatly expanded foreign trade...
...But there is nothing left of the democratic .character of the management of the Estonian cooperatives and they are used by the Moscow rulers mainly to <li ain away consumer goods into Russia...
...After independence had been attained, the cooperative movement was largely ehcouraged and supported by Ihe (iov-stilment: The Baltic States are mainly agrirtiltural, and the coops served the needs of the farmers...
...Coops and Power Politics The Interantional Conference of Cooperatives, meeting in London, decided on Sept IS to recognise Soviet-occupied Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as "independent national republics and therefor* eligible to full membership in the International Cooperative Alliance...
...Already the mounting figure of unemployment, which currently exceeds ????,???, ka* prodded Congress into «gejagt of the f3,000,000,000 postwar ssai building program recommended by President Truman...
...act got the 20 percent pay increase ^ are asking, bu^ the pay-off may [|lT j„ 16...
...Some others were "requisitioned" by the Soviet-Estonia Trade Commissariat to organize State trading...
...In a fourth quarter report to Congress and the President, Reconversion Director John W. Snyder this week described a coming "period of paradoxes" in which there will exist, side by side, inflation and deflation, better business hut mora unemployment, capacity production and a tremendous drop in purchasing power...
...Credit cooperatives in 1939 accounted for r>8 percent of the totail Estonian deposits and 48 percent of the loans made...
...The "socialist trade" in Estonia as well as in th* other Baltic States, has nominally a Stat* and a Cooperative Section...
...To solve the difficult problems ahead, Congress must provide the necessary legislation, Snyder said...
...percent increases and passage ?/ Ute Emergency Unemployment Com-ptssatioo and Full Employment Biiis...
...The Central Union of Consumers' Societies in the USSR, "Tientro-soyuz," which is a governmental agency of the USSR with headquarters in Moscow, controls all coop organizations in all the republics of the Union...
...A network of Coop Societies with stores covered the whole country and the Estonian Cooperative Union (E.T.K...
...We have received from an Estonian friend the following statement: The Estonian cooperative movement was always closely connected with the movement for national independence...
...The actual funds will it, appropriated later by Congress when the Appropriation Bills come up...
...It must hold the line on prices and rents and on wages which threaten inflationary price rises, but it must prevent the rapid decrease of wage incomes and purchasing power...
...On the discouraging side of the picture for the next few months, Snyder cited the reduction in the nation's gross production from an annua) rate of 1206,000,000 during the first half of the year to somewhere near to 1106,000,000,000 by the end of the year...
...Insurance Cooperatives issued 65 percent of'the total number of policies...
...Free Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania kav* been among the most consistent •apporters of cooperation'irr the international field...
...And although there will soon be a period whan business will expand, and more people will go to work, men and women will be coming out of the military services at an even greater rate, faster than industry can possibly absorb them...
...jt's not merely that the White House is open to Bill Green whenever he wishes te see the President, but there's a big welcome sign hanging out for him whenever ha come* calling at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...
...Accordingly the Estonian E.T.K, was rechris-tened and directly subjected to "Tzen-trosoyux...
...Half of the entire population were members of Consumers cooperatives...
...The consequent unemployment is expected by Snyder to reach 8,000,000 during 1946...
...After June 1940, however, when Ihe Red Army invaded Estonia and Ihe country was "incorporated" into the Soviet Union, its economic life was at once »"sieiilated with that of Russia and the operative movement too underwent ¦¦•itic changes...
...Following a visit to the White House tajs week by William Green, Truman called in members of the House Ways apd Means Committee and demanded passage of the Unemployment Com pen-it tion Bill which would permit increases •f present unemployment compensation to as high as $25 a week and would permit increases of the period of payments up to "6 weeks...
...played r leading role in supplying, essential imported goods...
...The President signed the bt(I thia week...
...In particular he singled out legislation for unemployment compensation, increasing the present minimum wage of 40 cents an hour, and reducing taxes...
...The tendency for inflation, Snyder reported, arise* from the fact that in moat durable goods—autos, washing machines, radios, and the like—there will be more buyers than can be satisfied for some time by industries' capacity to produce-But there will be deflation in'many other fields, because the drop in income that developed when the Government cut back war orders will not permit workers to maintain their purchasing power...
...long as Roosevelt was in the White House, the prestige of the (JIO was high on the theory that they had the inside track at the White House...
...It is a noticeable fact in Washington {hat the prestige of the ? FL was never higher her...
...Coperative dairies were'the most important, but other marketing, credit insurance associations *lso prospered...
...The director-general of the E.T.K., J. Podra, and many other leading officials were arrested and de-P°i'<d to Russia...
...The centralization policy has been increased since 1944, under the puppet regime of the second Russian occupation...
...The Executive Branch, Snyder said, must maintain certain controls but must also speed up its close-out of war business, its disposal of surpluses, its breaking of bottlenecks and its stimulation of reconversion...
Vol. 28 • October 1945 • No. 40
