THE WEEK IN REVIEW
THE WEEK IN REVIEW THE U. S. Senate embarked this week on an historic debate over the Full Employment Bill (See Sen. Murray's article on Page 1) after having completed the first step in the...
...Most lucrative operation is the sale of wrist watches to Russian soldiers at enormous prices...
...ment benefits for 26 weeks during an emergency two-year reconversion period, but at the rates established by the various states, which range from $15 to $28 weekly...
...The subdivision of Alcoa into a few independent companies would liarhten considerably the task of creating a truly competitive pattern in the aluminum industry...
...The task ahead, he pointed out, is "so unprecedented that Congress should consider how far the Government can go in making the aluminum industry competitive...
...Clark maintained that he did not contemplate "punitive atomization of Alcoa," but rather the division of the huge company into competing concerns which "would have the benefits of operational integration and would be rather substantial in size...
...William J. Donovan and transferred the wartime agency's functions to the State and War Departments...
...Names And Notes In The News Five-Year-Plan...
...Casualties...
...One direct consequence of the UAW's action may be the repeal of the notorious Smith-Connally Act...
...In an 80-page report, Clark charged that Alcoa's monopoly had hampered production before and during the war and now threatens to impede full production in the postwar period...
...The organization of a $20,000,000 automobile company which will produce low-cost "Kaisers" at the Government-owned Willow Run (Mich...
...The UAW, Reuther said, represented employes in 6 of the corporation's plants throughout the nation...
...Last week, when Reuther filed application for a strike vote under the Smith-Connally Act, Rep...
...ed to include about 3,000,000 regular civilian employes of the Federal Government and 400,000 maritime workers who have been employed by the Government during the war...
...Black Market...
...In a move to push the controversy to the showdown stage, Walter P. Reuther, UAW vice president, this week petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a strike vote in all the General Motors plants represented by the union...
...John A. Roosevelt, youngest son of the late President, was a conscientious objector but reversed his stand for the sake of his father, according to Paul Comly French, executive secretary of the National Service Board for Religious Objectors...
...Smith, Virginia Democrat and co-author of the law, launched a campaign to repeal his brain-child...
...A race for control of the atomic bomb seemed in the making this week...
...Secretary of Labor Lewis Schwellenbach...
...The wartime expansion of the industry, sevenfold since 1939," Clark told Congress, "has not changed materially Alcoa's position of dominance...
...Clark contended that "a vague expression by the Government of its preference for competition is not enough...
...Government authorities last week issued revised figures showing a total of 1,071,266 American war casualties...
...The American Military Government in Germany decreed last week that GI's may not marry German girls...
...Truman's Appointments President Truman's practice of striving to please almost everyone was much in evidence during the past week in another sector of Washington...
...Unless we recover, no one will recover," he warned...
...Passage of this provision, demanded by Sen...
...4The employment service and personnel, borrowed ? by the Federal Government from the states in order to provide a national wartime U. S. Employment Service, will be returned to the states within 90 days...
...Schwellenbach promptly picked Edgar L. Warren, Chicago regional director of the War Labor Board, as top trouble-shooter and sent him to the country's number one trouble spot—Detroit...
...Alcoa Under Fire A new attack on concentrated economic power in America—the first of any significance since before the war—was launched last week when Atty...
...Murray's article on Page 1) after having completed the first step in the legislative reconversion process by passing a greatly diluted measure for the liberalization of unemployment compensation...
...The situation in Detroit is grave and appeared to be nearing a climax this week as the major automobile concerns made no effort to counter the demand of the United Automobile Workers (CIO) for a 30 per cent wage increase...
...Earlier this year a special Federal court, sitting for the Supreme Court, ruled that Alcoa was a monopoly but deferred action in ordering the company broken up until the Government-financed plants had been distributed so that it could see whether competition had been established...
...3Travel allowances, up to $200, will be paid workers ? who migrated after Pearl Harbor Day to fill essential war jobs to enable them to return to their homes or to the location of another employment opportunity of equal distance...
...Present and prospective producers and consumers of aluminum peed immediate and forthright action by Government to give them the benefits of economic democracy in this industry...
...When state payment durations end, unemployed workers will receive Federal benefits for the duration of the 26-weeks maximum period...
...Truman said he was acting on his own just as Abraham Lincoln had when he issued the Emancipation Proclamation against the wishes of his Cabinet...
...The vote was 51 to 29, with 19 Democrats joining 32 Republicans to defeat the provision...
...Court action to hasten the dissolution of Alcoa seemed likely...
...His departure from the Senate will strengthen the Democratic representation in that body since the appointment of his successor will be made by Ohio's Gov...
...2) abolished the Office of Strategic Services from under Maj...
...Although Sen...
...Pacifist...
...3) signed the bill establishing a single surplus property disposal administrator and named W. Stuart Symington, who had been chairman of the three-man board, as administra- tor...
...Frank J. Lausche, a Democrat...
...Harold H. Burton of Ohio, to be a Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court...
...plant was announced last week by Henry J. Kaiser, building wizard, and Joseph W. Frazer, Graham-Paige Motors president, who helped develop the jeep...
...Labor Crisis Nears Showdown This last action—a partial consolidation of Federal labor services—was the Administration's first major move to ease the rapidly growing labor-management crisis in the nation...
...The Committee rejected a series of crippling amendments, but did accept one change which eliminated the "right" to work provision and substituted the much milder guarantee of an "opportunity" to work...
...Race...
...The U. S. must not let anyone in the world starve as long as we have a surplus, he declared, but pointed out that America faces critical economic problems...
...The new partners will produce a medium-priced "Frazer" as well as a low-priced "Kaiser...
...The U. S. should extend moderate postwar credits to the needy nations of the world, the former President said, but these should be given on condition that other nations cease trade conspiracies against us and halt their propaganda against the American way of life...
...Kaiser Cars...
...A subsequent attempt to restore the original language failed by a tie vote of 9 to 9. Washington correspondents expect the Truman Administration to make a sterner fight for the Full Employment Bill than it did last week for the original Kil-gore proposal to liberalize unemployment compensation...
...Ban...
...Herbert Hoover, speaking to an overflow crowd in Chicago last week, urged that the United States should not cancel Lend-Lease and other war debts, but propose a world-wide moratorium, and five years hence join the Allies in deciding what should be done with the debts...
...Alben Barkley, Kentucky, Administration spokesman, led the Senate battle for a national maximum of $25 for 26 weeks of unemployment— the heart of the Kilgore Bill—many a Democrat voted against Barkley's motion secure in the knowledge that President Truman had refused, in a confidential memorandum to the Senate Finance Committee, to list that provision as "indispensable...
...A coalition of Southern Democrats and Northern Republicans is expected to press for still more weakening amendments...
...American GI's, operating their own black market in Berlin, sent home more money in August than they drew in the Army pay line...
...General Motors, biggest of the automobile industry's Big Three, has been chosen by the UAW as the "most strategic" for the first great battle...
...Scott Lucas, generally a warm supporter of the Administration, was a major setback for the Truman Administration which had urged retention of the Federal system for the present...
...2The unemployment compensation system is extend...
...During the past week President Truman also 1) abolished the Office of Economic Stabilization and tossed its chief, William H. Davis, off the Federal payroll...
...Inaction will continue to promote monopoly...
...The former is regarded as an able administrator, but insiders feel he has not shown enough eagerness or resourcefulness in bucking the brass hats...
...In the form in which it passed the Senate, the measure includes these basic provisions: 1There will be nationwide payment of unemploy...
...This is all the more remarkable since more than half of the industry's facilities are publicly financed and owned through the Federal Defense Plant Corporation...
...The President appointed Republicans to two major Federal posts— Robert P. Patterson, who was originally appointed to the Federal bench by former President Herbert Hoover, to be Secretary of War, and Sen...
...Kaiser and Frazer have taken a five-year lease on the closed bomber plant at Willow Run under an agreement with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation...
...Although production will be started only at Willow Run, plans of the company call for expansion on the West Coast, Kaiser said...
...Passed by a coalition of anti-labor Senators and Representatives as a device to hamstring organized labor, the measure was unexpectedly turned to labor's account last year by John L. Lewis, president of the United Mine Workers...
...Patterson has been Undersecretary of War under Secretary Henry L. Stimson, who resigned last week at 78...
...See Fred Rodell's article on Page 5.) The Burton appointment was promptly and unanimously confirmed by the Senate...
...Stiff Battle Ahead Even in its watered-down form, the Kilgore Bill faces a stiff battle in the House of Representatives...
...The Full Employment Bill survived a major test last week when it received a 13 to 7 vote of approval in the Senate Banking and Currency Committee, and was placed on the calendar for consideration this week...
...Drawing on his experiences with World War I debts, Hoover drew two positive lessons from the record: "Loaning money is a poor road to international friendship," and any new loans exceeding a "few tens of millions" are going to be only partly repaid "at best...
...Unless necessary steps are taken immediately, independent business men will not have a fair opportunity in this industry, so full of technological promise...
...4) reshuffled the Government's complex labor agencies by granting full powers over the War Labor Board and the War Manpower Commission to...
...Tom C. Clark recommended to Congress that the giant Aluminum Company of America be broken up and reorganized into a number of competing companies...
...Burton succeeds Owen Roberts, who resigned from the bench several months ago...
...President Truman announced he had decided to assume full, sole responsibility for the future use and development of the atomic bomb, but the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was rushing legislation this week designed to give Congress a voice in fixing atomic bomb policies...
...Both cars will be full-sized, six-passenger automobiles, Kaiser and Frazer announced...
Vol. 9 • October 1945 • No. 39
